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Blackbeard was not history's most successful pirate.
"But he's probably the most dramatic and the most romanticized," said Jeanne Marie Warzeski, a curator at the N.C. Museum of History.
Also known by the "civilian" names of Edward Thatch and Edward Teach, Blackbeard lived the last months of his life on the North Carolina coast before being killed in 1718 by British naval forces. Earlier that year, he had lost his flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, when it sunk after running aground in shallow waters near Beaufort's Inlet.
The wreckage of what's believed to be the Queen Anne's Revenge was discovered in 1996.
As part of an exhibit titled "Knights of the Black Flag," the museum is displaying cannons and other artifacts that have been recovered and restored.
Before its capture and use by Blackbeard and his crew, the ship operated as a French slavetrading vessel called Le Concorde.
The legend of Blackbeard has many facets, but state archaeologist Steve Claggett said the truth is elusive.
"As far as we can tell, a lot of the story is just folklore," he said. "Even the basic details of his life are murky." Though he was reputed to be from Bristol, England, Claggett said, "people have searched Bristol from top to bottom and have never found the first hint of anyone named Thatch, Teach or Blackbeard." Pirate history paints Blackbeard in colorful terms. He is said to have worn smoldering wicks protruding from his hat or woven into his beard to increase the fearsomeness of his appearance.
But only two first-hand accounts of his appearance were recorded. One, Claggett said, simply says he was "a tall, spare man with a long, black beard." What is likely the most dubious Blackbeard story deals with his death. That account says his body was thrown into the Atlantic Ocean after the British Royal Navy Lt. Robert Maynard defeated him in battle, cut off his head and hung it from his ship's bowsprit.
"Legend has it that after his headless body was thrown overboard, it swam around the ship three times before sinking from sight," a narrative that's part of the exhibit says.
THOUGH MUCH of the Blackbeard legend is unconfirmed at best, Claggett said there's far a better case to...