Two sloops, under the direction of Lt. Robert Maynard and a Mr. Hyde, were dispatched to the waters of the Pamticoe Sound and Teach's Hole, a small, navigable channel off the west side of Ocacock Island. Teach's Hole had provided sanctuary for Blackbeard in times past but he was nowhere to be found when the sloops arrived. As darkness fast approached, the sloops scouted the shallow waters of the Sound, many times grounding on the sand bars and shoals of the shallow water. Suddenly the outline of two vessels, one of which was Blackbeard's ship the Adventure, appeared.
Throughout the night Blackbeard waited for Lt. Maynard to make his move. Blackbeard, drinking all night in his cabin was asked by one of his crew, ''If ye die on the morrow, does your wife, Mary, know where ye buried the treasure?'' Blackbeard laughed and replied, ''Damn ye, my friend, nobody but me and the Devil knows where it's hid - and the longest liver will get it all.''
In the morning light, Lt. Maynard moved towards Blackbeard's ship. What followed was a great battle that left twenty-six of the 54 men on the sloops killed or wounded. Thirteen pirates, including Blackbeard were killed and nine wounded were taken prisoners. As the lieutenant and Blackbeard attacked each other, first by firing pistols, then fiercely with their swords, other pirates jumped overboard, begging for mercy as they were fished out of the waters.
As the bloody fight drew to an end, Blackbeard, suffering 25 wounds including five pistols balls in his body, somehow managed to stay on his feet, roaring at the top of his lungs. As he cocked his pistol one final time, he fell down dead on the bloody deck.
Knowing he would need proof of Blackbeard's death to collect the rewards that had been posted by the King and the Governor of Virginia, Lt. Maynard ordered Blackbeard's head to be severed from his body and hung on the bowsprit of the sloop. Survivors on both sides watched as the blood slowly dripped from the head, coloring the very waters that had protected Blackbeard for so long.
Source: BLACKBEARD, THE FIERCEST PIRATE OF ALL
written by Norman C. Pendered:
Published by: Times Printing Co., Inc., Manteo, NC, 1975
