PAST CRIMESand fighting side by side. The cruise was a very successful one, and Anne and
Mary led their own raids against schooners.
Some time later, one midnight, vessels from the Governor’s fleet crept up
on the pirate ship. Anne and Mary saw the danger and called for help, but
most of the crew were dead drunk, and only Rackam was sober enough to
open fire with a swivel gun. This was met with an explosion of gunfire from
the official vessels and most of the pirate crew fled belowdecks. Rackam
decided to surrender, but the women were not having it. They shot at the
governor’s men and brandished their cutlasses. Without support from the rest
of the pirates, however, they were soon overpowered. Rackam was tried and
condemned, and asked to see Anne before he was hanged. She berated him for
his cowardice, blaming him and the other men for their capture, saying‘If you
had fought like a man, you need not have been hang’d like a dog.’Ten days
later, at the Admiralty Court in Jamaica, she and Mary pleaded not guilty, but
were sentenced to be hanged. The executions were postponed, as both women
had become pregnant (probably for this purpose). Mary died in prison, but
Anne disappeared. It is believed that her father spirited her away to
Charleston, where she later married and went on to live to a ripe old age.^14
The myth of pirate treasure is, in most instances, just that–a myth. When
pirates got hold of money, they usually spent it on prostitutes, rum or more
prosaic needs. A persistent story, however, relates to Blackbeard’s ship, the
Queen Anne’s Revenge. In 1996, a wreck was found in shallow waters off
North Carolina. The finds that have been recovered are suggesting that this
wreck was Blackbeard’s famous ship, which ran aground in 1718.
Work is being carried out on the identification, cleaning and conservation
of the finds, including the long sixpounder cannons and other objects
unidentifiable under a thick crust of corrosion. No treasure has yet been found.
Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard, was probably born in Bristol around 1680
(Figure 29). Fetching up in the West Indies, he is first recorded in Nassau in
1716, as part of the crew of a pirate called Benjamin Hornigold. He seems to
have become master of his own sloop under Hornigold’s direction, and the
two raided shipping around the Bahamas. The capture of another pirate ship,
theRevenge, brought the pirate fleet to three, with Teach now captain of the
new prize. Hornigold’s reluctance to attack British ships led to a break
between the two men and their crews.
Teach continued to raid shipping, taking a 300ton, armed French slaver
and merchantman,La Concordefrom St. Malo, in 1717. Teach took over this
ship and renamed itQueen Anne’s Revenge.More ships and crews were added
to his fleet over the next few months, as he attacked vessels across the