Blackbeard Blackbeard Edward Teach or Edward Thatch ( – 22 November 1718), better known as Blackbeard, was an English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain's North American colonies. Little is known about his early life, but he may have been a sailor on privateer ships during Queen Anne's War before settling on the Bahamian island of New Providence, a base for Captain Benjamin Hornigold, whose crew Teach joined around 1716. Hornigold placed him in command of a sloop that he had captured, and the two engaged in numerous acts of piracy. Their numbers were
Robert Lane (pirate) Robert Lane (pirate) Robert Lane (died 1719) was a pirate active in the Caribbean and off the coast of Africa. He is best known for sailing with Edward England. Edward England had taken the ship "Pearl" (renamed "Royal James") in late 1718, pirating between the Azores and Cape Verde. In spring 1719 he took a number of ships near Gambia. Several he burned or looted and let go, but he kept two. One of them was the 4-gun, 18-man "Mercury", commanded by Captain Maggot out of London, which he captured on May 29. A few of the "Mercury’s" crew joined