Benjamin Hornigold seize other vessels with impunity. Hornigold's second-in-command during this period was Edward Teach, who would later be better known as the pirate Blackbeard. When Hornigold took command of the "Ranger", he delegated the captaincy of his earlier sloop to Teach. In the spring of 1717 the two pirate captains seized three merchant ships in quick succession, one carrying 120 barrels of flour bound for Havana, another a Bermudian sloop with a cargo of spirits and the third a Portuguese ship travelling from Madeira with a cargo of white wine. In March 1717, Hornigold attacked an armed merchant vessel sent to
Edward Neville (pirate) Edward Neville (pirate) Edward Neville (fl 1675-1678) was an English buccaneer and pirate. He is best known for joining George Spurre to raid Spanish Campeche. After England withdrew from the Franco-Dutch War in 1674, Neville accepted a French privateering commission to sail against Spain. Jamaican Governor John Vaughan tried to recall English privateers to maintain England’s neutrality in the continuing war but had little success. In 1675 he accused legendary buccaneer Henry Morgan – now pardoned, and promoted to become Vaughan’s own Deputy Governor – of writing to Neville and other privateers, promising them pardons and freedom. Morgan wrote, “and