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
John Russell (pirate) escape. Low had earlier parted with Spriggs after an argument; Russell was not mentioned during either incident, or during the various accounts of Harris’, Low’s, and Spriggs’ fates. John Russell (pirate) John Russell (fl 1722-1723) was a pirate active from Nova Scotia to the Caribbean to the African coast. He is best known for his association with Edward Low and Francis Spriggs, and for his involvement with two well-known and well-documented maroonings. Most commonly known as Englishman “John Russell”, his real name may have been Juan or John Lopez; he was in reality a Portuguese Catholic. Like a number of