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
Henry Strangways (pirate) Henry Strangways (pirate) Henry Strangways (died 1562), also sometimes known as Strangwish, was an English "Gentleman Pirate" who attacked Spanish and other shipping. He was repeatedly imprisoned, and pardoned by highly placed friends, during his approximately eight-year piratical career, from about 1552 to 1560. His portrait painted by a fellow prisoner, Gerlach Flicke, resides today in the National Portrait Gallery in London. Strangways was born in Dorset to a well-known family of good standing, thus he is sometimes referred to as a "Gentleman Pirate". Strangways began his career as a pirate in 1552–53, plying the Irish Sea for plunder. There