Great Thatch Great Thatch Great Thatch is an uninhabited island of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. It is one of the westernmost islands in the Territory. It is believed to take its name from the famous pirate, Edward Teach (better known as "Blackbeard"), although there is little evidence Blackbeard ever sailed in the Virgin Islands. Although presently uninhabited, it was formerly occupied, and boasted a customs house and mail exchange where the mail would be delivered from Charlotte Amalie by skiff after the packet ships had called there. The island was the site of significant act of civil disobedience in
Edward Coates (pirate) Edward Coates (pirate) Edward Coates was a colonial American privateer in English service during the King William's War and later a pirate operating in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean during the mid-1690s. In 1689, Coates originally signed aboard the "Jacob" as a sailor in a privateer expedition, then under the command of Captain William Mason, and commissioned by the colonial officials in New York to raid French shipping off the coast of Quebec ""to war as in his wisdom should seem fit"". However, unable to find French vessels, Mason began raiding English shipping and distributing the spoils among his