Sailing through the Bay of Honduras he collected another large ship and four sloops before capturing a Spanish ship later that year off the coast of Cuba.Īrmed with a fleet of three sailing ships and five sloops, and approximately 300 crew, Blackbeard was now a true force to be reckoned with as he sailed from the Bahamas up the east coast North America.
Convincing the captain and several of the crew to join with him, Blackbeard added the ship to his fleet and ventured out for further conquest. In March of 1718, off the coast of Belize, Blackbeard and his crew spotted the sloop Adventure, captained by David Harriot, and boarded her. Christopher’s Island, Blackbeard resumed attacks on British, Dutch, and Portuguese merchant and slave ships throughout the area. After sinking a French ship off the coast of St. Lucia, and Nevis, Blackbeard continued on to Puerto Rico, and from there to Hispaniola, or present day Dominican Republic. Sailing through the Lesser Antilles, past St. Throughout the next year, sailing throughout the Caribbean, Blackbeard’s legend grew as he became known for his frightening visage of bandolier guns, flowing capes, and lit fuses burning in his beard. Moving to New Providence Island, Teach met and fell in with the pirate Captain Benjamin Hornigold, eventually becoming the legendary Blackbeard.Īfter capturing La Concorde near the island of Martinique, Captain Hornigold turned the ship over to Blackbeard as his flagship, to which he added cannons and his menacing flag, renaming her the Queen Anne’s Revenge. As with many of these privateers, it is thought that Teach turned to piracy following the war, using the skills he learned for conquest and plunder in becoming Blackbeard. From 1702 to 1713 as France and England battled over control of North America, many privateers joined the cause, especially around Spanish Florida and the Caribbean. Born circa 1680, not much is known about Teach’s early life, aside from that he was probably a privateer during Queen Anne’s War. Taken to the Grenadine Islands, the majority of the French crew and African slaves were put to shore while others joined the pirates, gold and other loot was seized from the ships, and Edward Teach sailed from the Grenadines aboard La Concorde.īetter known as the infamous and legendary Blackbeard, Edward Teach became the quintessential pirate of the Golden Age of Piracy. According to one Lieutenant Ernaut, arriving aboard La Concorde, two pirate sloops fired upon the French slave ship, and with the crew severely ill, Captain Dosset surrendered almost immediately. After making it across the Middle Passage, approximately 100 miles out from the Caribbean island of Martinique, La Concorde and the pirate Edward Teach met for the first time. Taking eight weeks to travel across the Atlantic, 61 slaves and 16 crew members died as cramped quarters and squalid conditions lead to the spread of scurvy and dysentery. On July 8 she arrived in the port of Judas, now Benin, Nigeria, and traded for 516 African slaves. Leaving Nantes on November 24, 1717, armed with 16 cannons and a crew of 75, La Concorde departed for the African coast.
While slave trading voyages were successful in 1713 and again in 1715, the 1717 journey would be the last for La Concorde. Making three runs over the course of the next decade, La Concorde would depart from Nantes with various French goods and wares, sail to the west coast of Africa to trade for slaves, and from there continue along the trans-Atlantic Middle Passage to the islands of the Caribbean. Coming into the possession of French merchant Rene Montaudoin, La Concorde was operated out of the port of Nantes, the epicenter of the French slave trade during the 18th century. Constructed as a frigate, the ship was modified by the French to hold cargo, and slaves in particular, as at that time the slave trade was a burgeoning business in western France.
Built in 1710, the Concord enjoyed a brief life as an English ship before being captured by French forces in 1711.
0 kommentar(er)
