Blackbeard Edward Teach
Edward Teach, more famously known as Blackbeard, was a notorious pirate of the Caribbean Sea who took harbor in the Pamlico Sound of North Carolina, near Ocracoke and Bath, NC.
Blackbeard is known for weaving hemp and lighted matches into his beard during battle, thus "[looking] like the devil" to anyone who saw him fighting. He fought fiercely, armed with multiple swords, knives, and pistols. Blackbeard's best-known vessel was the Queen Anne's Revenge, aboard which he plundered from many merchant vessels.
Famously, Blackbeard blockaded Charleston Harbor in May of 1718. He plundered five merchant ships, and all other vessels were unable to leave because of the danger of encountering the Queen Anne's Revenge. Blackbeard took a group of hostages and held them ransom for medicine. In escaping to North Carolina's Outer Banks, three of his vessels ran aground, including the Queen Anne's revenge. After being granted a pardon under the royal Act of Grace from the governor of North Carolina (to whom he had given some of his booty), Blackbeard took his last remaining vessel, the Adventure, to Ocracoke Inlet to enjoy his loot. It is speculated that he may have run the vessels ashore deliberately, as he marooned most of his crew and thus gained a much larger share of treasure.
Lieutenant Robert Maynard's pursuit of Blackbeard was the last chase the pirate would see. After a long chase during which Blackbeard tricked several of Maynard's ships into running aground in the Outer Banks, Maynard tricked the infamous pirate. He held all of his men below deck and ordered them to prepare to be boarded. Thinking the vessel was all but abandoned, Blackbeard boarded it with only ten men. In the ensuing battle, Blackbeard was finally killed, but not before being shot five times and stabbed more than twenty. He was also decapitated. A popular myth says that when his headless body was thrown overboard, it swam around the Adventure between two and seven times before sinking.
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