Quote:
Originally Posted by Taltarzac725
The North Carolinans could hardly put up a blimp to request aid from Virginia's Lt. Governor in putting a stop to Blackbeard's depredations. They needed a strike to the thorax of Blackbeard's operation. Or, at least, Alexander Spotswood needed a massive victory on his pallet for the picture he needed to paint to fellow Virginians to silence the many critics-- like the VA House of Burgesses. The defeat of Blackbeard by Virginian forces would show just how inept the North Carolinians under Governor Eden had been with fighting pirates. Unfortunately for Lt. Governor Spotswood, the requests from North Carolina citizens for Virginian aid were almost non-existant because of the very bad blood between the two colonies over trade and the proper way to govern. Spotswood decided a different tactic had to be used to get permission from the inhabitants to invade another colony's territory. He would use a Trojan Horse approach and have prominent North Carolinians back his play against Blackbeard by advancing their careers and bank accounts. He found such Trojans in North Carolinians Edward Moseley and Colonel Maurice Moore. Spotswood also tried to argue that the King's Court could share with Spotswood's troops in the salvage rights of whatever treasure the pirate ships might contain when captured. Especially in treasure that had been taken from North Carolina to Virginia and back. Which was only fitting as Spotswood paid for the expedition to kill and/or capture Blackbeard and his pirates out of his own pocket. Now, Spotswood's course was set to the Battle of Ocracoke Inlet. Marker: D-63 - MAURICE MOORE Marker: D-46 Encyclopedia Virginia: Spotswood, Alexander (1676–1740) |
Blackbeard's semi-retirement and long term partying at Ocracoke Inlet had greatly
reduced his forces to only eighteen. Many of his former forces had abandoned him to sail with other pirate captains in more lucrative pursuits than getting drunk and laid. A third of these were escaped slaves or slaves taken off of slave ships who were they taught in the ways of the pirate like the
brisk parlay--bets on feats of strength which also built up the bettors' arm and leg muscles as well as
vaulting over men with cutlasses held low. On the other side, the Royal Naval force paid and sent by Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia and comprised on two sloops had at least fifty-eight men on
the Pearl and
the Lyme. He also gave the force two smaller vessels for shallower waters--
the Ranger and
the Jane. Each of the pirates had to buy his own cutlass and pistols. Blackbeard usually went into battle with at least six of these ready to fire and with lit cannon fuses stuck drooping from his hat. Blackbeard's new sloop
Adventure also had eight cannons whereas the Royal Naval sloops had none. They did have quite a lot of men armed with muskets. Unfortunately for Blackbeard and his men, they had spent most of Friday night before the November 22, 1718 Saturday Battle at Ocracoke Inlet getting rip-roaring drunk. This would play out in some rash decisions that would prove fatal in the upcoming battle. (Days of the week are in the Julian Calendar which the Colonials did not stop using until 1752. Going to the Gregorian in 1752 ).
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/gregorian1.html http://www.hf.rim.or.jp/~kaji/cal/cal.cgi?1718