Quote:
Originally Posted by Taltarzac725
Maynard had left his pilot William Butler as well as a midshipman at the helm to keep on eye on Blackbeard's sloops. Blackbeard's next trick was hardly quaint and had been the basis of many a stolid man to get very testy. This was his own invention of the hand grenade-- a bottle filled with powder and pieces of iron and lead. Each missile also had fuse worked into its center. His men now bombarded the Jane with these early versions of IEDs. Upon seeing the result of these explosions from the hand grenades, Blackbeard told his men: "They were all knocked on the head but three or four. Blast you-- board her and cut them to pieces". Blackbeard the Pirate: A Reappraisal of His Life and Times Robert E. Lee, p. 119.
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Eleven men, including Blackbeard, boarded
the Jane as soon as they could using grappling hooks. Most of these men had very
rummy eyes according to
the Jane's pilot William Butler. As soon as they were on board, Butler let lose the dogs of war by putting into motion the plan
enacted by Lt. Maynard. Instead of facing "three or four" stunned crewmen as Blackbeard expected, a dozen men leaped up from the hold from the two ladders set up before. Blackbeard and his men cut a huge swarth though the Royal Naval massed men but were soon cut down from behind and/or outflanked. Blackbeard had had twenty serious sword wounds and five pistol bullets in his corpse when they examined him later. After they took off Blackbeard's head, many men took off pieces of his beard to place in
lockets for souvenirs. Unfortunately for Lt. Maynard, Blackbeard had another ace up his sleeve in the person of Black Caesar one of his most trusted men who remained on
the Adventure biding his time to put Blackbeard's revenge in motion.
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/199...ck-man-legends http://nccultureblogger.wordpress.co...black-pirates/ http://www.sciencebuzz.org/topics/ou...ack-experience http://testaae.greenwood.com/doc_pri...ooks/greenwood