Cast A'Shore: Researching the Fate of Blackbeard's Crew

Summary

In November 1717, at the height of his short-lived career as a notorious pirate, Blackbeard stole a French prize, the La Concorde de Nante. After taking the ship, he kidnapped several crewmembers and slaves, crucially needed to continue his pirating.  In June 1718, the ship was run-aground on a sandbar at Topsail Inlet and life changed once again for the crew and conscripted passengers. As Blackbeard and a few loyal crewmembers fled the scene on a smaller vessel, the rest were put a-shore. From there another story unfolded.  Documented in British naval accounts, the climactic death of the famous pirate is well-known. But what happened to these French and English mariners, and African slaves? How did they survive in the sparsely populated landscape? Where did they end up and why? This study examines historical records, local folklore and archaeological findings in an effort to tell "the rest of the story."

Cite this Record

Cast A'Shore: Researching the Fate of Blackbeard's Crew. Linda F. Carnes-McNaughton, Mark U. Wilde-Ramsing. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Washington, D.C. 2016 ( tDAR id: 434828)

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Keywords

Temporal Keywords
1718

Spatial Coverage

min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 53