QUARANTINE BLOG # 579

October 30, 2021

Blackbeard was one of the first to hear about King George’s “Act of Grace” which offered pardon for the pirates. On his last sailing north out of Nassau, Blackbeard came to a decision that he hadn’t shared with his crew: The time for overt piracy was coming to a close. 

Blackbeard secretly decided that the time had come to break up his company, but had no intention of sharing the collected plunder with all 400 men. He developed a plan to rid himself of them, sharing it with only a few trusted colleagues. He ran two of his four ships onto a sandbar and sailed away with the treasure. In Bath, NC, Governor Charles Eden gave Blackbeard and the men still with him pardons, and also gave them privateers licenses. The agreement was they would split any loot with Governor Eden.

With a colonial governor in his pocket, North Carolina was shaping up to be a safer pirate lair than the Bahamas ever were. Blackbeard never would have guessed that the governor of another colony would have the audacity to invade.

Alexander Spotswood, the governor of Virginia, argued that Blackbeard represented a threat to Virginia’s commerce, and that his presence encouraged others to piracy, but was not the real reason. Like politicians before and since, Spotswood intended to launch a military expedition abroad to divert public attention from his own improprieties at home.

Virginia legislators said Governor Spotswood nurtured a culture of corruption. He built an outlandishly expensive Governor’s Palace. There were corrupt land dealings. He controlled the appointment of all priests in Virginia’s Anglican Church. The legislature was working to remove him from office altogether. With so many enemies at his door, began a plan to rid the Americas of Blackbeard, and throw his enemies off of his trail.

Governor Spotswood planned his attack on Blackbeard under a cloak of secrecy. He sent a contingent of marines overland, and a naval force by sea, ensuring no pirates escaped into the Atlantic. The ships were placed under the command of Lieutenant Robert Maynard. If all went well, it would prove both patriotic and profitable.

Spotswood’s plan was entirely illegal. He did not have the authority to invade another colony. Blackbeard was, legally speaking, a citizen in good standing; he had been pardoned for his previous crimes, had received legal sanction from Governor Eden, and had yet to be indicted for any crime.

No matter, because on the morning of November 22, 1718, Maynard’s men and Blackbeard’s pirates engaged each other. In a scene that inspired many Hollywood movies, Blackbeard and Maynard faced off against each other. The pirates were outnumbered by Maynard’s men and rapidly fell.

Blackbeard suffered five gunshot wounds and twenty sword cuts. The final blow decapitated Blackbeard. His head was a grotesque trophy that would fetch the sailors $10,000 bounty when they got back to Virginia. Maynard had Blackbeard’s headless body thrown into Pamlico Sound, where, according to legend, it swam around his ship three times before sinking.

Back in the Bahamas, Woodes Rogers decided to execute ten pirates he had in custody. Rogers had barely enough men to keep his them under guard, still yet to defend the colony from a pirate attack or a Spanish invasion fleet. The time had come for a final test of wills between Rogers and the island’s pirate sympathizers.

When eight pirates dropped off the executioner’s block – two had been found to have been pressed into piracy and were pardoned – Woodes Rogers had brought an end to the Republic of the Pirates.

Strangely, Rogers received no financial assistance from the Crown. He continued to purchase vital war supplies on credit, or with his own money. Many suppliers started cutting him off for nonpayment. He alerted his partners, but his letters went unanswered.

The Bahamas were secured, but the effort exhausted Rogers’s physical and financial resources. Arriving back in London he learned that King George had fired him, and a new governor was already on his way to Nassau. Worse, his fellow investors had liquidated their company, making no allowance for the $600,000 Rogers had personally advanced on their behalf. He was financially ruined. Before long he found himself in debtors prison. The man who had beaten the pirates of the Caribbean, and successfully defended Nassau from a superior invasion force was left behind bars.

Shortly after killing Blackbeard, Lieutenant Robert Maynard was found to have disobeyed orders and kept a number of valuables taken from Blackbeard’s ship. His self-aggrandizing accounts of the battle further discredited him with his superiors. Maynard was not promoted to commander for another twenty-one years.

While cleared of wrongdoing by his governing council, Governor Charles Eden’s reputation never recovered from his dealings with Blackbeard.

Assisted by the fallout from his invasion of North Carolina, Alexander Spotswood’s political enemies succeeded in having him replaced as governor of Virginia.

Woodes Rogers was sickly, indebted, and deeply depressed. In the end, his creditors who took pity on him, absolved his debts and got him out of debtors prison.

In 1722 or 1723, he was approached by a man who was researching a book about the pirates. The author needed Rogers’s help to fill in details of the pirate republic that Rogers had put down. The result was the publication, in May 1724, of A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates. It was an enormous hit, going through numerous editions. The book, still in print, almost single-handedly created the popular images of the pirates that remain with us today.

The publication of A General History – which highlighted Rogers’s role in dispersing the Bahamian pirates – revived his reputation as a national hero. He successfully petitioned the king for redress. In the end, the king awarded Rogers with a pension, and appointed him to a second term as the governor of the Bahamas.

Before leaving for New Providence, Rogers sat for what may have been his only portrait. The painter, William Hogarth, placed Rogers in a romanticized version of Nassau. Rogers, is seated with his face turned in profile, concealing the disfigurement left by a Spanish musket ball. At his back is Fort Nassau, on which an ornamental plaque can be seen which bears his personal motto: Dum Spiro Spero, “While I breathe, I hope.” William Whetstone Rogers, who would accompany his father to Nassau, is standing wearing the wig and elegant clothing of a gentleman. Daughter Sarah Rogers sits to the left, awaiting a servant with a plate of fruit. In the harbor behind them, a large warship lets off a multi-gun salute.

Governor Rogers never truly recovered his health. He passed away on July 15, 1732, and was buried in Nassau. His grave has since been lost, but his name adorns the main street on the city’s waterfront, and he is honored in the official motto of the Bahamas: Expulsis Piratis, Comercia Restitua, “Pirates Expelled, Commerce Restored.”

  Today’s close, “Trust His Heart,” is by Meghan Kleppinger.

“But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God’” (Psalms 31:14).

Whether it be financial, relational, spiritual, or physical troubles (and don’t they all seem to come at the same time?), it’s easy to find ourselves questioning God and His plan for our lives.

Christian singer Babbie Mason's song, “Trust His Heart,” addresses these times of hardship. I heard this song for the first time when I was a preteen, and its moving lyrics continue to encourage me now in my adult years. I sing the chorus whenever I’m going through one of life’s rough patches.

God is too wise to be mistaken

God is too good to be unkind

So when you don’t understand

When you don’t see His plan

When you can’t trace His hand

Trust His heart

These aren’t just lyrics of a song, they’re descriptions of God’s character and reminders of His promises as told through scripture.

1. God is too wise to be mistaken: “But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding” (Jeremiah 10:12).

2. God is too good to be unkind: “O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!” (Psalms 34:8).

3. So when you don’t understand, When you don’t see His plan, When you can’t trace His hand, Trust His heart: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Isn’t it good to know that when we are afraid or in the middle of circumstances we don’t understand, that we can trust the ways of our wise and wonderful God!

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