Black Sails Season 3 weighed anchor.
If dead men tell no tales, whats all this we hear about Blackbeard?
Locals believed that Blackbeards body roamed the local beaches at night, looking for his head.
Will-o-the-wisps in the area of Oracoke Island are called Teaches lights to this day.
Out comes the pistol, the pirate captain shoots, and the hapless victim falls dead.
How do we know?
Somebody said something that Blackbeard objected to, and he pulled a pistol.
Hands began screaming and complaining, and Blackbeard, barely able to stand, uttered the fateful line.
Not to mention the victim lives.
This seems to be the origin of Blackbeards Wives.
In the Blackbeard tale, dockside prostitutes are substituted for innocent young girls.
Blackbeard would be there, dead drunk, with a pretty young working girl that he wished to marry.
In the morning the girl would leave, perfectly happy and considerably richer.
Blackbeard would make no more effort to contact her.
Until the next time.
The count of his wives supposedly tops off at about 17.
There is no proof to any of this.
Other stories tell of her being Blackbeards sister.
Pirate festivals celebrate Blackbeards legacy with historic reenactments and kitsch.
Meanwhile, St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands is home to the 99 steps to Blackbeards Castle.
Its on the registry of historic landmarks, and surrounded by a hotel and a restaurant.
(Probably a gift shop as well.)
Three problems: 1.
Blackbeard never went to the Virgin Islands.
The tower was built in 1679, a year before Blackbeard was born.
There are actually 107 steps.
Disney later worked Blackbeard into their series of mid-1960s zany comedies in the 1968 movieBlackbeards Ghost.
A young Peter Ustinov plays Blackbeard here, and the movie got a moderately good rating.
In a series of YouTube rap battles, Blackbeard squares off against Al Capone and wins.
But Blackbeard has become in many ways the default pirate.
Look for a pirate image, and youre likely to see a bearded man.
The real Blackbeard crafted his own legend with care, and it stood him in good stead.
I believe hed be deeply satisfied to know that his fearsome legend lives on.
