Stories of heroes, battles, and risk-takers inspire us.
This is one of the reasons in my weekly newsletter I share a story of strength every week… hearing a story of someone’s feat of strength and courage helps us get off the couch and get into action.
This week’s story features a man who received an assignment that would have made most men resign and certainly all men feel the flush of fear in their gut.
This is the story of Lieutenant Robert Maynard.
Maynard was born in 1684. He joined the English Navy, and served as a British Royal Navy officer as a third lieutenant.
When Maynard was 34, he was tasked with hunting the pirate Blackbeard.
Edward Teach, infamously known as Blackbeard, was a pirate who roamed the Caribbean up to the eastern coast of Britain’s North American colonies.
Blackbeard looted merchant ships up and down the Caribbean and Atlantic. He built wealth through thievery, and built his reputation through his appearance.
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He was tall, broad-shouldered, and wore his thick beard long. He often braided it in pigtails, tying it with colored ribbons
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He lit slow-burning candles under his hat, so that smoke seemed to rise from his figure
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In battle, he wore several pistols slung over his shoulders, with a long coat of bright colored velvet or silk
As one British author described him:
“Such a figure that imagination cannot form an idea of a fury from hell to look more frightful”
– Charles Johnson
In 1718, Maynard found the pirate on the island Ocracoke, off the coast of North Carolina. He entered the channel at daybreak, but was spotted by the Blackbeard and his crew, and a battle ensued.
Blackbeard was a calculating commander. Even with the surprise, he regrouped his men, turned his cannons against Maynard’s boats, and in an instant killed a third of Maynard’s party. Blackbeard latched onto Maynard’s boat with grappling hooks, launched an assault of grenades, then boarded the ship.
Maynard appeared to be left with only a few men at the stern. But Maynard had wisely hid most of his crew under the ship, and at his signal, Maynard’s crew came up on deck and surprised Blackbeard.
Blackbeard and Maynard engaged in 1/1 combat. Both shot at each other, Blackbeard missing, but Maynard hitting his target. But this seemed to have no effect on Blackbeard, who drew his sword and broke Maynard’s cutlass.
While Blackbeard was about to deliver the death blow, one of Maynard’s crew members jumped on his back and injured him. Soon, Blackbeard was finished by Maynard and other members of the crew.
As the story goes, Blackbeard’s head was placed on a pole at the entrance to Chesapeake’s bay, as a warning to pirates.
It’s said that Blackbeard’s head was there for years.
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