He formed an alliance of pirates and blockaded the port of Charles Town, South Carolina, ransoming the port's inhabitants. He became a renowned pirate, his nickname derived from his thick black beard and fearsome appearance he was reported to have tied lit fuses ( slow matches) under his hat to frighten his enemies. Teach captured a French slave ship known as La Concorde, renamed her Queen Anne's Revenge, equipped her with 40 guns, and crewed her with over 300 men. Their numbers were boosted by the addition to their fleet of two more ships, one of which was commanded by Stede Bonnet but Hornigold retired from piracy toward the end of 1717, taking two vessels with him. Hornigold placed him in command of a sloop that he had captured, and the two engaged in numerous acts of piracy. Little is known about his early life, but he may have been a sailor on privateer ships during Queen Anne's War before he settled on the Bahamian island of New Providence, a base for Captain Benjamin Hornigold, whose crew Teach joined around 1716. 1680 – 22 November 1718), better known as Blackbeard, was an English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain's North American colonies.
Edward Teach (alternatively spelled Edward Thatch, c.
