The Ocracoke Orgy

[Sully Cross]

 

   Less than a week after Blackbeard’s blockade of Charleston Harbor on June 4, 1718, the pirate captain wrecked the Queen Anne’s Revenge at Old Topsail Inlet (Beaufort Inlet). In a brilliant maneuver, Teach marooned the majority of his rag-tag crew, and took command of his smaller sloop. He distanced himself from Stede Bonnet and accompanied by his closest associates, Teach absconded with their recent plunder. Blackbeard then surrendered to North Carolina Governor, Charles Eden, and received the King’s pardon.

 

   In spite of this pardon, Teach was not done with piracy. In late August, east of Bermuda, Blackbeard captured two French ships, keeping one laden with sugar, cocoa, cotton, and indigo dye. Teach sailed west, bound for North Carolina where he knew he would receive a warm welcome from Governor Eden and his Secretary, Tobias Knight.

In early September the Adventure, passed through Ocracoke Inlet. The pirate crew remained at Ocracoke for several weeks, careening and repairing their ship. Meanwhile, Captain Teach paid a night visit to his friend, Tobias Knight, in Bath. A plan was hatched.

 

   On September 24 a Vice-Admiralty Court heard the case of the French “sugar ship” which Blackbeard had unloaded and burned to the waterline. Blackbeard claimed he had encountered the vessel abandoned on the high seas and had burned her when it was discovered that she was leaking. Teach was cleared of any crimes and allowed to keep the cargo. Of course, he was ordered to pay tariffs to the colonial government. In addition, Knight received twenty casks of sugar as a gift.

 

   To celebrate his grand new business arrangements, Blackbeard headed to Ocracoke Island (probably on the sound side beach near present-day Springer’s Point) in late September/early October of 1718. The Adventure was laden with food, rum and women picked up from the waterfront. Another notorious pirates, Charles Vane and his small fleet arrived at Ocracoke. It soon became a huge, continual party that has become known as the ‘Ocracoke Orgy.’ Hundreds of pirates including Calico Jack, Israel Hands, and Robert Deal spent several weeks on the island drinking, eating and whoring with more than fifty wenches. Vane’s visit with Blackbeard…actually constituted the largest pirate festival ever held on the mainland of North America where hogs and cows were barbecued, and many fishermen and traders passing the inlet, upon seeing such a throng of people, stopped to trade with them and furnish them with fresh provisions.

 

Edited May 23 by Sully Cross

[Mary Diamond]

Ah, a lovely and concise telling! Thank you!