 |
| Captain Edward Teach, the infamous Blackbeard |
Savannah, like most Atlantic seaport towns, has a long association with pirates. One of the most notorious North American pirates of all time, Captain Edward Teach, the infamous Blackbeard, plied his deadly trade up and down the Eastern Seaboard, capturing and looting ships at will and evading the Royal Navy.
Blackbeard was so bold he once blockaded Savannah's sister city of Charleston, South Carolina, for five days. Using his flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, a three-masted, 300-ton frigate armed with 36 guns, and accompanied by three heavily-armed sloops, Blackbeard sailed to the outskirts of Charleston harbor and plundered every ship he could find. After taking dozens of seamen and passengers hostage from the ships he had captured, Blackbeard demanded a chestful of medicines from the mayor and governor in exchange for the release of his captives. After the local authorities caved in and acceded to the pirate's demands, Blackbeard stripped his hostages naked, put them ashore in the buff, and then sailed merrily away.
 |
| Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson |
The city of Savannah is mentioned repeatedly in Robert Louis Stevenson's pirate classic Treasure Island. In the story, Captain Flint, the pirate leader who buried his stolen treasure on Skeleton Island in the West Indies and then murdered the six crewmembers who helped him so that he could keep its location a secret, and who then drew the infamous treasure map—"X marks the spot"—that figures so prominently in the plot, died on the second floor of a Savannah waterfront inn.
Local legend tells that Flint died in an upstairs room at The Pirates' House.
 |
| Robert Louis Stevenson |
Whether Stevenson made up the character of Captain Flint or whether the author based it a real pirate captain in Savannah, no one knows for sure. However, what is sure is that throughout its history Savannah has been a stopping point for many real-life pirates.
email
print
default
increase
decrease
