Battles
Boarding actions, sieges, and the last stands. Pivotal engagements that defined careers, ended them, and shaped the law of the sea.
Battle of Ocracoke Inlet
The end of Blackbeard
A Royal Navy lieutenant and twenty-odd men in two unarmed sloops ran Edward Teach to ground in the shallows of the Outer Banks. He died on deck after twenty cuts and five musket balls.
Battle of Cape Fear River
The taking of Stede Bonnet
A South Carolina expedition sent to hunt Charles Vane instead cornered the Gentleman Pirate up a tidal river, where all three sloops ran aground and a five-hour gun duel waited on the returning tide.
Action off Cape Lopez
The death of Black Bart
HMS Swallow ran down the most successful pirate of the age off the coast of Gabon, killed Bartholomew Roberts with a single volley of grapeshot, and hanged fifty-two of his crew — the day the Golden Age is usually said to have ended.