WHY DID BLACKBEARD HAVE A JACK? MUSEUMS ALONG THE INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY
- Paul Weston
- 6 minutes ago
- 3 min read
The ICW, the Intracoastal Waterway, is a system of connected rivers, canals, creeks and sounds that allows vessels of moderate draft and height to make their way along the eastern seaboard of the USA without venturing into the Atlantic.
As Kim, our 40’ sailboat made her way north along the ICW from Fort Lauderdale in Florida we took the opportunity of visiting some of the museums that are easily accessible from the places we stopped for the night or for a couple of days. There were art museums at Vero Beach and St Augustine, and interesting town museums at Titusville and Fernandina Beach, where the collection is displayed in a former jail.
Titusville, just inland from Cape Canaveral, the first of the Atlantic capes we were avoiding by taking the ICW rather than the offshore route, was our base for visiting the amazingly impressive Kennedy Space Center, where we saw the Shuttle Atlantis, looking travel stained and worn, as well as other impressive exhibits and working hardware. Three of the Shuttles, Discovery, Challenger and Endeavour are named after Royal Navy ships.
The east coast of the southern USA, with its remote inlets and sheltered inland anchorages within striking distance of the trade routes from the Caribbean was a favourite haunt of pirates. In St. Augustine we visited the Pirate & Treasure Museum. Despite the attendants speaking in fake Bristol accents, this museum had some impressive exhibits, including a sea chest belonging to the notorious pirate Edward Tew, and Captain Kidd’s treasure chest and journal. Whether Captain Kidd belongs in a pirate museum is a moot point – he claimed that all of his activities were legally sanctioned privateering. Not so Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard, a thoroughgoing pirate if ever there was one.
In June 1718, Blackbeard, after a successful blockade of Charleston, took his flotilla from the Atlantic into Beaufort Inlet in North Carolina. Blackbeard’s ship, the French built Queen Anne’s Revenge, went aground, fairly gently it seems, on a sandbar. An attempted rescue by another ship under the command of one Israel Hands (readers of Treasure Island will recognise the name: ‘One more step, Mr. Hands,’ said I, ‘and I'll blow your brains out …’) failed, and Queen Anne’s Revenge was lost.
Rather late in the day, we anchored in the Town Creek of Beaufort NC, (not to be confused with Beaufort in South Carolina, which is pronounced Bewfort), and walked to the North Carolina Maritime Museum on the waterfront. The wreck of the Queen Anne’s Revenge was discovered in 1996, and there are many artefacts from the ship in the Museum, giving a fascinating insight into life aboard an early eighteenth century pirate ship. Perhaps the most surprising item on display was a jack – recognisably like a modern jack, and I keep wondering why - why did Blackbeard have a jack? The most satisfactory answer I can come up with is that it might be something that would ‘come in handy’ from time to time - perhaps to press planks or frames into place.
Time pressure prevented us from visiting two museum ships we passed, the carrier Yorktown in Charleston SC, and the battleship Wisconsin in Norfolk VA, but they were certainly impressive sights.
The last museums we visited – in Virginia on our way home rather than from the boat – dealt with the times around the War of Independence. The American Revolution Museum at Yorktown was excellent and the demonstrations of musketry and artillery very informative. The restored city of Williamsburg was redolent of history, and we could easily imagine Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson debating in the beautifully restored Capitol building. The blacksmiths shop in Williamsburg was really amazing, the artisans there quite capable of manufacturing flintlock rifles and muskets from scratch.
The United States may not have a long history, but they have packed a lot into a relatively short time, and are immensely proud of what they have achieved, even if some of it was at the expense of the British!
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