Conference unifix::sailing

Hmmm, I recall reading somewhere that Blackbeard (your basic not very 
nice person) was killed in a battle on a small river in the Carolinas, 
which would make it unlikely that his body was buried on the Isles of 
Shoals. 

    Blackbeard was brought to his demise on/off/near Ocracoke island on the
    Outer Banks of North Carolina (Cape Hatteras).  I believe he is buried
    on Ocracoke proper.  Legend has it that he was bushwhacked by some
    young English naval officer.  Not a nice fellow is right.  His claim to
    fame was waxing his beard with tallow and lighting it on fire which
    gave him a demonic look as he went into battle.  Imagine this person
    with their face and head smoking and smouldering as they charged at you
    with an ugly looking cutlass in their hand.  The stench alone would be
    enough to make you lose any will to fight.  Possible source of
    information may be any historical volumes on the Outer Banks, Cape
    Hatteras,  North Carolina coast,  pirates in general.   
    
    Brian

    
    I remember someone raising the ships bell from the Widdah a few years
    ago.  It got some wide press coverage--something about a state laying 
    claim to the wreck.  Indexes to newspapers or magazines might help.
    

    
    
    	This may be my loose pointer in my virtual memory (!) but does 
    	anyone recall several years back when someone found a ship near
    	shore on the cape, and wanted to open a museum to show the arti-
    	facts (and offset his search costs)? I believe the bureaucratic
    	rats of our fine government preferred him to sell them to private
    	collectors and speculators, since the state would receive something
    	like half the selling price?
    	I think the name was something like `Whydah'... hmmmmmmmmmm...
    
    	Scott.
    
    
    

    For what it's worth ...
    
    The Wydah went down just off cape cod during a storm.  I don't remember
    the date, pre-revolutionary war in any case.  The pirates name was
    Bellamy.  The story goes that he was in love with a woman who lived in
    Orleans on the cape and that she was on the beach the night his ship
    went down.  Therafter she became a hermit, given to long walks up and
    down the beach in the dead of night which tended to spook the daylights
    out of the locals.
    
    There is a salvage operation taking place on the Whydah now.  Bellamy's
    story was well known from court records etc. and of course such a
    romantic legend would live on.  A couple of guys tracked it all down
    and confirmed the history and the legend when they raised the ships
    bell giving positive identification.  Since then a lot of other stuff
    has been brought up, gold, silver and jewels plus navigation
    instruments, firearms and cookware.  Naval archeologists have found the
    more mundane stuff very helpful in understanding what life was like on
    a pirate ship at that time.
    
    All of the above is what I recall from articles in the Boston Globe.  I
    also have a vague recollection about a book on the subject.
    
    
    Mike H