Blackbeard, real name Edward Teach, died on 22 November 1718 when he was shot five times and stabbed 20 times in an ambush by the Royal Navy. The British forces, led by Lieutenant Robert Maynard of the HMS Pearl, took down the infamous pirate with a cunning ruse. After a firefight at Blackbeard’s favourite hideout, an inlet on the island of Ocracoke, off the coast of Carolina, Maynard allowed his ship to be boarded. When Blackbeard came aboard, Maynard’s forces burst from the hold with swords and pistols, overpowering the pirate’s crew. In Blackbeard’s final battle he managed to break Maynard’s sword with his cutlass, before another navy seaman cut his throat from behind. Blackbeard was decapitated and his head was hung from Maynard’s bow and placed on a spike at the mouth of River Hampton, Virginia, as a warning to others.
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