Game image
In Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Blackbeard Ed Thatch is a key character.
In September 1715, as the Naxo pirates wanted to strengthen the defenses of Nassau Bay, Edward Kenway (the male protagonist) and Blackbeard Ed Saatchi followed the Templar Master's Ark to Great Inagua Island and killed the Templar Julien du Casse, using the Great Inagua as a new pirate base.
In addition, the first DLC of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag was titled "Blackbeard's Wrath": "Play as the pirate Blackbeard and perform a stunt kill and shoot within 10 seconds." Will get a "Revenge of Queen Anne" trophy, which is a multiplayer mode package.
The prototype of this game character is the historically notorious "Blackbeard" Edward Teach. And its pirate ship is the "Queen Anne's Revenge". In this issue, we will dig deeper into the historical pirate "Blackbeard".
Background of the times
Edward Titch was born in Bristol, England in 1680. At that time, The British were still fighting Spain for trade resources. In the last issue, we mentioned that Britain was a pirate empire, and in order to use the power of pirates, Britain also acquiesced to the robbery of foreign ships (especially Spanish ships) by armed civilian ships. It was in this historical environment that Titch became a small sailor armed with civilian ships.
In 1713, Spain was defeated and signed the Treaty of Utrecht with Britain. The treaty not only ceded the Strait of Gibraltar to Britain, but also gave Britain a monopoly on the slave trade, which made Britain the new maritime hegemon. Along with Britain's ambitions for wealth, the "triangular trade" followed.
In the sinful "triangular trade", a great deal of wealth poured into Britain. In the increasingly hot trade atmosphere, robbing ships to make money faster many armed civilian ship sailors showdown, directly turned into professional pirates. The more the goods were robbed, the appetite of the pirates began to grow, and later even their own British merchant ships were not spared. The situation intensified, and by the time the Queen ordered a ban on armed ships from attacking merchant ships, it was too late, and the entire Caribbean became a hunting ground for pirates.
Against this historical backdrop, Edward Titch began his thrilling career as a pirate.
Capture the big ship and rush straight to the military port
It is said that when Blackbeard had just become independent, he had the experience of sitting and drinking with several famous pirates. At that time, the pirates talked about their ideals, some of them went to the colonies to live in seclusion after grabbing a large amount of money, and some pirates said that in the future, they would use the looted wealth to pay bribes to the governors of the North American colonies, and maybe they could buy a knighthood. Only Blackbeard said that his ideal was to become the most famous pirate in history.
Although it sounds quite strange, but from the result, it really makes this guy do it.
Obtaining the Queen Anne's Revenge was a turning point in Blackbeard's pirate career, but there was some controversy about how Blackbeard acquired the powerful ship.
There is a theory that Titch was originally a member of the crew of the famous pirate Hornigold and faithfully followed him for two years. Then in the Caribbean, Hornigold looted a luxury merchant ship. After getting the boat in hand, the captain gave it to Titch as a reward. Titch was overjoyed by this, renamed the ship "Queen Anne's Revenge", and started to work alone.
Another theory accentuates Blackbeard's character: Blackbeard encountered a French slave ship, the Concorde, in the Caribbean. The ship was very fierce in terms of hardware—the three-masted galleon, equipped with 36 guns, was much more powerful than Blackbeard's pirate ship in every way.
This gave the average pirate a fear to fight, but Blackbeard decisively ordered an attack. This is not a simple reckless act, but a gamble after some observation. Because, according to him, the ship was "lifeless" and the crew was probably infected with the plague or lacked rations. It turned out that Blackbeard's speculations had been adrift at sea for more than two months, and that more than 50 of the black men who had been trafficked had been thrown into the sea due to the plague epidemic and malnutrition, and most of the sailors were sick.
The plundering plan went more smoothly than expected, and after seizing the ship with luck and courage, Blackbeard named it "Queen Anne's Revenge" and started another business. Pirates who started out alone were often unknown, but Blackbeard became famous soon after. He did not become famous by virtue of his richer combat experience or seafaring wisdom, but by a terrible personality that was not afraid of death.
Normal pirates generally like to make a fortune in a muffled voice, openly under the banner of loyalty to the queen, and sneak around and grab a merchant ship behind their backs. Trying to avoid the British Empire's naval ships, they also walked around and tried to avoid head-to-head confrontation. Blackbeard is different, he is a natural outlaw, he loves to play and stimulate.
Instead of hiding from the Navy, Blackbeard took the initiative to go to the Navy. As soon as Blackbeard, who got the new ship, went straight to the British Coastal Defense Office on the east coast, and in the military port port, he blatantly robbed the British merchant ship "Ellen"! The naval warships in the harbor saw that there were pirates robbing merchant ships in front of the navy in broad daylight, and quickly left the port to intercept them.
The next move was even more shocking, Blackbeard managed to dodge the shelling, and then found the opportunity to crash into the Shanghai warship at full speed. This suicidal style of play directly destroyed the Navy, and I thought you would run away at full speed, but you crashed into it at full speed. In the face of a never-before-seen style of play, the navy was helpless for a while, and the pirates waited for the opportunity to shoot wildly at the officers and soldiers, and the navy suffered heavy casualties and had to flee.
Blackbeard's name has since shook the world, and ships across the Atlantic coast will not be able to escape as soon as they hear this name.
Disappeared for two years and made a comeback
Just as the British soldiers and civilians were panicking about this sudden appearance of the pirate, Blackbeard suddenly disappeared without a trace, making the pursuing navy useless. Blackbeard disappeared for two full years, and perhaps Blackbeard was secretly recruiting soldiers and horses, or taking the looted treasure to enjoy, we have no way of knowing. It was only when everyone gradually forgot their fear of him that Blackbeard suddenly appeared in the Navy's field of vision, even more cruel and terrifying than before.
At that time, on the route from Virginia in the north to Honduras in the south, all the ships were targeted by Blackbeard's robbery, and many merchant ships became his possessions. After 18 months of constant looting, Blackbeard's booty piled up.
Of course, compared to Blackbeard's later actions, these looting can only be regarded as "small fights".
In May 1718, Blackbeard succeeded in what was arguably the boldest raid of his entire pirate career: he blockaded Charleston, the capital of South Carolina, with four pirate ships, and ransacked ships in the harbor, including cargo and officers on board, before a fire turned the entire harbor into a sea of fire. To maximize his profits, Blackbeard coerced officials into taking the lives of officials in exchange for a £1.5 million ransom from the state government.
After all, Blackbeard is still a greedy and selfish person, although 1.5 million pounds is more than a lot, but after giving himself a lot of his own men, he has not much left, so Blackbeard has the idea of stealing money.
When all was said and done, Blackbeard drove the ship to a desert island and deliberately ran aground, let the pirates disembark on the pretext of "repairing the ship", and then drove the ship away with a cigarette with 40 henchmen, leaving a bunch of crew members to fend for themselves on the desert island. Two days later, the Navy found the poor guys and rescued them. Since then, the pirates' willingness to take revenge has naturally become another force for the Navy to eliminate Blackbeard.
Died of recklessness, and the treasure was gone
In the autumn of 1718, the military received a secret report that Blackbeard's flagship, the Adventurer, was moored in Okracuk Bay and immediately sent two warships to pursue them. Blackbeard also received information from the inside and decided to fight. On the afternoon of November 17, 1718, the two sides began to exchange fire, and Lieutenant Maynard saw the flag of Blackbeard hanging from the mast of the pirate ship of the other side—a black base map with a blood-red heart and a white skull.
Blackbeard's gunners, who had been in the field for a long time, took the lead in accurately hitting the "Reem", and during the artillery battle, Blackbeard gained a huge advantage, the guns were merciless, the Navy was killed and wounded, and the captain Baker died on the spot. Blackbeard immediately turned his gunfire to another Pearl, and the pirate gunner fired one deadly shell after another at the naval ship with a breech gun.
The two ships slowly approached until they slammed into each other, and because of the reefs in the bay, the two ships quickly ran aground, and the original naval battle had long since become a land battle.
After a round of artillery baptism, Blackbeard smiled and looked at the "Rim"—a large number of navies had become cannon fodder, and there were less than five people left on the deck! This is the reinforcement of the British headquarters? Simply don't take it too lightly. "Go up and rob this **** navy ship!" Blackbeard roared furiously and climbed into the navy ship with his men.
Just then, dozens of Royal Navy bolts popped up under deck – a trap! It turned out that after the terrain turned naval battle into a land battle, Lieutenant Maynard ordered the crew to hide, leaving only two on the deck as bait, in order to trick Blackbeard into boarding. For the average pirate, this strategy may not have the slightest effect, but Blackbeard, an outlaw who has become famous for "madness" and "bravery", will be fooled one hundred percent.
Even so, the battle between the two sides on the Pearl still left the Navy with heavy casualties, and after a bloody battle, Lieutenant Maynard was left with only 12 naval soldiers. By this time, Blackbeard had spotted Maynard. At the same time, Blackbeard and Maynard drew their pistols and shot, however, Blackbeard failed to hit due to drunkenness, while Maynard shot Blackbeard in the abdomen. Enraged, Blackbeard screamed and pounced on Maynard's sword, and a sailor nearby quickly stabbed Blackbeard in the neck with a swift eye. Even as the blood spurted, Blackbeard was still holding Maynard's throat, and at this moment, the nearby sailors quickly rushed with knives and stabbed until Blackbeard was killed.
After the war, Lieutenant Maynard and his soldiers found a total of 25 knife wounds and 5 gunshot wounds on Blackbeard.com. He ordered his men to cut off Blackbeard's head and feed the body to the shark.
As soon as Blackbeard died, the treasure he buried became the target of many people's searches, and because it could not be found, some people wanted to find the clue to his hidden treasure from his head.
In fact, the search for Blackbeard's treasure began immediately after he was killed. At that time, after Blackbeard was killed by Lieutenant Maynard, the soldiers of the Royal Navy searched all the places where blackbeard pirate ships could hide their treasures. But they searched around and found only 145 bags of cocoa beans, 11 barrels of wine, 1 bucket of blue indigo and 1 bag of cotton, but they did not find gold and silver jewelry.
Character summary
As one of the most famous pirates in history, he often gives him a lot of "combat wisdom", "combat experience" and "careful planning" before he understands it. But when I learned about his main deeds, I found that this was not the case. Since he got the Queen Anne's Revenge, his victory from beginning to end has been sustained by a spirit of "fearlessness". You can say that he was lucky, but given such luck to the average pirate, they probably did not dare to do the "rush to the military port" and "burn the port" thing.
And what makes me feel incredible is that the British navy at that time was so vulnerable? Relying on strong national strength and powerful equipment, the national government forces that have shocked many pirate groups in the Caribbean are so vulnerable to sudden attacks. Perhaps it has been nourished for too long under the aura of this Royal Navy, and it has lost a certain will and strength to fight.
Finally, one might think that Blackbeard seemed too reckless in the final battle, incurring his own death, and whether the money was too much to float. In fact, to say that Piao, he began when he got the "Queen Anne's Revenge", but this frenzy has always made him victorious, from robbing the military port in broad daylight to burning the official ship, not once there is a hint of hesitation or timidity, completely relying on an outlaw spirit.
So if he didn't get fooled in Maynard's battle, it was an act that didn't fit his style.
Let's talk about his artistic image:
There is also a Blackbeard in Pirates of the Caribbean: Breaking The Waves, whose daughter is Captain Jack's ex-girlfriend. The shape is similar to the historical archetype, except that it is not as desperate as in history, but an ambitionist who is well versed in black magic and tries to live forever by the fountain of immortality. In terms of sanity, I don't know how much higher than the gambler of historical archetypes.
If you talk about the gambler based on Blackbeard, you have to talk about the two characters of the Japanese manga "The Voyager King". One is "Whitebeard" Newgate Edward, and the other is "Blackbeard" Marshall Edward. D. Titch. The combination of these two names happens to be the historical Blackbeard "Edward Titch", which is also very clever.
Similar to the historical Titch, Whitebeard in the manga plot also died of many gunshot wounds and knife wounds, perhaps the inspiration Oda took from Edward Titch? Another comic book character, "Marshall D. Tiki", on the other hand, is more like carved out of the black beard in history, the same arrogance and recklessness, the same after a little small plan to start gambling, the specific plot should know, in short, the whole is a gambling monster.
In terms of personality, it is very similar to the historical gambler Blackbeard, and its appearance characteristics are even uglier than the historical prototype, which is also a major miracle in the comic book industry.
This issue of pirate content ended here, at the request of everyone, in their own language wrote a biography of the character, before and after checking the information to sort out about 3 to 4 hours, or relatively hard, I hope you more support ~
From the black box Dianbai