It was on this date in 1718 that Lt. Robert Maynard of the
British Royal Navy encountered the pirate Blackbeard at what has
ever after been known as Teach's Hole, a protected anchorage in
Pamlico Sound, just offshore from Springer's Point. After a
bloody naval battle, Blackbeard (who suffered more than 20
wounds before he was beheaded) and his crew were defeated,
ending the "Golden Age of Piracy." Benjamin Franklin, at that
time a young "printer's devil," composed the following ditty to
commemorate the event: "Come all you jolly sailors You all so
stout and brave; Come hearken and I’ll tell you What happen’d on
the wave. Oh! ’tis of that bloody Blackbeard I’m going now for
to tell; And as how by gallant Maynard He soon was sent to
hell." In about 1765 a ballad entitled "The Downfall of Piracy"
appeared in a small songbook. Many scholars believe this poem
descended from Benjamin Franklin's original. The full title of
the ballad is "The Downfall of Piracy; being a full and true
Account of a desperate and bloody