“You don’t know who Ned Lowe was?” asked the astonished reporter. “A cruel man of our own fair nation who started pirating in the year 1721. His fate is uncertain, but some claim he went down with his ship in a storm off the coast of Brazil.”
Presuming all the tales of his exploits are true, Edward Lowe, also Low or Loe, was probably the most cruel and bloodthirsty pirate of the Golden Age, possibly second only to François l’Olonnais. He is reported to have been prone to violence from an early age. The legend of his savagery spread far and wide. With a fearsome reputation and a small fleet of ships, Lowe and his crew captured at least a hundred ships during his short career, burning most of them.
Early life
According to Charles Johnson’s A General History of the Pyrates, Edward Lowe was born in 1690 in Westminster, London.…
Most of the information we have available to us about the infamous and mysterious pirate known as Blackbeard is somewhat unreliable. Due to his estimated age when he met his death of between 35 and 40 years old, it is believed he was born circa 1680. What is certain is the date died – 22 November 1718. He was commonly known as Edward Teach or Thatch, but other spellings of his name include Thach, Thack, Tack, and Theach, but all these names might have been pseudonyms he used in order to protect the family name. The name Teach was mentioned in the Boston News-Letter of the time, but it may have been a spelling error. Other sources use the name Thatch, especially those who knew him personally. He was described by Henry Bostock, captain of the merchant sloop Margaret, which was taken off Crab Island near Anguilla, as being tall and thin and possessed of an immense black beard.…
The War of Spanish Succession was fought in Europe and the colonies between 1701 and 1714. The theatre of war in the Americas was known as Queen Anne’s War and involved a series of smaller wars fought by British colonists against the French and their native American allies.