When remembering the Golden Age of Pirates, many names come to mind; names of great and often feared men such as Henry Morgan, "Black Sam" Bellamy, Stede Bonnet, Calico Jack, Black Bart and Edward Low. Among these, however, only one man has been hailed as “perhaps the best-known pirate among the English-speaking nations.” There is only little information available about Edward Teach's early life. In fact, information has proven to be so scarce that experts can't pinpoint the exact spelling of his last name. These include Teach (the popular and widely accepted post form), Thatch, Theach, and others. It is also difficult to say exactly how old Teach was when he died, because the date of his birth is also unknown. Experts believe that he was born around the year 1680 (according to the approximate age at his death) in Bristol, England. This helped expose Teach to the sea, as Bristol was a large port with huge amounts of trade, which meant ships were always coming in and out, and he never wanted seafarers to learn. He was also literate, perhaps because he had grown up in England's second largest city. During Queen Anne's War, he became a privateer for the English. After the war, he followed the usual path of privateers who suddenly found themselves out of work and turned to piracy. After a while he joined the crew of Benjamin Hornigold, a pirate who had already made a name for himself in New Providence, where he based his operations. Around 1716, after seeing potential in Teach, he was assigned a ship to his command. He eventually became known as Blackbeard and ran into Stede Bonnet, an unlikely pirate who was a military officer and landowner of Beard... middle of paper... came from behind and slit Blackbeard's throat. Shortly thereafter, the remaining pirates surrendered. Examining his body, Maynard discovered that Blackbeard had been hit 5 times and had suffered more than 20 sword cuts during the battle. He then cut off Blackbeard's head and tied it to the bowsprit of his ship, returning to Virginia. While he wasn't the most successful pirate, he was certainly one of the most feared, and his reputation grew more than that of those who were most feared. successful. For example, Black Bart had taken five times the amount of Teach, but Blackbeard is even more famous. It was said that after his head was removed, Blackbeard's body jumped overboard and swam three times around the ship. He was treated as an almost divine pirate and the men who sailed with him were automatically assigned places of honor and authority among the crews of other ships..