Blackbeard’s Wrong Turn by John Masters

                    The Legend of Blackbeard wasn’t born in a late night drinking session in the Caribbean, but in the wake of the Treaty of Utrecht, which in 1715 ended the war of the Spanish succession in Europe. Putting an end to years of hostilities with Spain May well have been in the best interests of England as a nation of the time, politically and otherwise However , it was most surely not in the best economic interest for thousands of British seamen left unemployed from the sudden downsizing the peacetime Royal Navy needed, and from now charter-less privateer crews.

For most of these men, serving at sea in a war with Spain had been an escape from poverty at home, and they still considered the Spanish bitter enemies. Many of these newly unemployed men chased work as part of the force defending the island Jamaica from Spanish Raiders who continued….

 

Read More 

In WRECKWATCH MAGAZINE : December 2020