All language subtitles for Historys.Greatest.Mysteries.S04E08.Blackbeards.Lost.Treasure.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H264-WhiteHat_track3_[eng].1

♪ ♪

Tonight, a pirate treasure

worth millions.

Blackbeard looted
dozens of ships

and was able
to walk away scot free.

And it’s still missing,
despite centuries of searching.

We know where he attacked ships,

where he hung out,
where he stopped for a time,

but in none of these places

has Blackbeard’s treasure
been found.

Now, we unearth
the top theories

around this legendary orb.

Blackbeard goes
from public enemy number one

to best friends
with the governor overnight.

All of Blackbeard’s treasure

now it’s somewhere
at the bottom of the ocean.

Many of Blackbeard’s
former crew members

believed that Blackbeard
had made a deal with the devil.

What really became
of Blackbeard’s lost treasure,

and where could it be?

♪ ♪

LAURENCE FISHBURNE:
November 21st, 1996,

Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina,

a dive team led by historian

Phil Masters
is attempting to find

a lost,
centuries old treasure.

MAN ON RADIO: Diver to surface.
Diver to surface.

MATT ALBERS:
The dive team is looking

for a very specific
pirate ship,

which may have been
the most notorious

pirate vessel of all time.

LAURENCE: The ship is called
the "Queen Anne’s Revenge,"

and it was helmed by
the notorious pirate Blackbeard.

DR. REBECCA SIMON:
Blackbeard is probably

the most famous pirate
ever to live,

even though his actual
pirate career

was quite short
in comparison to others.

He was most active
between 1717 and 1718,

during the golden age of piracy.

Blackbeard is one
of the best known figures

of colonial American history.

But today,
300 years later,

we really don’t know much
about his identity,

origins, or even motivations
for becoming a pirate.

REBECCA: There’s a lot
of questions and mysteries

about Blackbeard’s background,

the first of which
is his own name.

There’s a few
different accounts

that spell it differently.

In the majority
of the official records,

his name was written
as Edward Thatch,

uh, which has since
become Teach.

Other people said
he was a Captain Drummond.

Somebody interpreted
the wording in a later document

to believe that his last name
was Kentish.

The fact is,
there were many pirates

who actually went by aliases.

So his identity
and his real name

are very much
in doubt today.

LAURENCE:
Much like his name,

Blackbeard’s early life
is unknown.

The first time
we hear about Blackbeard

is about 1716,
and this is when he was

sailing under the pirate
Benjamin Hornigold,

and Blackbeard
was Hornigold’s protégé

and became Hornigold’s
second in command.

LAURENCE: Less than a year
later, Hornigold promotes

Blackbeard to captain
of a small sloop in his fleet,

with a crew of 70 men.

How does a man become
the captain of a sloop?

First of all,
he almost certainly

would have been better educated

than most of the men
that he was with.

He was able
to read and write.

He was able to navigate.

These were not characteristics
that were common

among most men at that time.

REBECCA: Benjamin Hornigold
and Blackbeard,

the two of them as pirates,
are sailing up and down

the American Eastern seaboard.

They were wreaking havoc against
a lot of merchant ships,

and they’re especially active

between the Carolinas
and down to Cuba,

and that’s because
there’s a lot

of major trading routes.

They’re looking
for things they can sell,

like textiles, spices,
different types of alcohol,

such as wine and rum,

anything they could sell
at a high price.

And coming out
of the Caribbean,

where so much of this
is being traded,

it’s ripe for the picking.

LAURENCE: Despite their success,
Blackbeard and Hornigold

are soon at odds
with each other.

MATT: Blackbeard
and Benjamin Hornigold

had some philosophical
differences

about how to conduct piracy

and really what it meant
to be a pirate.

Benjamin Hornigold,
specifically,

did not want to attack
British shipping.

But, of course,
that means that his men

lost out on lots
and lots of plunder.

It upset a lot of the men
in Hornigold’s crew.

REBECCA: Blackbeard,
on the other hand,

he’s more gung-ho.

He wants to rob any ship,

he’s indiscriminate
about who he attacks,

and so he wants more
of that freedom

to be able to really
hit other ships hard.

LAURENCE: By 1717, Hornigold
is forced to retire,

and Blackbeard is declared
head of the fleet.

He immediately sets out
to make a name for himself.

PATRICK HINDS:
Blackbeard projects

this fearsome image, right?

He’s this big, bold person.

He wears dark clothes,
he’s got the dark crazy hair,

the big black beard.

The whole point
was to be terrifying.

REBECCA: Blackbeard knew
he was gaining a reputation

very quickly
because of his looks,

and he began to capitalize
on it in a way.

If you’re a sailor
or a Navy man

and you see this crazy man
coming at you,

you are gonna give up
your ship right away.

LAURENCE: By late November,
1717, Blackbeard commands

three ships
with nearly 200 crewmen,

including
the "Queen Anne’s Revenge".

MATT: At the height
of Blackbeard’s power,

he had more men,
more guns and more ships

than any other
pirate captain sailing.

So with this heavily armed
fleet of ships

that he has,
including his flagship,

the "Queen Anne’s Revenge,"

Blackbeard is
basically unstoppable.

LAURENCE: During this period,
Blackbeard was

an amazingly
successful pirate.

COLIN WOODARD: He’s captured,
you know, dozens of vessels

as they were approaching
major east coast ports

and is raiding
almost all the shipping

trying to go in and out
of the Caribbean.

KEVIN P. DUFFUS:
In late May and early June,

Blackbeard eventually
makes his way north,

and blockades the port
of Charleston.

He besieges the harbor
of Charleston for a week.

Ships coming in and out,
he would intercept them.

He--he actually holds Charleston
for--for ransom,

and they pay it.

LAURENCE: Blackbeard’s success
doesn’t go unnoticed.

REBECCA: Blackbeard is becoming
a lot more famous,

which means a lot
more authorities are starting

to look for him
in various places.

COLIN: At the time,
the pirates were that powerful,

that numerous
and that dangerous.

So the king had decided
the only way

to defeat the pirates was
to divide and conquer them.

LAURENCE: Or, in the case
of Blackbeard,

to send a privateer named
Woodes Rogers to capture him.

KEVIN: When Blackbeard
was blockading

the port of Charleston,
one of the residents

informed him that Woods Rogers
had departed England

and was on his way
to the Bahamas

to become the governor
to break up this pirate republic

that had been established.

DR. CHARLES EWEN:
I think Blackbeard knew

Woods Rogers was after him,

and so he goes up
at Topsail Inlet,

which is today Beaufort Inlet,

presumably to fight
a well-armed enemy,

and he hits a shoal
and runs aground.

LAURENCE:
Another of Blackbeard’s ships,

the "Adventure",
comes to his aid,

but it’s too late.

CHARLES: This is pretty bad
for Blackbeard.

It is more than likely
most of the loot,

most of the real valuable goods,

especially if it’s
Blackbeard’s flagship,

were stored
on the "Queen Anne’s Revenge."

PATRICK: At this point,
Blackbeard’s treasure

is estimated to be
tens of millions of dollars.

His own ledger reads
about twelve and a half,

but it’s incomplete,
suggesting that there’s

possibly more
where that came from.

REBECCA: So this leads
to the question...

What happened
to the treasure?

The most logical place
to look would be

at its last known location,
on his ship,

the "Queen Anne’s Revenge."

LAURENCE: Despite knowing
the general location

of the wreck,
no one is able to find

the "Queen Anne’s Revenge."

Once the ship is abandoned,

it probably
wouldn’t take long

for it to start falling apart.

It was already
in pretty bad shape,

and it’s relatively warm water,

so any wood that’s exposed

is going to be eaten
by the teredo shipworms.

And I would say within
a year you might not see

much of it above water,

and, within ten years,

you wouldn’t even know
it was there.

LAURENCE: Then, in 1987,

obsessed treasure hunter
Phil Masters

starts a new mission
to find Blackbeard’s flagship.

PATRICK: Phil Masters has had
success in this inlet before,

finding other treasure wrecks.

And since we know
that Blackbeard’s ship

went down in around
the same spot,

Masters assumes this is
a good place to look for it.

LAURENCE: Finally,
on November 21st, 1996,

he located it.

This discovery
is a huge deal.

It makes
international news.

It’s been 278 years that people
have been looking for this ship,

so discovering it means
we might actually

have some insight
into the treasure

that Blackbeard
actually had.

LAURENCE: The excavation
efforts start in 1997.

CHARLES:
Once the--the wreck was found,

then it was up
to the archaeologist

to come in, grid off
the whole area,

and to tediously go
through each square that had

been marked off,
dredging the sand up

and running it through
screen after screen.

LAURENCE: Soon, they begin
bringing up incredible objects.

MAN OVER RADIO:
This is amazing.

There’s just
stuff everywhere.

CHARLES: We’re finding
all kinds of weaponry.

At least 40 cannons,
uh, 20 have been pulled up.

We found grenades,
medical instruments,

side plates for guns,

the plates
that they ate off.

It’s a treasure trove
of that time period.

LAURENCE: What they don’t find
is Blackbeard’s treasure.

So even though there’s
no gold doubloons

or jeweled cups
or anything like that,

it is a treasure
of historical artifacts.

LAURENCE:
Still, the team believes

they’re
on the right track.

KEVIN: There has been
a small amount

of gold dust
or small nuggets

of gold that have

been recovered
archaeologically

from the wreck
of the "Queen Anne’s Revenge."

And there
may still yet be

a chest of gold
or silver or jewels.

CHARLES: The archeology
on the "Queen Anne’s Revenge"

has recovered roughly half

of what we--we think
is down there,

but it’s going to take
a while to get it done.

If Blackbeard had
the large amount of valuables

and loot and plunder,
doesn’t appear to have

been left
on the "Queen Anne’s Revenge."

But would
Blackbeard take off

and leave
the treasure behind?

I don’t think
that makes sense.

LAURENCE: When notorious pirate
Blackbeard crashes off

the coast of modern-day
North Carolina

in June 1718,
a mystery begins.

REBECCA: So what happens to all
of Blackbeard’s treasure?

This is one
of the really big mysteries

about him, because
we really have no idea.

The most logical place
for Blackbeard’s treasure

would be its last known place,

which, of course,
was on his ship,

the "Queen Anne’s Revenge."

CHARLES:
When the announcement came

that the "Queen Anne’s Revenge"

had been located,
it was huge.

Everybody’s interested
in Blackbeard’s Flagship.

LAURENCE: Unfortunately,
no hoard is found

amid the wreckage
of the "Queen Anne’s Revenge."

But evidence suggests
Blackbeard’s vessel

didn’t sink immediately
after running aground.

That gave Blackbeard
about a week to ten days

to get everybody off
the "Queen Anne’s Revenge,"

and then he could put
a salvage crew aboard

so that they could recover
anything of value

that they wanted
to retain.

KEVIN: Could Blackbeard
have moved his loot?

Of course, in 1718
there were no banks.

There were no place
to--to put your money,

uh, or your gold
if you had accumulated it.

And it absolutely
makes sense

that it might
have been hidden somewhere,

hoping that they would be able
to go back and retrieve it.

LAURENCE: Shortly after
wrecking his ship,

Blackbeard surrenders,

taking advantage
of a new legal policy.

COLIN: The pirates
were that dangerous.

There were so many of them
that the King

was willing
to issue a pardon

that would absolve
any pirate who took it

from all of their crimes,
and they would be able

to keep their treasure

and go peacefully
into retirement.

LAURENCE: On September 5th,
1717, England’s King George I

makes a royal decree.

The terms are,
"If you stop plundering

and turn yourself in,
we’ll stop hunting you."

And many pirates
take him up on the deal.

Generally,
if a pirate is going

to get captured,
they will be put on trial

and they will hang.

That is almost guaranteed.

So a pardon
will allow a pirate

to survive
and also keep their goods.

PATRICK: It takes Blackbeard
a while to come around,

but once he wrecks
his flagship,

the "Queen Anne’s Revenge,"
he decides the pardon

is the best option.

LAURENCE:
Once he officially retires,

Blackbeard moves
to Bath, North Carolina.

While the "Queen Anne’s Revenge"
is unsalvageable,

he’s allowed
to keep his smaller ship,

The "Adventure,"
for his own personal use.

KEVIN: Blackbeard arrived
in Bath in July of 1718

and bought a fine house

where he would host
these grand parties

and invite his neighbors
and the plantation owners.

REBECCA: He lives
at a place called Plum Point,

oddly enough, right next door
to the Governor, Charles Eden.

LAURENCE: The house
hasn’t survived,

but the site
makes headlines in 1928.

It was around Christmas time
of 1928,

and all of a sudden,

newspapers all across
the country

were reporting that Blackbeard’s
famous pirate treasure

had been found.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

The story is originally
attributed to two fur trappers.

North Carolina
at that time was

very overgrown,
a real wilderness.

It would have
been perfect for fur trapping.

REBECCA: The fur trappers
came upon a hole

that was about eight feet deep,

covered with lots of trees
and branches and leaves,

that sort of thing.

They go down to investigate,

and they discover down
at the very bottom

there’s this brick vault
sitting there.

At first,
the fur trappers think

this might have been
part of a foundation,

but then,
upon closer inspection,

they saw that the bricks
were a lot of different

shapes and sizes, suggesting
that they were hand-made.

MATT: And they’d been stuck
together with a lot of mortar,

more than would
be used for a house.

And in that mortar,
there was an indentation,

the remnants of what
very much looked

like an old sea chest.

The trappers thought
about, "Who would need

to bury a chest here
in such a great hurry?"

I mean, Blackbeard is really
the only choice.

LAURENCE:
But the sea chest is gone.

The trappers
estimate the chest

would have been
about 40 inches wide

and 30 inches deep.

The trunk itself would have been
a large wooden object.

It would have had
a heavy lid on it,

and it probably
would have belonged

to Blackbeard or maybe
one of the other sailors

on his ships,
because every sailor,

including a pirate,
had their own personalized trunk

where they could keep their own
special goods and treasure.

LAURENCE: Searching nearby,
the trappers find more clues.

MATT: Right next to the hole,
these two fur trappers

found a tripod and a pulley,
but they also found

an indentation in the sand
that appeared

to run right down to the beach.

And, in fact,
the fur trappers did describe

that they had seen footprints,

and they had seen
some disturbed earth

and disturbed foliage.

It could have been
that the fur trappers

may have just
missed the people

who had taken the trunk away.

LAURENCE: Unfortunately,
the trail of evidence

stops at the water.

This raises
so many questions.

Was this Blackbeard’s
long lost treasure?

Who dug the hole?
What did they find?

Where did they take
what they found?

But, to me, the biggest question
of all is,

how did these people
know where to dig?

By 1928, people
had been digging

all over this property
for hundreds of years,

and this didn’t seem
like a lucky find.

They dug one hole,
and they seemed to have

brought the exact
right tools they would

have needed
to dig this hole.

MATT: People in this region
passed down

all sorts of stories
about Blackbeard.

Maybe someone actually
had some information

about where he had hidden
his treasure.

And then, on the other hand,
maybe Blackbeard decided

to leave a treasure map behind.

Maybe, in this case,

X actually
did mark the spot.

PATRICK:
The trappers were unnamed.

Obviously, the thieves
are unnamed.

We don’t have any more
information about this hole

other than from this one
newspaper article.

REBECCA: And it’s led
some people to wonder

if these fur trappers
were even real,

or was it something
that the newspaper decided

to print for fun
in order to get sales,

maybe capitalize
on a local legend.

So this also creates
an even larger mystery

behind what was going on
in 1928

around Blackbeard’s
former home.

LAURENCE:
If the story is fiction,

it may have
a well-known inspiration.

KEVIN: Well, certainly,
Robert Lewis Stevenson

had a great impact
on the public’s perception

and interest
in pirate treasure

with the publication
of--of "Treasure Island."

We all think that all pirates
bury their treasure,

but actually,
there is almost no record

of any pirate burying treasures.

But no matter
how much I have learned

about piracy,
when I think pirates,

I think of buried treasure,

I think of peg legs,
I think of hooks.

LAURENCE: Other theorists
believe the trapper’s tale

is partially true.

It’s certainly possible that
Blackbeard buried some treasure.

What’s unlikely
is that he buried

all of his treasure
in one spot.

It’s more likely
that he would have

spread it out
over multiple locations.

Blackbeard would do
this to reduce risk

or just because
it’s more practical to have

a little bit in a lot
of different places.

MATT: A single chest,
30X40 inches,

can hold a lot
of loot, right?

You know, you’ve got
silver and gold,

but it’s
not nearly enough

to hold everything
the Blackbeard had.

PATRICK: There’s definitely
more treasure out there.

And it seems like
if somebody was able

to find this treasure,
other people might be

able to find the rest.

LAURENCE: During
his two year reign of terror

along the Atlantic coast,
virtually no port is

safe from Blackbeard
and his pirate crew.

Blackbeard’s most famous
territory was the Bahamas,

the Virgin Islands,
and the Carolinas.

But there’s
evidence to suggest

he went as far south
as South America

and as far north
as New Hampshire.

If we’re trying to think
of different places

that Blackbeard may have
buried his treasure,

there are loads
of different possibilities.

PATRICK: People think
that Blackbeard traveled

around with all
of his treasures, and I think

we get this idea from movies

like "The Goonies"
and "Treasure Island,"

where there’s just piles
of gold and jewels,

but if you think about it,
that’s not practical.

KEVIN: Part of the problem
with this is

gold is very, very heavy.

A box that’s 2X2X2 would
be eight cubic feet of gold,

would actually weigh
about 9,500 pounds.

PATRICK: He needed
his ships to be light

so he could attack other ships

and avoid being
attacked himself.

He needed to make room
for his men

and for supplies
and for weaponry.

And we know even
that when he would

attack other ships,
he wouldn’t take everything.

He would pick and choose
what he wanted

and leave the rest.

If Blackbeard
is really successful

in several of his captures
and had a huge haul of loot,

odds are he’s going
somewhere safe to offload it.

LAURENCE: According to historian
Robert Cahill, it could

be a place no one would
ever think to look.

MATT: In 1980,
Robert Cahill published

a book called
"Pirates and Lost Treasures."

In that book,
he suggests that while

most people were looking
for Blackbeard’s treasure

in the Caribbean or along
the coast of Carolina,

he thinks that Blackbeard
may have hidden

some of his treasure about 600
miles further to the north,

as far north
as the coasts of Maine

and New Hampshire,
where we find a series

of islands
called the Isles of Shoals.

CHARLES: The Isles of Shoals
are what they sound like.

They’re rocky shoals
jutting out of the water

between New Hampshire and Maine.

It was mainly used
with the cod fisheries,

but there
were folks that also

dabbled in piracy as well.

So you had a lot
of illicit behavior going on.

PATRICK: Cahill focuses
on the Isle of Shoals because,

as a local historian,

he’s found accounts
of Blackbeard and his crew

frequenting a tavern
on the islands.

It’s amazing how many places
have been suggested

for Blackbeard’s treasure,

but the Isle of Shoals
makes more sense

than some of the others
because it’s one

of those places that matches

sort of what the pirates
were looking for

in a lair or a hideout.

The kind of place
where you might lay low.

Maybe nobody will notice you.

Maybe you can offload treasures.

REBECCA: The Isle of Shoals
are made up of three islands,

and in the middle is this
dumbbell-shaped Lunging Island.

And this is referred to
as the Pirate Bank.

And the reason for this
is because its location

is really safe, sandwiched in
between these other islands.

It’s got very
rocky coastlines,

and it’s the perfect place
to go if you need to hide

yourself, your ship,
or offload goods,

because it’s unlikely
people will be able

to either find it
or sail in there safely.

LAURENCE: Over the years,
several teams

of scientists
and treasure hunters

search Lunging Island.

It’s rumored that
in Blackbeard’s time,

there was a cave
on the eastern end

of this island,
and if that’s true,

it would have been
a perfect place for Blackbeard

to hide his treasure.

But, today,
that cave is not there.

MATT:
According to Prudy Randall,

who owns the only house
on the island,

she believes that the cave
may have been hidden away

after centuries
of shifting sands and tides.

Randall says that shortly
after World War II,

a plane from the American
government flew overhead

and spotted the cave
using sonar.

A few years later, a man
from a quarrying company

came out and did some tests,
indicating that a cave

may exist under the rock.

But it appears there was
no further follow up

to either of these
two investigations.

LAURENCE: In 2001, a team
from Hager-richter Geoscience

picks up the search.

Their first order
of business is to use

a ground-penetrating radar
to look for evidence

of a cave or really anything
buried underneath the ground.

Ground penetrating
radar doesn’t take

the place of digging,
but it does make

your digging
a lot more efficient.

LAURENCE: Unfortunately,
their initial findings

are inconclusive.

But that doesn’t
stop them.

They hire a big
barge-mounted drill

from Rockland, Maine,
and they dig

a bunch of test holes
into the rock.

But they only find
more rock.

The chance of finding
a single collapsed cave

is really one in a million.

It’s a needle
in a haystack situation.

Like many treasure hunters,

eventually you run
out of time and money,

and then if you’re
not getting any return,

you have
to pull the plug.

LAURENCE: Some suggest
the Geoscience team

is looking
on the wrong island.

Just because Blackbeard drank
on Lunging Island

doesn’t mean he buried
his treasure there.

I mean, wouldn’t it make
more sense for him

to pick one of the other
Isles of Shoals,

where there
would be more secrecy?

MATT: Cahill believes
that Blackbeard may have

a connection to other islands
in the chain.

According to legend,
after he retired in 1718,

Blackbeard married a woman
in North Carolina.

It was the governor,
Eden,

that oversaw the ceremony.

Then he spent his honeymoon
on an island

called Smuttynose.

Maybe the trip up north
for the honeymoon

was also a chance
to get some stash,

spending money
for the new couple.

There’s one other island
in the Isle of Shoals

that makes
an interesting contender.

Though there’s
no evidence of buried treasure

on Smuttynose
or Lunging Islands,

Star Island does have a history
of pirate plunder.

MATT: John Quelch was
a pirate about ten years

before Blackbeard
was really active.

He oversaw a mutiny
on board his merchant ship,

and then the crew elected him
to be their captain.

They sailed down
to the coast of Brazil,

where he captured
nine or ten pirate ships,

and made a good amount
of money.

At that point,
they sailed north

up to Star Island,
where, reportedly,

he buried some of his treasure.

Now, this was
just a myth, a story.

Nobody really knew
about this

until the 1800s.

Then some people found
gold inside a wall,

and thanks to the dates
on those coins,

they believe that it may
have been Quelch’s gold.

LAURENCE: Could Blackbeard’s
treasure also be hidden here?

There’s so many legends
and possible locations,

but the Isles of Shoals

has been one of the most
persistent ones.

The problem is
that the Isle of Shoals

are solid granite rocks,

so this doesn’t
make a lot of sense

as a place
to secure your valuables.

It would make a very
bad safety deposit box.

It’s really hard
to dig holes there.

You need miners
to help you do it.

CHARLES: These pirates,
I mean, they’re sailors.

They’re not engineers.

Well, let’s remember
what the technology

in the XVIII century
was like.

It’s nowhere
near what we have.

I suppose you could use
black powder,

but to do
any effective blasting,

you really gotta know
what you’re doing.

And the idea
of these pirates

could somehow secrete
this vast treasure

someplace
that we can’t find now.

I find that difficult
to believe.

LAURENCE: Still, the legend
of Blackbeard’s treasure

remains tied to these
islands for centuries.

And some locals say he left
something else behind as well.

Legend has it
he left his wife there

to guard the treasure, and he
would come back and visit.

He would come
and go and come and go,

and one day,
he never came back.

And the locals say her ghost
haunts the isles to this day.

CHARLES:
I just would have to think

there’s gotta be a better way
to hide your treasure.

But, again,
if Blackbeard’s treasure

is found
on the Isle of Shoals,

I will be the first one
to say how wrong I was

in believing
that this would never happen.

In the search
for Blackbeard’s treasure,

many hunters focus
on his whereabouts

during retirement.

But the pirate’s retirement
is a matter of a few mere weeks.

Before long,
he’s back on the high seas

and in a new ship.

You might ask yourself,
why was this fearsome pirate,

who stole millions of dollars,
looted dozens of ships,

blockaded entire towns,
able to walk away scot free?

To understand that,
you have to look

at the overall
political situation

in Europe in the early 1700s.

LAURENCE:
During this era,

European powers
are competing to control

the astonishing
wealth of the New World.

CHARLES: You had a lot
of commerce going on.

These colonies
are being exploited

and there is
a lot of raw material

coming out of those colonies.

You had colonial Americans
sending out material

to Europe, and you have
the Spanish colonies

in the Caribbean and Mexico

and South America
shipping out a lot

of gold and silver
back across to--to Europe.

LAURENCE: When Europe moves
into armed conflict,

leaders hurry to enlist men
like Blackbeard

to seize
their enemies’ loot.

He and many others
enroll as privateers.

What’s the difference between
privateering and piracy?

Well, a privateer
was somebody who was

given permission
to be a maritime mercenary

by their king or queen
or government.

REBECCA: They have a contract
called a letter of marque,

which basically states
you are fighting against ships

from these specific countries,

and in payment,
they were allowed

to keep 80%
of all the goods

they could steal
and the other 20%

goes back
to the government.

Essentially, Blackbeard
was given permission

to go out and attack
enemy shipping,

and they could keep a portion
of the plunder.

LAURENCE: North Carolina’s
Governor, Charles Eden,

allows Blackbeard to take
his remaining ship,

the "Adventure," and return
to a life on the sea.

But within weeks,

he sheds
his privateer status

and begins attacking
English vessels.

Blackbeard is
once again a pirate.

When Blackbeard
decides to leave North Carolina

in August of 1718,

he knows he’s probably
not going back.

He’s decided to go back
to a life of piracy,

despite having
taken the pardon.

It might be that at this point
he feels like

he has nothing to lose
and he probably

figures he might as well
go back to piracy

and do everything
he can before

he’s inevitably
going to get caught.

When you look at the story
of the big empty hole

on Plum Point, you have
to wonder, is it possible

Blackbeard dug up
the treasure himself?

I mean, we know he was
going back and forth

between his home in Bath
and the boat,

so is it possible
that he was getting

the treasure and loading up
the ship himself?

♪ ♪

LAURENCE: Whatever survives
from his original haul,

Blackbeard wastes
no time

adding to his fortune.

REBECCA: Almost immediately,
he captures

two French ships,
and in the meantime,

news of his exploits
going back into piracy

have traveled
around the Caribbean

and the American colonies
as well.

LAURENCE: Frustrated,
the Governor of Virginia

decides to take matters
into his own hands.

REBECCA:
Now, Alexander Spotswood,

he has made it his mission
as a governor

to eradicate piracy
in any way whatsoever.

KEVIN: In the letters
of Alexander Spotswood,

he states that
he’s very concerned

that this pirate Blackbeard
has established himself

a base at Ocracoke Island.

Obviously, having pirates
or a pirate base

just south of there would, uh,
be a direct threat

to the trade of Virginia.

So he’s going
to start putting plans

into motion to stop
Blackbeard at all costs.

Governor Spotswood
decides to commission

Lieutenant Robert Maynard
in order to try

to take down Blackbeard.

He gives him 57 men
and two ships

and is instructed, "Capture
Blackbeard, dead or alive."

LAURENCE:
Five days after departing

from Kecoughtan, Virginia,
Maynard’s fleet

confronts Blackbeard’s
at Ocracoke Inlet.

Blackbeard and Maynard
face off and Blackbeard

immediately fires a cannon
into Maynard’s ships,

obliterating one of them.

During this gunfire,

Maynard lost a number
of his men

and the air filled
with clouds of smoke.

It became very confusing.

It was hard for either
of the vessels

to see each other.
They were basically adrift.

Blackbeard gets off another
broadside. Again, mayhem.

He mows down more
of the Royal Navy sailors

and they jump on board,
ready to seize control.

And that’s when
Lieutenant Maynard

unleashes
his great surprise.

REBECCA: Maynard’s men are
all hiding below deck.

And so when Blackbeard
and his crew come on,

Lieutenant Maynard’s men
rush up to the deck

and this massive bloodbath
of a battle ensues.

Blackbeard is wounded.

He’s stabbed in the leg
by one of Maynard’s men.

And, reportedly,
Blackbeard shouts,

"Well done, lad,"
after he’s been stabbed.

And in that moment,
Robert Maynard sees

his opportunity
and he takes his sword

and he beheads Blackbeard
on the ship,

killing him
once and for all.

LAURENCE: Maynard returns
to Virginia and places

Blackbeard’s head
on a spike

at the entrance
to Chesapeake Bay.

A head is a fine trophy,
but Maynard came back

without Blackbeard’s ship
or any gold.

So the question is,
what became of Blackbeard’s ship

and the treasure
that was possibly on it?

LAURENCE: The "Adventure"
remains missing to this day,

and its absence may provide
a clue to what happened.

REBECCA: One of the theories is
that one of Blackbeard’s

most trusted
crew members, Caesar,

actually had plans
to scuttle the ship,

meaning to destroy it,
before anybody

could actually go capture it.

The idea is it’s better
to have all the treasure

fall down into the sea,
rather than let any of it

go into Maynards’ or any other
authorities’ hands.

MATT: Of course, it could have
been Maynard himself.

It was common practice
at the time,

after defeating an enemy,
to burn their ship.

Maybe Maynard didn’t search
the ship properly,

and that would mean that all
of Blackbeard’s treasure,

what he had dug up
from Plum Point,

now it’s somewhere
at the bottom of the ocean.

LAURENCE: If the treasure
remains on the "Adventure,"

there’s still hope
for its recovery.

This might be
our single best chance

to find Blackbeard’s treasure.

If we can find the wreck
of the "Adventure,"

we know it’s the last place
that he was,

and there was probably
some plunder on there.

In 1989, the same company

that found
the "Queen Anne’s Revenge"

gets a permit from
the state of North Carolina

to salvage the "Adventure,"
if they can find it.

So far, they have not.

But the wreckage
is still out there.

Somebody’s probably
gonna find it eventually.

And if they do,
who knows?

Maybe they’ll get rich.

♪ ♪

LAURENCE:
Perhaps no other figure

features more prominently

in the story of Blackbeard

than North Carolina Governor
Charles Eden.

Blackbeard was in need
of the King’s pardon,

but had committed
acts of piracy

after the deadline stipulated
by the pardon.

South Carolina would
not have been happy.

Since he had besieged
Charleston and Virginia,

they sure didn’t like him.

I think his options were
pretty limited at that point.

REBECCA: So Blackbeard goes
to Governor Charles Eden

because he knows
that Governor Eden

tends to have decent
relationships with pirates.

We don’t know if the two men
knew each other beforehand,

but after Blackbeard
receives the pardon,

their relationship
takes a strange turn.

Blackbeard’s house is right
next door to Governor Eden’s.

There are even reports
that there was a tunnel

dug between the Governor’s
house and Blackbeard’s.

When Blackbeard marries
a woman named Mary Ormond,

it’s the Governor
who oversees the ceremony.

Blackbeard and Eden seem
to be very good friends.

What is the reason for this?

Does Eden think he can
rehabilitate Blackbeard?

Is Eden star-struck by the guy

or is something else
going on?

LAURENCE: One of the most
comprehensive histories

of North Carolina

comes from Dr. Hugh Williamson,
published in 1812.

REBECCA: According
to Hugh Williamson,

Governor Eden
is very charismatic,

he’s charming,
he’s intelligent.

However, he is also sort
of covered

in this cloud of disgrace,

and this is because
of his assumed association

with one of the most
notorious pirates of all time.

Blackbeard goes from being
public enemy number one

to best friends
with the Governor overnight.

History tells us that
usually only happens

when there’s a payoff.

♪ ♪

LAURENCE: In other words,

Blackbeard’s
hard-earned treasure

might have been given
in exchange for his freedom.

One of the basic conditions

of the pardon was that you had
to turn yourself in

by September 5th, 1718,

but you were only pardoned
for the crimes

that you committed
before January 5th of 1718,

nothing after.

But, of course, Blackbeard
committed loads of crimes

after January 5th.

LAURENCE: Including
his well-known blockade

of Charleston in May of 1718,

which should have been
punishable by death.

So why wasn’t it?

Blackbeard had amassed

millions of dollars
worth of goods and treasure,

and it’s very likely he brought
all of this into North Carolina,

and gave a huge chunk of it
to the Governor.

LAURENCE: Did Blackbeard use his
wealth to buy his own pardon?

When Blackbeard
turned himself in in June,

he should have been killed,
but he wasn’t.

And maybe this explains why.

And why Blackbeard’s treasure’s
never been found.

Because he gave it up.
I mean,

if it’s your money or your life,
what are you gonna do?

LAURENCE: And the bribes
may not have stopped there.

MATT: At one point,
Blackbeard returns

to North Carolina
with a French ship

called the "Rose Emelye."

But he tells the Governor...

that he just found
this ship perfectly seaworthy,

filled with plunder,
and with not a sole aboard.

At a Vice Admiralty hearing,
with the Governor present,

Blackbeard is awarded the rights
to this French vessel.

Whether or not the Governor
believed Blackbeard’s story,

how gullible do we think he is?

More likely,
he was getting to keep

a little piece
of the treasure himself.

LAURENCE: If Eden did accept
Blackbeard’s treasure

as a bribe,
what did he do with it?

Edward Mosley was a rival
of Governor Charles Eden,

and when Mosley
kind of caught whiff

of what Charles Eden was doing
with Blackbeard,

he definitely wanted
to use that against him.

REBECCA:
He outright accused the Governor

of deliberately colluding
with a pirate

for bad purposes,
not to help the community,

but just to help himself.

In retaliation,
Governor Eden arrests Mosley,

fines him £100,

and bars him
from ever holding

any sort of public office
for the next three years.

However, after Blackbeard’s
death in battle,

a letter was found
that vindicates Mosley,

proving that everything
Mosley was accusing

Governor Eden
of doing was true.

LAURENCE: The letter is
written to Blackbeard

from Tobias Knight,

Eden’s secretary
of the Governor’s council.

In the letter to Blackbeard
in Ocracoke,

Governor Eden
wants to set up a meeting,

the purpose of which
was not known.

After Blackbeard is killed,
they actually

find a whole bunch
of his pirate plunder

from the last phase
of his career

in Tobias Knight’s barn,
hidden under a pile of hay,

which didn’t look very good.

REBECCA: The Governor of
Virginia, Alexander Spotswood,

really wants
to get involved in this.

He wants to arrest
Governor Eden, Tobias Knight,

and everybody responsible
of working with Blackbeard.

The problem is, being
the Governor of Virginia

means he has absolutely
no legal jurisdiction

within North Carolina,
so there’s nothing he can do.

Eden spends the next
few years trying to get

what he feels he deserves
from Governor Spotswood.

LAURENCE: Eden claims
Spotswood’s Virginian sailors

illegally invaded North Carolina

to apprehend Blackbeard
and that any plunder

captured on the mission
belongs to him.

Eden dies in 1722.

In his will,
Eden leaves his fortune,

which might be
Blackbeard’s fortune,

to Spotswood’s
political rivals.

MATT: That same year,
Governor Spotswood

was ousted from power.

This might be Blackbeard’s
last act of revenge

against the man who was

most responsible
for seeing him killed.

LAURENCE: For 300 years,

scholars
and treasure hunters alike

have been trying to solve
the mystery

behind Blackbeard’s
missing treasure.

COLIN: We know a lot
about Blackbeard’s movements

throughout his pirate career,

where he attacked ships,
where he hung out,

where he stopped for a time.

But in none of these places

has Blackbeard’s treasure
been found.

LAURENCE:
Some theorists believe

Blackbeard’s first biography
may tell us why.

REBECCA: Captain Charles Johnson
is the author of a book

called "A General History
of the Pirates,"

which was published in 1724,

and it was a smash hit
almost immediately,

because it’s basically
a large collection

of pirate biographies,

all of whom are
of the most famous pirates

out of the golden age of piracy.

No one has really
been able to identify

who Captain Charles Johnson was,

and some authors have said

that he was actually
a pirate himself.

So we have him
as a fairly reliable source.

Johnson interviewed a number

of Blackbeard’s former crewman
for his book

and they told him, uh...
kind of a wild tale.

REBECCA:
According to Blackbeard’s crew,

one day they noticed
a stowaway.

They had no idea who he is,

they have no idea
how he got there

or even how long
he’d been with them.

PATRICK: Even more mysterious,
he disappears

just days after he arrives.

They haven’t docked anywhere.
He just vanishes.

LAURENCE: The crew believe
this is no ordinary stowaway.

The crew says Blackbeard knows
he’s being hunted,

and that he’s likely to die
in the next few days.

They are convinced that stowaway
is the devil himself.

This may sound
like a silly idea,

but the crew doesn’t pull this
out of nowhere.

Blackbeard does exhibit
some very strange behavior

on his final voyage.

REBECCA: It was like his mind
wasn’t fully there.

He’d been saying things
about how he’d been

working with the devil.

It’s like Blackbeard
knew his death was coming,

and it was causing
a sort of madness

that nobody could explain.

One of the examples
of the madness

that Blackbeard’s crew
spoke about

was how Blackbeard took
three members of his crew,

locked them into the hold
and set it on fire.

When he does this, he says,

"Let us make
a hell of our own

and see how long
we can bear it."

The men hold out
as long as they can,

but they cry out
under the intense heat

and the suffocating conditions.

Shortly after that,
some of the crew

asked Blackbeard
if his wife knew

where any of his treasure
may have been hidden.

Blackbeard told them,
"Nobody but myself

and the devil
know where it is."

PATRICK:
After the disappearing stranger,

the unusual rituals
and the comment

about the devil,
the crew is convinced

that Blackbeard
has made a deal with the devil

to hide the treasure.

Not figuratively,
literally.

LAURENCE:
According to Johnson’s book,

Blackbeard is killed

the day after
the alleged brimstone ritual.

Look, devil or not,
the crew believed

Blackbeard had a large amount
of treasure

hidden somewhere
besides his boat.

And I think
that that night,

Blackbeard confirmed it.

Now, this story is
very likely embellished.

It makes
for good entertainment.

It really feeds
on the rumors about Blackbeard,

the legends about Blackbeard
that are coming out

even while he’s alive.

PATRICK: Blackbeard
is an eccentric,

and he’s been through a lot,

and he likes
to put on a show.

Whether the devil story
is true or not,

it doesn’t surprise me
that towards the end

of his life,
Blackbeard has become unhinged.

My suspicion
is that Blackbeard

didn’t really have

a massive treasure cache
at the end of his career.

REBECCA: Blackbeard had
offloaded a lot of it.

He had sold
many of the goods.

He had gathered more,
sold more.

KEVIN: What treasure
there was, probably

ended up in the families
of the crew members

that Blackbeard had sailed with.

COLIN: But I think
for legend makers,

it was irresistible
to have the great pirate

also have
a great treasure.

I just think
it didn’t happen that way,

just because Blackbeard
was... unlucky.

PATRICK:
Who knows? Blackbeard was

the greatest pirate of his time,

and the treasure’s
gotta be somewhere.

I believe it’s out there.

Although the location
of Blackbeard’s

supposed treasure
remains unknown,

the man’s life itself
has proven quite lucrative.

It’s estimated
that the many books, films,

and adaptations of his story
have earned over $2 billion.

Not bad for two years
of work as a pirate.

I’m Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching
"History’s Greatest Mysteries."