Owen Roberts, pirate carpenter in the Queen Ann's Revenge.

It's possible Owen was 'taken' by Blackbeard for his skills as a carpenter. He was probably a Welsh speaker too so that alone would have made him valuable to Blackbeard since there were so many Welsh pirates he might be useful as an interpreter in negotiations.

Owen would have been presented an option, join willingly or be abducted and if abduction was his choice, his life aboard would have been pitiful.We can't tell Owen's story without recalling Blackbeard (Edward Teach) since it is he that history has chiefly noted.

Now Blackbeard who was unprincipled, even for a pirate, eventually commanded three vessels and he wanted to get rid of his crews to keep all the booty for himself and a few chosen friends. To this end he contrived to wreck his own vessel and one of his sloops. Then with his friends and all the booty he sailed off, leaving the rest of the crewmen marooned on a small sandy island. Obviously Owen Roberts was not one of the men left behind but then it could be that Roberts had not yet joined their party since Teach was to make his presence felt along that coast for some time to come. Roberts may have joined the crew in North Carolina because after this action Teach sailed there and with the greatest coolness surrendered with twenty of his men to the Governor, Charles Eden.

He received the Royal pardon and spent the next few weeks in cultivating an intimate friendship with the Governor, who, no doubt, shared Teach's booty with him.

For several months, Blackbeard (and carpenter Roberts of course) remained in and around the Pamlico Sound exacting a toll from all the shipping, often going ashore to make merry at the expense of the local planters. At length, things became so unbearable that the citizens and planters sent a request to the Governor of the neighbouring colony of Virginia for help to rid them of the presence of Teach. The Governor, Spotswood, an energetic man, at once made plans for taking the pirate, and commissioned a gallant young naval officer, Lieutenant Robert Maynard, of H.M.S. Pearl, to go in a sloop, the Ranger (not be confused with Black Bart's ship), in search of him.

On November 17th 1718, the lieutenant sailed for Kicquetan in the James River, and on the 21st arrived at the mouth of Okerecock Inlet, where he discovered the pirate he was in search of. Blackbeard would have been caught unprepared had not his friend, Mr. Secretary Knight, hearing what was on foot, sent a letter warning him to be on his guard, and also any of Teach's crew whom he could find in the taverns of Bath Town.

Maynard lost no time in attacking the pirate's ship, which had run aground. The fight was furious, Teach boarding the sloop and a terrific hand-to-hand struggle taking place, the lieutenant and Teach fighting with swords and pistols. Teach was wounded in twenty-five places before he fell dead, while the lieutenant escaped with nothing worse than a cut over the fingers.

The fighting must have continued after Blackbeard's death because Owen Roberts piratical career ended the following day, the November 22nd. The exploits of this notorious party has and continues to be the foundation for hundreds of books, songs and Hollywood movies not least, Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean".

connection: Was known to be a Welshman.

comment by: MalcolmX
Killed the day after Blackbeared.

Related information...

Henry Morgan, Buccaneers, Freebooters and Pirates.

David Williams, Buccaneers, Freebooters and Pirates.

the Hump Murray, Wrong side of the law.

John Callice, Buccaneers, Freebooters and Pirates.

Black Bart, Buccaneers, Freebooters and Pirates.

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