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November 24th, 1718

On November 24th in 1718, ‘Calico Jack’ Rackham branded Charles Vane a coward and led a mutiny to depose him as captain. Charles Vane and his crew had left Ocracoke, NC in mid-October, unsuccessful in attempting to recruit Blackbeard to join them in an attempt to retake New Providence from Woodes Rogers and re-establish their pirate republic.

Upon their return to the Caribbean and the Bahamas, they had successfully raided the island of Eleuthera. Inhabited mostly by families, the attack was a swift and complete success, with the pirates pillaging as much liquor and livestock as they could carry away.

Over the next month, historian Colin Woodard states that the pirates “lived riotously onboard, drinking heavily and gorging on freshly slaughtered animals.” While they were busy living to excess, they failed to capture a single prize for almost a month. Their merry revelry soon turned sour.

On the 23rd, Vane’s lookouts spotted a frigate downwind of their position and ordered his brigantine and sloop to bear down on it. As he closed in, he raised the black flag up the mainmast, expecting the ship to surrender.

Instead, the ship hoisted its own colors: a white flag with gold fleur-de-lis. No sooner than Vane realized he was chasing down a French navy vessel, it opened its gun ports and delivered a devastating broadside.

Outgunned, Vane gave the order to turn around and run. The French ship trimmed its sails and gave chase. The majority of the crew, believing that they could close and board the French man-of-war, were furious with the decision but had to abide. Vane, as captain, had absolute power “while fighting, chasing, or being chased.”

The next day the pirates were out of danger and Jack Rackham called a meeting of the ships company in an effort to challenge Vane’s rule. Although a small contingent agreed with Vane, the vast majority voted in favor of deposing him as captain in favor of Rackham.

Vane and his supporters were put aboard the consort sloop with some provisions and ammunition. Rackham, now captain, sailed away toward Jamaica. 

December 5th, 1717

The name "Blackbeard" is born after Henry Bostock and his men have an encounter with Edward Teach off the coast of Anguilla.

Somehow Henry Bostock lived to tell the tale. Then encounter took place on December 5, 1717, when for eight long hours he and his men remained Blackbeard's prisoners, never knowing from one minute to the next whether they would live or die. The attack took place off Crab Island near Anguilla, and for the rest of the day the Queen Anne's Revenge, accompanied by the sloop Revenge, cruised the waters of the Leeward Islands in search of more victims. During that time Bostock had plenty of time to watch Blackbeard in action, and when he wrote his statement for the governor of Barbados two weeks later he was able to describe his nemesis in some detail. In fact, the master of the sloop Margaret was the first to provide a description of the pirate who captured him, and it was he who first came up with the cognomen "Blackbeard."

from the book Blackbeard by Angus Konstam page 154

November 8th, 1718

On the 8th of November, 1718, twenty-nine pirates from the crew of the Revenge, members of pirate Captain Stede Bonnet’s crew, were executed in Charles Town, South Carolina.

The men had been brought as captives back from the Cape Fear River by Colonel William Rhett, along with Captain Bonnet, and since the beginning of the month, the pirates had undergone eleven trials. Found guilty, on November the 8th (a Saturday) the men were hanged until dead “at the White Point near Charles-Town” according to published transcripts from 1719 regarding the event.

”The White Point” at that time referred to a publicly owned site of oyster shoals exposed at low-tide, a landmark visible to all in the harbor; a prime location to ensure the select dangling corpses on display would be seen as a warning to those contemplating a life of piracy. Later in the month, 19 more pirates from the crew of Captain Richard Worley would be hanged here as well, and four and a half weeks later, Captain Stede Bonnet would be hanged at the same location.

Today, White Point Garden sits atop the Battery, which overlooks where “the White Point” once was, and in this location is a memorial marker to those executed nearby.

https://charlestondaily.net/the-story-of-the-pirate-hangings-at-white-point-garden-historic-charleston-sc/

September 7th, 1714

War of the Spanish Succession ; March 1701–September 7, 1714 

When the war ended thousands of "privateer" merchant sailors suddenly became unemployeed when England no longer needed them to wage war against the Spanish in Caribbean.

Left with little options the sailors turned to piracy to sustain themselves.

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The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) was a European conflict stemming from the death of the childless Charles II of Spain, who had no heir, leading to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between the French Bourbons and the Austrian Habsburgs. 

England, the Dutch Republic, and the Holy Roman Empire formed the Grand Alliance to prevent the union of the French and Spanish thrones, supporting the claim of Archduke Charles of Austria (another Habsburg) to the Spanish throne.

The war concluded with the Treaties of Utrecht (1713), Rastatt, and Baden (1714), which recognized Philip of Anjou as King Philip V of Spain, but he had to renounce his claim to the French throne.