SHIPS BEWARE
You’d run the other way, if you heard that Blackbeard was coming.
Blackbeard was a cruel pirate from England. His real name was Edward
Teach. He had black hair and a long black beard. That’s why he came to
be known as Blackbeard.
He and his crew used to sail up and down the coasts of the Carolinas and
Virginia. They attacked any ship that came into sight. They stole cargo
and scared the wits out of the people, especially those who lived along
the coasts.
Finally, a governor ordered his men to get Blackbeard dead or alive.
Blackbeard was caught off the coast of North Carolina and killed. That
same coast in North Carolina, where Blackbeard was killed, is now called
Cape Hatteras Recreation Area. The cape has sun, sand, the Atlantic
Ocean, and good fishing. That’s why people go on vacation there.
Ships that sail along the coast no longer fear the pirate ships. But
they still have to be careful. Hundreds of ships have been wrecked in
the shallow waters oft the tip of Cape Hatteras.
Today, a tall candy-striped lighthouse that was built long ago still
stands on the cape. Its light warns ships away from this graveyard of
the Atlantic where Blackbeard died.
