Redbeard

Captain James ''Redbeard'' Teach (1669-1714) was an Irish-Scottish pirate captain who operated in Caribbean Sea during late 17th and early 18th century.

## James Teach

### Aliases

JimmyThatch

Redbeard

Captain

### Relatives

Edward *Blackbeard* TeachUnknown mother

Unknown father

## Early life

Born in 1669, Edinburgh, to a wealthy family, James always wanted to be part of the working class, rather than being part of high society. As soon as he turned 16, his parents banished him from their house and therefore James had to start working to earn a living. He traveled to Newton Stewart, where he worked as a blacksmith's apprentice for two years. In 1689 he met a 'daft-looking Scotsman', as described in his journal, by the name of Alexander Dalzeel, who at the time had some business in the same town. Dalzeel took Teach under his wing and they both went to Belfast.

In Belfast, Dalzeel taught James about moonshining, stealing and piracy. After few months, Dalzeel had to leave for Caribbean and he asked James to join him along. James denied request and decided to stay in Ireland. He met a few pirates and highwaymen during the next year and wished to set out to sea. In 1693 he finally had such chance, when a pirate captain William Kidd hired him on board his ship, *Blessed William.* They all set out for Caribbean a day after.

## Learning the ropes

After they reached Caribbean, James already had been taught many things about vessels and sailing in general. They plundered many prizes and James proved to Kidd as a useful crewmate. He was nicknamed by many aboard the ship as ''Redbeard'' due to him being the only one with red facial hair.

In 1694 there were more and more pirate ships destroyed, due to a certain Man o' war - L'oiseau De Justice, commandeered by a 51-year-old French Admiral, Julian de la Chevalier. Captain Kidd expressed no concern whatsoever and continued raiding the Spanish Main. Few weeks later *Blessed William* was attacked by some French brigs and after they were destroyed, in the smoke, crew noticed remains of other pirate ships in the water, then they saw a shadow of a big Man o' war outside of fog. Everyone knew what this meant - it would be an inescapable battle.

Kidd told James to take the helm, while captain shouted orders, they fought fiercly, but firepower coming from the enemy was two times bigger. Within next seconds they were boarded and Chevalier went after whoever he presumed was the captain at the helm, which happened to be James. There was nothing left to do but for them to fight, it was a battle against a young, inexperienced pirate and a fierce French Admiral. As they fought, a piece of wood flew into James' left eye, causing him to scream in pain. While he was blindfolded, Chevalier took advantage and strook at him, resulting in cutting off James' leg, soon enough he fell overboard, before Chevalier could finish him. Kidd himself was captured with rest and sent to a prison in Port-au-Prince.

James was washed up on the nearest shore and woke up, barely alive. Shortly after, natives found him and took to their village. Patched him up and in few days he woke up.

## Allegiance with Assassins

When James was able to walk again, he was taken to the village leader - Bahlam, who explained what happened and afterwards tested if James was worthy of telling a secret to. After James proved himself worthy, Bahlam asked if he wished to join the Assassin cause - to be a killer, bringing peace to the world, while hiding in the shadows, to stop Templars from making the world a total prison of order. James accepted this request and began his training.

It was harder for him to train, as he was missing an eye and his right leg, both now replaced with an eyepatch and a pegleg. He trained hard and long, getting out on the field when possible. In 1696 he was sent to Kingston, to obtain better means of transportation. There he found a decent crew and was tipped about a powerful merchant brig sailing near - *Red Queen*. James took his crew on 4 rowboats and invaded the brig, deserting its captain and the crew. They came back to Tulum, Assassin Headquarters and Bahlam was happy to see the new ship that James owned. Within time he refitted the guns and installed a prison cell, renamed it to *Red Bounty* and added more of red colour and golden decorations.

With his new ship, James didn't feel the need to contribute to Assassin cause so much anymore, he rather wanted revenge on Chevalier, for what happened 2 years ago. Bahlam noticed James' lack of contribution, therefore James had to explain everything to his mentor. Afterwards Bahlam explained to James about Chevalier's dealings with Templars - he himself didn't know it, but was a Templar puppet, who did everything as they asked and only explanation given to him was, that he was doing it for King and country. James calmed himself and understood, if he was to have his revenge, it would be done by destroying Templar Order in West Indies.

During late 1696, he came back to Tulum after a raid and noticed the the whole village was in smoke. He rushed through it seeing more and more dead bodies until he found Bahlam's dying remains. Bahlam said his last words to James, ordering him to find Shroud of Eden, located somewhere in Caribbean. It's the Shroud that Bahlam had been researching for the past 11 years and still had no more luck than Templars of finding it. James promised that he would find it and then Bahlam died in his hands.

## Becoming Redbeard

As he was going through the dead bodies, James found a knife in one of Assassin's bodies with a Templar cross on it. In that moment James knew it was the work of Templars. Angrier than ever, James went aboard his vessel and set a course for Hispaniola.

For the next month, he and his crew plundered more than they ever had and fastly earned a reputation, showing everyone that pirates still live on and weren't all destroyed by Chevalier and his fleet. Those who survived, described him as a ruthless one-legged and one-eyed man with a fiery red beard. More and more people started calling him Redbeard and he took this character for his own liking. Now he was looked up to by so many new pirates who were inspired by him. Though he might've been rich with reputation of a king and all the ladies by his side, deep inside he had become a cold, heartless man who was secretly searching for the Shroud.

In 1700 he traveled back to Scotland, where before heading to his family home, went to the local tavern, where he met his cousin Edward, who he hadn't met since 1686, so it was quite hard to recognise him at first. At that time Edward was just about to sign up into the Royal Navy, though James didn't like this idea, he didn't protest against it either. His only concern is that he might have to fight against his cousin someday.

Next day he arrived at his family home and there he was greeted by the butler, who didn't recognise him. He met his mother, who felt sorry about throwing James out and it was father's idea in the first place. She told James that father had gone out hunting near northern coast. Shortly after he killed her by chocking to death.

Afterwards he rode on horseback to find his father, who was hunting with some of his old lads. As James met his father, father knew that James had become a pirate with a big reputation and wanted to completely dissown him, even threatened to shoot him or give to the soldiers. James did what he had to do - shot them all down. Years of training had done him good of being able to draw his pistols first.

After killing both his parents, James had taken the last step on becoming a fearless, cold-hearted pirate captain - Redbeard.

## Perfecting the image

In 1702 he had just boarded a ship, when some of the crewmates tried mutinying him, however Quartermaster, with help of other loyal mates, prevented this from happening. After that Redbeard realised that he couldn't trust his own men, so, to ensure that they would always follow his orders to the letter, he had to visit a local of Bayou swamps - Margarita, a strange woman, rumoured to be a witch.

Redbeard went to her with a request, so she could make his crew loyal. In the end she did what she thought the most fitting to do - make the crewmates loyal zombies, this way they wouldn't ever mutiny against him. Redbeard didn't have that in mind but dealt with it. Before he left, Margarita told him that she knows what he is looking for - Shroud of Eden. Redbeard was mad and denied it, Margarita told him that the curse she has put onto his crew can be broken by finding the Shroud and becoming its wielder. She stated that the Shroud has to have an owner, someone who would command it, however it couldn't be wielded by one person for a long time, otherwise the Shroud would corrupt wielder's mind.

Redbeard now understood, that he would have to destroy the Shroud if he ever found it.