Blackbeard's Ghost

Reports are that after 6 years the stamp may have been taken by a confused geocacher.

In 1718 the Royal Governor of Virginia sent Lt. Robert Maynard of the Royal Navy with two ships to North Carolina to hunt down the infamous Blackbeard. In a furious battle off Ocracoke Lt. Maynard did just that, finally slaying the pirate in hand to hand combat after the Blackbeard had suffered five wounds from pistol balls and a further 25 cutlass slashes. Maynard eventually cut the pirate's head from the body and hung it from his ship's bowsp'rit. The headless body was tossed into the waters of Pamlico Sound where, according to some reports, it still managed to swim twice around the ship before sinking.

Directions

The Village of Ocracoke is at the southern end of Ocracoke Island. It can be reached by ferry from Cedar Island or Swan Point, NC or by driving south down the Outer Banks on NC 12, taking the shorter, free ferry from Hatteras Island to Ocracoke Island, and continuing to the southern end of Rte. 12 on the island. Besides the village, the rest of the island is part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, owned by the National Park Service, and unsuitable for letterboxing.

Clue

Lt. Maynard was not the last Royal Navy officer to come to Ocracoke. Many were sent to the Outer Banks more than 200 years later to help patrol against marauding U-boats. Sometimes the U-boats won and the bodies of the Royal Navy officers (when and if recovered) were buried with dignity and honor in "some corner of a foreign field that is forever England." (Robert Brook, 1918)

Find Ocracoke's corner of a foreign field.

Observe the low red brick square wall to the left that protects the Navy's neighbors.

Look behind the back left corner of the brick wall 'neath a loose bricklet or two to find Blackbeard's Ghost, still following the Royal Navy.