Blackbeard vs Black Bart: Queen Anne's Revenge and Royal Fortune Compared

During the golden twilight of Atlantic piracy between 1716 and 1722, two men commanded warships so heavily armed that they rivaled Royal Navy sixth-rate frigates. Edward Teach, universally known as Blackbeard, commanded Queen Anne's Revenge, a converted French slave transport that terrorized the Caribbean and the North American seaboard. Bartholomew Roberts, remembered as "Black Bart," commanded a succession of formidable flagships christened Royal Fortune, culminating in a captured French warship that anchored an outlaw battle squadron off the coast of West Africa.

Popular culture frequently lumps these two corsairs together under generic pirate tropes. In reality, Teach and Roberts stood at opposite philosophical and tactical extremes. Blackbeard was a theatrical psychological terror-tactician whose power rested on sensory dread and intimidation. Roberts was an austere, teetotaling Welsh navigator whose authority stemmed from naval discipline, swift gunnery, and overwhelming firepower.

By examining the architectural dimensions, artillery batteries, operational histories, and ultimate fates of Queen Anne's Revenge and the final Royal Fortune, modern historians can uncover how naval power was truly projected outside the law during the Golden Age of Piracy.

Origin and Naval Architecture: Slaver vs. Purpose-Built Warship

The structural foundations of both flagships dictated how their captains fought at sea. Neither ship was built in a pirate shipyard; both were captured prizes adapted through extensive shipwright carpentry.

Queen Anne's Revenge: The Converted Slaver

• Original Identity: Built in 1710 at Nantes, France, as the merchant vessel La Concorde, an armed slave transport operating on the triangular trade between West Africa and the Caribbean.
• Tonnage and Dimensions: Archival records and archaeological surveys indicate a burthen of about 200 tons (with historical estimates ranging between 200 and 300 tons depending on French vs. English measurement formulas). She measured roughly 100 feet in length with a wide beam designed to maximize cargo hold capacity.
• Hull Characteristics: Her broad beam and deep draft made her stable in rough seas, but relatively sluggish when chasing nimble coastal craft. However, her thick French white oak hull timbers provided exceptional protection against small-arms fire and roundshot.
• The Outlaw Refit: Captured by Teach and Benjamin Hornigold off Saint Vincent in November 1717, the pirates cut additional gunports through her bulwarks, transforming a 14-to-16-gun merchant transport into a formidable floating fortress. Explore our complete database of verified famous pirate ships for detailed architectural records.

Royal Fortune (Final Flagship): The Converted French Warship

• The Succession of Names: Roberts did not sail a single Royal Fortune. He christened three successive prizes with the name:

1. An armed French brigantine taken off Newfoundland in 1720, mounting 10 to 18 guns.
2. A 28-gun prize captured off Saint Kitts in the Leeward Islands.
3. The Onslow, a French prize taken near Cape Lopez and reinforced with forty carriage guns.

• Tonnage and Lines: The final Royal Fortune (the former Onslow) measured between 150 and 250 tons burthen across her decks. Unlike the bulbous hull of La Concorde, Onslow possessed clean, raked lines designed for naval pursuit and convoy escort.
• Flush-Deck Speed: Her flush decks and finer waterlines provided superior maneuverability and chase speed compared to Blackbeard's converted slaver, allowing Roberts to overhaul fast merchant ships in open ocean swells. Read our technical breakdown of historical types of pirate ships to compare frigates, sloops, and galleons.

Artillery Comparison: Guns, Broadside Weight, and Tactical Doctrine

Popular folklore exaggerates the cannon batteries of both vessels. Hollywood films depict pirate ships bristling with seventy cannons, while regional legends frequently claim Roberts commanded 52 guns. Archival records and underwater archaeology tell a more realistic, yet equally terrifying, story.

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Artillery Comparison Baseline:

• Queen Anne's Revenge: Roughly 40 carriage guns (31 archaeologically recovered)
• Royal Fortune (Final): 40 to 42 carriage guns (verified by HMS Swallow logbooks)

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Blackbeard's Firepower: The Theater of Terror

Historical documents record that Blackbeard mounted roughly 40 cannons aboard Queen Anne's Revenge. State marine archaeologists with North Carolina's Queen Anne's Revenge Shipwreck Project have methodically excavated the wreck site at Beaufort Inlet since 1996, recovering 31 iron carriage cannons to date.

The battery was a motley assortment of British, French, and Swedish ordnance:

• Main Deck Battery: 6-pounder and 4-pounder long guns capable of punching through commercial oak bulwarks at 300 yards.
• Quarterdeck and Swivel Guns: Light 1/2-pounder and 1-pounder swivel guns mounted on rail stanchions, loaded with musket balls, scrap iron, and lead bag-shot for clearing enemy decks.
• Tactical Doctrine: Blackbeard rarely fired full broadsides. His strategy relied on firing a single warning shot, closing to point-blank range, and terrifying the merchant crew into striking their colors before blood was spilled. Lit cannon matches smoldered in his braided black beard, creating a halo of sulfurous smoke that made him appear like an emissary from the abyss.

Black Bart's Firepower: Lethal Broadside Efficiency

Bartholomew Roberts favored professional naval doctrine over theatrical display. When his crew refitted the Onslow into the final Royal Fortune, they mounted between 40 and 42 carriage cannons.

The myth of the "52-gun Royal Fortune" arose from eighteenth-century broadsheets conflating Roberts' personal flagship with the combined armament of his three-ship squadron (which included the consort sloops Ranger and Little Ranger). The official battle log written by Captain Chaloner Ogle of HMS Swallow following their fatal engagement in 1722 confirms Royal Fortune mounted 40 to 42 guns.

• Main Deck Battery: A unified battery of 6-pounder and 8-pounder long guns arranged along continuous gun decks.
• Disciplined Gunnery: Roberts trained his gun crews through rigorous naval drills. Unlike Blackbeard's undisciplined carousing, Roberts' men maintained strict watches and fired disciplined, rolling broadsides that shattered hulls and brought down masts with terrifying precision.

Crew Complements, Articles, and Shipboard Governance

A warship is only as effective as the men who work its yards and man its gun tackles. Teach and Roberts managed their crews using radically different social contracts.

Blackbeard's Motley Confederacy

• Crew Size: At the height of his power during the blockade of Charleston in May 1718, Blackbeard commanded between 150 and 300 outlaws spread across Queen Anne's Revenge and three consort sloops (including Bonnet's The Revenge).
• Social Atmosphere: Blackbeard's crew was a boisterous fraternity of former privateers, runaway indentured servants, and freed Black mariners. He governed through charismatic authority and sudden bursts of violent theater—such as locking himself in the hold with burning sulfur pots to see who could endure the fumes longest. Discover how captains were elected in our guide to pirate captain names and leadership.

Roberts' Puritanical Fleet Democracy

• Crew Size: Roberts commanded roughly 150 to 250 European sailors and an estimated 50 to 80 African crew members on his flagship, with another 150 men manning his consort vessels.
• The Roberts Articles: While Blackbeard ruled through personality, Roberts governed through one of the strictest legal codes in maritime history:

1. Every man had an equal vote in affairs of moment and equal title to fresh provisions and strong liquors.
2. Gambling with cards or dice was strictly forbidden for money.
3. All candles and lights had to be extinguished by eight o'clock at night; drinking after that hour occurred only on the open deck.
4. Musicians enjoyed rest on the Sabbath day only; on all other days, they played by crew demand.
5. Women were strictly forbidden aboard; smuggling a woman in disguise carried the penalty of immediate death.
6. Quarrels between crew members were settled ashore with pistols and cutlasses under the quartermaster's supervision. Explore the formal duties of shipboard officers in our pirate crew roles guide.

Operational History: Charleston Blockade vs. African Atlantic Sweep

The operational scope of both flagships demonstrated the unprecedented heights of pirate ambition during the Golden Age.

Blackbeard and the Blockade of Charleston (May 1718)

The strategic climax of Queen Anne's Revenge occurred off the coast of South Carolina in May 1718. Commanding a fleet of four vessels centered on his 40-gun flagship, Blackbeard dropped anchor across the shallow entrance sandbars of Charleston Harbor.

For over a week, Blackbeard halted all maritime commerce entering or leaving the colony. He seized eight merchant vessels and captured prominent local citizens, holding them hostage aboard Queen Anne's Revenge. His demand was not gold or silver, but a chest of medicines to treat his crew's rampant venereal diseases and tropical ailments. When the colonial council delivered the medicine chest, Blackbeard released the hostages unharmed and sailed northward toward North Carolina.

Roberts and the West African Slaver Sweep (1721–1722)

While Blackbeard operated primarily in the Caribbean and along the Atlantic coast, Roberts conducted a transatlantic campaign of staggering scale. Over a three-year career, Roberts and his squadron took an estimated 400 merchant prizes.

In January 1722, Roberts sailed Royal Fortune into the slave-trading harbor of Whydah (Ouidah) on the African coast. Eleven heavily armed French and English slave ships lay at anchor. At the sight of Royal Fortune's black flags and 40-gun broadside, every single merchant vessel surrendered without firing a shot. Roberts levied a ransom of eight pounds of gold dust per ship, burning one recalcitrant vessel to the waterline when its captain refused to pay.

Comprehensive Flagship Comparison Matrix

The table below provides a side-by-side comparison of verified historical dimensions, armaments, and operational records for both flagships:

Final Fates: The Sandbar Marooning vs. The Grapeshot Duel

The loss of both flagships marked the beginning of the end for the Golden Age of Piracy. In both cases, the demise of the vessel sealed the fate of its captain within months.

The Grounding of Queen Anne's Revenge (June 1718)

In June 1718, following the Charleston blockade, Teach sailed his squadron toward Beaufort Inlet (Topsail Inlet) in North Carolina. While attempting to enter the harbor, Queen Anne's Revenge struck an outer sandbar and grounded hard. A consort sloop, Adventure, attempted to pull her off but grounded alongside her.

Most maritime historians, including Angus Konstam and David Cordingly, conclude that Blackbeard grounded the flagship deliberately. The fleet had grown too large, containing over 300 men. By scuttling his flagship, Teach was able to maroon forty crew members on a deserted sandspit, take the plundered gold and medicine aboard a smaller sloop, and accept a royal pardon from North Carolina Governor Charles Eden. Five months later, on November 22, 1718, Teach was cornered and killed in Ocracoke Inlet by Lieutenant Robert Maynard of the Royal Navy.

The Naval Duel of Royal Fortune (February 10, 1722)

Bartholomew Roberts met his end in a thunderous broadside duel. On the morning of February 10, 1722, Royal Fortune lay at anchor off Cape Lopez (modern Gabon), alongside her consort Little Ranger. The crew had captured a merchant prize the day before and many men were drunk on captured wine.

A British 50-gun fourth-rate warship, HMS Swallow, commanded by Captain Chaloner Ogle, rounded the cape. Roberts dressed in his finest combat attire—a rich crimson damask waistcoat, a gold chain with a diamond cross around his neck, and a sword in his hand—and ordered the anchor cabled slipped.

Roberts attempted to sail past the Swallow, exchange broadsides, and escape into the open Atlantic. As Royal Fortune drew abreast of the warship, the Swallow unleashed a devastating broadside of grapeshot. A spray of iron balls tore through Roberts' throat, killing him instantly.

In accordance with his standing orders, his weeping crew threw his body overboard with his arms and ornaments intact so the Royal Navy could not hang his corpse in chains. Demoralized by their captain's death, the pirate crew surrendered after a three-hour engagement. Over fifty of Roberts' crew were hanged at Cape Coast Castle, marking the definitive military suppression of Atlantic piracy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which ship was larger: Queen Anne's Revenge or Royal Fortune?

Queen Anne's Revenge was heavier in displacement and displacement tonnage (about 200 tons burthen with a wide, deep cargo hold built for transatlantic slave transport). The final Royal Fortune was slightly lighter (around 150 to 250 tons), but featured longer, sleeker hull lines that granted her superior ocean sailing speed.

Did Bartholomew Roberts really command a 52-gun pirate ship?

No. Historical records from the British Admiralty (specifically Captain Chaloner Ogle's logbook from HMS Swallow) confirm that the final Royal Fortune mounted 40 to 42 carriage cannons. Popular legends of a 52-gun flagship arose from conflating the guns of Roberts' flagship with the combined armament of his consort sloops.

Why did Blackbeard intentionally ground Queen Anne's Revenge?

Historians agree that Blackbeard grounded the ship at Beaufort Inlet to downsize his crew and concentrate his wealth. With over 300 pirates in his fleet, dividing plunder would have yielded small shares for everyone. By stranding his heavy flagship, Teach took the bulk of the gold aboard a smaller sloop, abandoned dozens of men on an island, and sought a legal pardon with a handful of trusted confidants.

Are artifacts from both ships on display in museums today?

Artifacts from Queen Anne's Revenge are on display at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, North Carolina, following decades of excavation by state archaeologists. The final Royal Fortune was taken as a naval prize to West Africa and later sold into commercial service; no archaeological remains of Roberts' flagship have ever been discovered.

Sources and Further Reading

• North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Queen Anne's Revenge Shipwreck Project. qaronline.org. (Archaeological field reports and comprehensive cannon excavation catalogs).
• The National Archives (UK): Admiralty 1/1472 Dispatch of Captain Chaloner Ogle, HMS Swallow.
• Royal Museums Greenwich: Bartholomew Roberts and Royal Navy Admiralty Battle Records.
• Sanders, Richard. If a Pirate I Must Be: The True Story of "Black Bart," Bartholomew Roberts. Aurum Press, 2007. (Definitive biographical and archival study of Roberts' fleet operations).
• Konstam, Angus. Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate. John Wiley & Sons, 2006. (Exhaustive examination of Teach's naval tactics and the Beaufort Inlet grounding).
• Cordingly, David. Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates. Random House, 1995. (Comparative analysis of Golden Age pirate vessels and command structures).