“Not as far as known,” replied Mr. Bickford. “It is true that there is an ancient tower-like building above the town of Charlotte Amalia at St. Thomas, and which is called ‘Blackbeard’s Castle,’ and that the natives claim it was once the home of the noted pirate. But there is also a similar edifice known as ‘Bluebeard’s Castle’ on a neighboring hilltop. It’s just about as probable that old Bluebeard lived in one as that Blackbeard dwelt in the other. No doubt Blackbeard visited St. Thomas, but there is not a bit of historical data to prove he ever lived there. It’s a shame to destroy the island’s claim to association with the notorious old pirate, but as a matter of record his so-called castle was built by Charles Baggaert, a Dane, about 1660. To be sure, that would not have prevented it from being used by Blackbeard, for he lived at a much later date, but Blackbeard’s favorite haunts were the Bahamas and the coasts of the Carolinas, and he would have had no earthly reason for stopping ashore at St. Thomas. However, whatever the truth of his ‘castle’ may be, the rest of Blackbeard’s life story is well known and is substantiated by historical records. “Blackbeard’s real name was Edward Teach and, like many another pirate and sea rover, he was a native of Bristol, England. Had Teach been born a few years earlier no doubt he would have become a famous buccaneer and a dangerous rival of Morgan and his fellows, but Master Teach came into the world after buccaneering as a profession had fallen into disrepute. Hence it fell to his lot to become an ordinary seaman on honest merchant ships, which was far from satisfactory to the ambitions of young Teach. As a result, when his ship dropped anchor in Jamaica, one day in 1716, Teach promptly deserted and, falling in with a number of questionable characters, joined their company in a pirating venture. “Evidently the embryo pirate believed thoroughly in the old adage that ‘what’s worth doing at all is worth doing well,’ and he threw himself heart and soul into his chosen profession. Efficiency seemed to be his middle name, to use a slang expression, and within two years from the time he deserted the merchant service he had risen to the very highest pinnacle as a pirate chieftain. In fact, I might go further and, without exaggeration or question, say that within that short period Teach had become the world’s greatest pirate, a pirate never equaled or excelled for pure devilish bloodthirstiness and villainy, and, if the facts were known, most of the lurid stories and the romances of piracy have been founded on the deeds of Blackbeard. Even the popular conception of much-maligned Kidd is based on Blackbeard, for he was the culmination of piratical scoundrelism, the ideal pirate of blood-and-thunder fiction, the most highly depraved cutthroat who ever walked a ship’s decks.