Blackbeard's Curse - Treasure Island - The adventures of John Storm

Edward Teach, more popularly known as Blackbeard was a pirate, turned privateer and back to pirate.

Blackbeard was inspired by many pirates and privateers before him, one of which was sure to have been Sir Henry Morgan. Before Teach was affiliated with the British Crown against other nations, and then returned to piracy, it is though that he must have buried his loot in traditional pirate fashion. Given that there were no banking facilities for hoards of treasure.

When the infamous Captain Morgan passed away, he left a gap in the market so to speak. Edward Teach grew an enormous black beard, and used the pirate code of the day to secrete his treasure trove on an island known only to pirates at the time. Since it was uncharted. Pirates knew this land mass as Skeleton Island. But only a very few knew where it was. When Lieutenant Robert Maynard tortured Blackbeard, he was unable to get the pirate to reveal the location of his buried stash. Hopeful the stash must be on the Queen Anne's Revenge, Maynard beheaded Blackbeard, after first inflicting some 24 wounds with his sword, trying to learn where his loot was. 

The British Navy Lieutenant then ransacked the Queen Anne's Revenge, looking for gold and gemstones, but found only sugar, cocoa and other perishable cargo. In the process, losing his own, and his crew's right to a percentage bounty for capture of the ship. The British Navy would not have known that an engraving hidden in a secret compartment on the ship, gave the location to Skeleton Island. Neither the Navy, nor Lieutenant Maynard could possibly have guessed that a parchment he found, and kept to himself, was in fact the directions to the buried treasure, without revealing the location of the island it related to. They needed the engraving.

Thus, Blackbeard to took his treasure with him to the grave. As he did so, putting a Voodoo curse on Maynard, his crew and his ancestors, as he died. The parchment was passed from generation to generation, finding its way to Lord James Huntington, in a fictional account leading to another expedition onboard Hispaniola Resurgence. 

Privateers were government-sponsored individuals. They raised their fleet of ships using government money. These privateers regularly attacked Spanish colonies located in and around the Pacific Ocean to plunder their wealth. The respective governing authority of the islands issued a license called a letter of marque to these privateers. This license authorized the privateers to attack and snatch the ships belonging to some specific country. In return, the privateers gave a substantial portion of the loot to the license issuing authority.

Port Royal was the subject of an earthquake and tsunami. The sinful city was sunk beneath the waves, along with the Henry Morgan's grave. One of the few former pirates who also knew the location of buried treasure.

This series of suppositions is the inspiration for a John Storm ocean awareness adventure, featuring the Elizabeth Swann, an artificially intelligent ship, powered by renewable energy.

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