Blackbeard, what the hell?

>The Inquisition’s brutality was institutional. The pirates’ was often just insane. One buccaneer, Raveneau de Lussan, recounted that captives were often ordered to throw dice for their lives; whoever lost, lost his head. >[Blackbeard](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Edward_Teach_Commonly_Call%27d_Black_Beard_%28bw%29.jpg) took this management philosophy to a new level. The pirate commander was once drinking in his cabin with the pilot and another man. Without any provocation he drew his pistols underneath the table, cocked them, blew out the candle, crossed his hands, and fired the guns. One of the men was shot through the knee and lamed for life, while the other escaped shaken but unhurt. >Blackbeard did not have any quarrel with either man, which naturally led one of them to ask him why he’d shot them. “He only answered by damning them, *that if he did not now and then kill one of them, they would forget who he was*.” [Emphasis in the original.] _______________________________ **Source:** Talty, Stephan. “The Art of Cruelty.” *Empire of Blue Water: Captain Morgan’s Great Pirate Army, the Epic Battle for the Americas, and the Catastrophe That Ended the Outlaws’ Bloody Reign*. New York: Crown Publishing Group (NY), 2007. 94. Print. _______________________________ **Further Reading:** [Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición (Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition) / Inquisición Española (Spanish Inquisition)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition) [Raveneau de Lussan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raveneau_de_Lussan) [Edward Teach / Edward Thatch / Blackbeard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbeard)