PEOPLE IN HISTORY
Is Blackbeard’s Skull in a Museum?
Some people believe that a drinking muglocked in the vaults of a museum in Salem, Massachusetts is made from the skull of Edward Teach, also known as Blackbeard the Pirate. Coated with silver and wrapped in mystery, the artifact was handed over to the Peabody Essex Museum by the family of the celebrated writer Edward R. Snow.
Snow claimed the artifact rested on the mantle of an historic pub in Virginia after it was acquired from Alexander Spotswood, the governor of Virginia who ordered Blackbeard’s capture in 1717. Snow took possession of the skull-mug while in Virginia, researching the story of Blackbeard for a book. His family donated it to the museum after the writer’s death.
Edward Teach’s severed head hangs from Maynard’s bowsprit, as pictured in Charles Elles’s The Pirates Own Book (1837).
Did You Know?
Albert Einstein loved to sail and he sailed his whole life.
Renowned as one of the greatest mathematicians and physicists of all time, by most accounts Einstein was also a terrible sailor! Making a boat go in a particular direction is a very interesting bit of science, so you wouldn’t think he would have had any trouble with it—but you’d be wrong.
What’s the secret to sailing any place you want to go, no matter which way the wind is blowing?
