What did Blackbeard the Pirate really look like?

Blackbeard is a name we all seem to know, gone down in history as one of most legendary pirates of all time. But what do we know about the man behind the flaming beard? Who was he? What did he look like? Today we’ll use contemporary sources to decipher what the legendary pirate could have really looked like.

Watch the full video on YouTube for more history and re-creations.

Blackbeard, as pictured within Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates.

Contrary to what you might think, Blackbeard (real name Edward Thatch) didn’t love violence. He relied on his reputation, rather than his actual deeds, to inspire fear in his enemies. Oftentimes ships would surrender immediately upon seeing Blackbeard and his crew, that’s how intimidating he must have looked, which made him really fun to research and re-create. 

While it makes sense that we don’t have any formal portraits of Blackbeard - it wasn’t the type of thing most pirates valued or took the time to do - we do have a few descriptions of the man. 

The captain of one of the commandeered ships, Henry Bostock, was held captive by Blackbeard and his men while they ransacked his ship, removing the cargo. He had a long time to observe this famous pirate, with a fearsome reputation, but he said surprisingly little about him.

Bostock says:

Blackbeard was “A tall spare man with a very black beard which he wore very long.”

That’s the only confirmed eyewitness description of Blackbeard, and it doesn’t include any of the embellishments that later authors typically add. 

The more colorful descriptions come from a writer who went by the pen name “Captain Charles Johnson” - whose real name and identity has stymied scholars for centuries. His book, the “General Hystory of Pirates” includes a huge amount of detail on specific pirates, which leads many to believe he may have been a pirate in a past life, later writing on his adventures. 

But since we don’t know who he is, and he was writing after Thatch’s death, we need to take his commentary with a grain of salt.

He wrote that Thatch had a very black beard (naturally) which was extremely thick and long, almost coming up to his eyes and covering much of his face. Blackbeard would twist it into braids and add small ribbons to tie the ends, almost in a mockery of European wigs. 

Johnson says he was “He wore knee-length boots and dark clothing, topped with a wide hat and sometimes a long coat of brightly coloured silk or velvet.” And that he carried bandoleers with pistols and knives across his chest or waist. 

He also mentions the piece of lore that Blackbeard would wear lit fuses under his hat, to frighten his enemies.

So what do we know about what historic Pirates from the time would wear? Does it match up with what Johnson is saying here? For the most part, yes!

“Real” pirate attire probably looked more like this.

Although we think of pirates as dressing kind of flamboyantly, they were first and foremost sailors, so their clothing would reflect that. Daily clothing of the crew would be a simple linen shirt, a neckscarf to protect from water and wind, a waistcoat, and baggy trousers that could be rolled up while wading in water or climbing ashore. 

A lot of the jackets or coats they would wear were similar to what we would think of as a 1700s soldier’s work jacket.

Captains, like Blackbeard, had a little more freedom with what they wore since they weren’t responsible for the day to day ship tasks. Bartholomew Roberts, a famous pirate known as Black Bart, was known for his red silk coat and matching waistcoat. 

Despite pirates' reputation for wearing gold earrings and jewelry, it was super impractical on a ship, so it probably didn’t happen.

Interestingly, some pirate captains actually would wear the typical 18th century court wigs, which shows them more as gentlemen caring for their appearance than we might think.

So, we don’t have an actual reference for Blackbeard’s facial features, but we can create an artistic image of him showing what he would have worn and looked like based on descriptions. 

He would be in his late 30s during his glory days as a pirate. I would imagine he would look quite weathered, with quite a bit of sun damage. He probably wasn’t as crazy looking as later descriptions make him seem, so I’m trying to kind of thread the needle between the practical clothing we know sailors wore, and the descriptions of the man himself.

So let’s take a look at what Blackbeard might have looked like, now:

I wanted to point out some details I added to this re-creation. First, some historic Royal Navy gold jacket buttons. Most of the clothing Blackbeard wore would probably have been taken from sailors or captains on conquered ships. I’d imagine a royal navy jacket was common to come by. I couldn’t find the actual buttons from the 1700s, but I used some from a few decades later. Same with this real royal navy dagger I included, which was a little after his time but still a good example.