Chris Cassady, age 11, of Irvine, Calif., for his question:

WHO WAS BLACKBEARD THE PIRATE?

A few, a very few, of history's noted pirates later reformed and lived useful lives. But most of them were backward barbarians, unable to adjust to civilized society. Certainly the bloodthirsty clown known as Blackbeard was a backward type. The American Colonists got so fed up with his outrageous atrocities that they hunted him down and stuck his head on a pole  beard and all.

The brutal career of Blackbeard the pirate lasted only a few years. Very little is known about his early life, though we do know that he took advantage of troubled times when most of Europe was engaged in warfare. It seems that his first name was Edward. His family name was either Teach, Thatch or Thach. He was born either in Bristol, England, or in Port Royal, Jamaica, though no one knows the date.

His known history began in the West Indies when, or soon after, the War of the Spanish Succession came to an end in 1714. At that time, he was one of a swarm of pirates plundering the shipping of the region. Much of this problem was solved when King George I of England offered pardons, and many pirates took advantage of this amnesty and returned to normal life as useful citizens.

But not Blackbeard. With his crew of bloodthirsty cutthroats, he left the Bahamas in his pirate ship The Queen Anne's Revenge. They sailed to the coast of the Carolinas, where they skulked in coves and plundered all passing ships. The few survivors of his murderous attacks describe him as a barbaric clown.

After two years of this reign of terror, the outraged Colonists dispatched HMS Pearl to hunt him down. On Nov. 21, 1718, the pirate ship was cornered and captured near Ocracoke Inlet, N.C. Blackbeard's crew of ruffians were tried, convicted and hanged in Williamsburg, Va. Blackbeard himself was killed and his head displayed on a post.

History has glamorized some of the pirates of old and indeed some of them later became worthy citizens. But there was nothing glamorous in the career of Blackbeard.  For one thing, he was famed as a clownish bully. He wore his long black beard in braids tied with ribbons. He put lighted matches in his hat to add a smoky haze around his fiendish face and terror to his fiendish shrieks.

Apparently Blackbeard's barbaric crew also feared him, for he boasted that he had to control them with rum. When things were quiet aboard his ship, he lit sulfur bombs and fired his pistols under tables and into dark corners just for fun. Blackbeard was indeed a clownish bully.