Qualla: Battle of Cape Fear River

Battle of Cape Fear River: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John Collet, J. Bayly, S. Hooper (Life time: c. 1789 – Collet), Public domain. Stede Bonnet was not supposed to be a pirate. He was a Barbadian planter with a wife, a fortune, and what one contemporary called a disordered mind. Yet in September 1718, he was hiding three armed sloops in the Cape Fear estuary, repairing his flagship with timber salvaged from a captured shallop, when two Carolina sloops appeared at the river mouth. What followed was a five-to-six-hour gun duel stuck on sandbars in shallow water, and it became one of the last great battles of the Golden Age of Piracy.

Image: John Collet, J. Bayly, S. Hooper (Life time: c. 1789 – Collet) | Public domain

Battle of Cape Fear River: The Gentleman Pirate's Refuge

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John Collet, J. Bayly, S. Hooper (Life time: c. 1789 – Collet), Public domain. Bonnet had sailed up from the Delaware Bay in August 1718. His flagship was the Royal James, his own sloop renamed from its original name Revenge, mounting eight cannons. Two other sloops, Francis and Fortune, carried similar armament. Forty-six pirates crewed the squadron. The R...

Image: John Collet, J. Bayly, S. Hooper (Life time: c. 1789 – Collet) | Public domain

Battle of Cape Fear River: Colonel Rhett's Hunt

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John Collet, J. Bayly, S. Hooper (Life time: c. 1789 – Collet), Public domain. Johnson did not have Royal Navy crews at his disposal. He had Colonel William Rhett, two eight-gun sloops named Henry and Sea Nymph, and 130 locally raised sailors from Charleston. They reached the Cape Fear River estuary on the night of September 26, 1718. The pirates spotted th...

Image: John Collet, J. Bayly, S. Hooper (Life time: c. 1789 – Collet) | Public domain

Battle of Cape Fear River: Six Hours on the Sandbars

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John Collet, J. Bayly, S. Hooper (Life time: c. 1789 – Collet), Public domain. At daylight, Bonnet raised his colors and attacked. The pirates sailed within range, then opened fire with cannon and muskets. The Carolinians returned fire and tried to maneuver. Both sides ran aground. Bonnet steered close to the western shore and his ships also went hard onto ...

Image: John Collet, J. Bayly, S. Hooper (Life time: c. 1789 – Collet) | Public domain

Battle of Cape Fear River: When the Tide Came In

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John Collet, J. Bayly, S. Hooper (Life time: c. 1789 – Collet), Public domain. Casualties mounted on Henry. After five hours the Carolinians had suffered 30 casualties to the pirates' nine killed or wounded. Then the water came back. Rhett's sloops, downstream, floated free first while Bonnet's ships stayed stranded. The Carolinians repaired their rigging, ...

Image: John Collet, J. Bayly, S. Hooper (Life time: c. 1789 – Collet) | Public domain

Battle of Cape Fear River: The End of an Era

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John Collet, J. Bayly, S. Hooper (Life time: c. 1789 – Collet), Public domain. Stede Bonnet's hanging closed a chapter that Blackbeard's death at Ocracoke a month earlier had also helped end. The Royal Navy and colonial militias had spent years chasing pirates across the Caribbean and the American coast, and the Battle of Cape Fear River, sometimes called t...

Image: John Collet, J. Bayly, S. Hooper (Life time: c. 1789 – Collet) | Public domain