On April 12, 1718, Blackbeard made a dramatic show of his ferocity and tenacity as he climbed the ranks of legendary pirates.
As a pirate, Blackbeard would have been very aware of his need to be well armed. It was all well and good to catch another ship, but if you couldn’t overpower them your career as a pirate would be short and unsuccessful.
If you thought this would be a post about Blackbeard’s thought process or piratical tactics... you would be wrong. Instead, this post will discuss arguably one of the most important structural features of Blackbeard’s flagship: the head, or toilet, commonly referred to as the “seat of ease.”
When we think of glass today, we mostly think of something like clear, flat window glass – impervious to water and unchanging across the years. Sure, if someone hits a baseball through it the window will break, but there’s not much you can do to chemically damage the glass itself… right?
Salt is bad for most things; it breaks apart glass and ceramics, corrodes copper alloys, and contributes to the decay of organic materials.
