Pirates

 Gulf Stream - For nearly 400 years, Spanish treasure hunters traveled in the Gulf Stream current.  The hurricanes and rocky shores wrecked many of their ships.  Modern treasure hunters think that about 1/8 of that Spanish treasure still lies on the ocean floor below the Gulf Stream. 

Blackbeard  

Blackbeard was a cruel, bloodthirsty pirate from England.  His real name was Edward Teach.  He had black hair and a long black beard and so became known as Blackbeard. 

He and his crew used to sail up and down the coasts of the Carolinas and Virginia.  They attacked any ship that came into sight, stealing cargo and frightening people. 

Finally, a governor ordered his men to get Blackbeard dead or alive.  Blackbeard was caught off the coast of North Carolina and killed.  This same coastline is called Cape Hatteras and it is an area where hundreds of ships have been wrecked in its shallow waters.  It is sometimes called the Graveyard of the Atlantic because so many ships have been wrecked there.

Ships that sail along the coast no longer fear the pirate ships, but they still have to be careful.  Today, a tall candy-striped lighthouse that was built long ago still stands on the cape to warn ships away from this graveyard of the Atlantic where Blackbeard died.