Israel Hands
18th-century pirate
Israel Hands, also known as Basilica Hands, was an 18th-century pirate best known for being second in command to Edward Teach (c. 1680 – 22 November 1718), better known as Blackbeard. His name serves as the basis for the name of the villainous sidekick in Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 novel Treasure Island.
Biography
Hands' first historical mention was in 1718, when Blackbeard gave him command of David Herriot's ship Adventure after Herriot was captured by Teach in March 1718. During the winter of 1717–1718, Blackbeard harassed shipping to and from the port of Vera Cruz, Mexico and traversing the Bay of Honduras. On the 4th or 5th of April 1718, at Turneffe Atoll, Blackbeard captured the ten-gun log-cutting sloop Adventure and forced captain Herriot to join him. Also on board was Edward Robinson, the ship's gunner, who would later be involved in the Battle of Cape Fear River. Blackbeard made Israel Hands captain of the Adventure and began sailing for North Carolina. In June 1718, Teach ran his flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, aground at Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina. He requested assistance from Hands with the Adventure in an effort to kedge the Queen Anne's Revenge off the bar. However, the Adventure also grounded and was abandoned.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1979876. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1680, 1718, 1883 and 1717.
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This entry incorporates text from “Israel Hands” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.