"The de'il shall not get him any sooner than can be helped," he said to himself, and he hammered and sawed with the rest of them.
On his stout and well-armed sloop the Henry, Mr.William Rhett, of Charles Town, South Carolina, paced anxiously all night.

Frequently from the sand-bar on which his vessel was grounded he called over to his other sloop, also fast grounded, giving orders and asking questions.

On both vessels everybody was at work, getting ready for action when the tide should rise.
Some weeks before the wails and complaints of a tortured sea-coast had come down from the Jersey shores to South Carolina, asking for help at the only place along that coast whence help could come.

A pirate named Thomas was working his way southward, spreading terror before him and leaving misery behind.

These appeals touched the hearts of the people of Charles Town, already sore from the injuries and insults inflicted upon them by Blackbeard in those days when Bonnet sat silently on the pirate ship, doing nothing and learning much.
There was no hesitancy; for their own sake and for the sake of their commerce, this new pirate must not come to Charles Town harbour, and an expedition of two vessels, heavily armed and well manned and commanded by Mr.William Rhett, was sent northward up the coast to look for the pirate named Thomas and to destroy him and his ship.