According to a North Carolina Historic Marker posted at the site, but not seen during my visit:
"Stede Bonnet 1688-1718
?Barbadian planter turned pirate made N.C. his base, 1718. Captured in naval battle few mi. E. Hanged in Charleston."
-----
Stede Bonnet, the "Gentleman Pirate", used the mouth of this creek as a hideout for his vessel, the "Royal James", formerly called "Revenge". Here, on September 26, 1718, the great "Battle of the Sand Burs" was fought between the pirates and the men sent to capture them under the command of Col William Rhett aboard the "Henry" and "Sea Nymph". After a twenty-four hour battle there were 19 men killed, 23 wounded, and Bonnet, with the remains of his pirate crew, surrendered. On November 8, 1718, twenty-nine of the pirates were hanged in Charleston, SC. A few weeks later, holding a cluster of flowers in his mangled hands, Gentleman Steele Bonnet met the same fate on the gallows.
This part of the Cape Fear was a favorite meeting-place for pirates, including the notorious Blackbeard and Mark anne Blythe, the woman buccaneer.
-----
A link to the Wikipedia article on Stede.
Stede Bonnet - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
--
Stede Bonnet (c. 1688 – December 10, 1718) was an early 18th-century Barbadian pirate, sometimes called "the gentleman pirate" because he was a moderately wealthy landowner before turning to a life of crime. Bonnet was born into a wealthy English family on the island of Barbados, and inherited the family estate after his father's death in 1694. In 1709, he married Mary Allamby, and engaged in some level of militia service. Because of marital problems, and despite his lack of sailing experience, Bonnet decided to turn to piracy in the summer of 1717. He bought a sailing vessel, named it Revenge, and traveled with his paid crew along the Eastern Seaboard of what is now the United States, capturing other vessels and burning other Barbadian ships.
In August 1718, Bonnet anchored the Royal James on an estuary of the Cape Fear River to careen and repair the ship. In late August and September, Colonel William Rhett, with the authorization of South Carolina governor Robert Johnson, led a naval expedition against pirates on the river. Rhett and Bonnet's men fought each other for hours, but the outnumbered pirates ultimately surrendered. Rhett arrested the pirates and brought them to Charleston in early October. Bonnet escaped on October 24, but was recaptured on Sullivan's Island. On November 10, Bonnet was brought to trial and charged with two acts of piracy. Judge Nicholas Trott sentenced Bonnet to death. Bonnet wrote to Governor Johnson to ask for clemency, but Johnson endorsed the judge's decision, and Bonnet was hanged in Charleston on December 10, 1718.