Rhett's sloops defeated the pirates in the Cape Fear River estuary which led to Bonnet's eventual execution by hanging in Charleston, South Carolina.

Royal James was in need of careening and the hurricane season was soon to come so Bonnet chose the Cape Fear estuary as a reliable shelter against storms.

In late August, reports of Bonnet's sloops in the Cape Fear River reached South Carolina governor Robert Johnson.

Instead of fleeing up the small river in darkness, Bonnet decided that he would fight his way back to the sea, so the next morning at daylight, the pirates prepared to pass the two sloops, which were now free of the sandbar.

To avoid enemy fire, Stede Bonnet steered his vessels close to the western shore of the river, and they ran aground on sand.

[1] The sloops were downstream, and when the water began to rise in the early afternoon, they were freed, while Bonnet's ships remained stranded.

[1] Bonnet ordered his gunner George Ross to light the powder magazine and scuttle Royal James, but he was persuaded not to by his surviving crewmen who had already surrendered.

With him was his boatswain, Ignatius Pell, and the sailing master, David Herriot, all of whom escaped with the help of two slaves and a Native American and possibly local merchant Richard Tookerman.