Blackbeard’s Shipwrecks

By Dave Moore

As many people realize by now, the remains of one of the shipwrecks of the infamous pirate Blackbeard has been located within sight of Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina. The wreck, believed to be the pirate's flagship "Queen Anne's Revenge", was located within three miles of the Beaufort-Moorehead City area in about twenty feet of water. The site was found on November 21, 1997 by the commercial salvage company Intersal, Inc. of Boca Raton, Florida. Intersal, which is also searching for other wrecks known to lie near Beaufort Inlet including the Spanish treasure ship Salvador, has been periodically active in the area since 1986.

The story of the find was released to the public on March 3 during a press conference held in Raleigh by members of Intersal and the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. At that time Governor Jim Hunt announced that the forth coming recovery project would be undertaken by the Department’s Underwater Archaeology Unit in conjunction with the North Carolina Maritime Museum and East Carolina University’s Program in Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology. Intersal has also created a non-profit organization called the Maritime Research Institute, Inc. which will work with these programs to investigate and record the wreck and to raise grant funding.

The recovery project will undoubtedly take several years to complete with field work lasting as long as four to six years. For every month spent in the field recording the wreck and recovering the large volume of artifacts expected, at least ten to twelve months will be spent in the laboratory conserving this material, conducting appropriate analysis, drawing and photographing artifacts, writing reports and articles, and many other lower profile and less exciting duties. It will be several years before any large number of artifacts are available for public display. While it may take only a few months for a six inch wrought iron hull spike to undergo the electrolytic reduction process needed to remove the chlorides from the metal after centuries of salt water immersion, something as large as a ten foot cannon or anchor may take as long as four to five years before it can properly be displayed for public viewing.

Since the announcement of the find, there has been something of a media frenzy going on around the museum and the other agencies charged with developing and coordinating this project. Several questions seemed to surface more than others. Will we find any of Blackbeard’s treasure; what do we expect to find; and why do we think the site represents the Queen Anne'’ Revenge?

While periodically conducting research on this subject over the past sixteen years, this writer has compiled over one hundred contemporary documents which relate to the activities of Blackbeard and his cohorts, many concerning his association with coastal North Carolina. Several of these primary sources strongly suggest that the pirate had planned to run the Queen Anne’s Revenge and another vessel aground, probably the sloop Adventure, at Beaufort Inlet (then called Top-sail Inlet) in order to break up the company and enable himself and a hand-picked number of his crew to escape with the plunder accumulated to that point. The months of April through June 1718 were the zenith of Blackbeard’s piratical career. He had brought together a flotilla of four vessels and between 300 and 400 pirates. If this was indeed his plan as later reported by a number of the pirates who were left behind, it certainly worked. Blackbeard left the Beaufort area on a smaller unidentified Spanish sloop after removing everything of value from the remaining vessels including those he had run aground off the inlet. Therefore, at least according to the research undertaken to date, we do not expect to find much of the pirate’s plundered "booty" remaining on the wreck.

What we do expect to find is a multitude of material and a wealth of everyday artifacts connected with the seafaring activities of the most notorious figure ever associated with the Golden Age of Piracy and a man who over the past two hundred years has become synonymous with the term piracy. We should be afforded an unparalleled glimpse into a little understood society which heretofore has been shrouded in myths, legends, and folklore. There is also the possibility of locating material associated with the transatlantic slave trade as the ship was a French slaver when captured by the pirate around November 1717. And it is certainly possible that material plundered off any number of the over thirty ships taken by Blackbeard while in command of the Queen Anne’s Revenge will be recovered.

At this point in the investigation the identification of the site as the infamous Queen Anne’s Revenge is based totally on circumstantial evidence. The most significant clue would have to be the bell which was found and recovered initially by divers on the day the site was located. Though thought to be more likely associated at one time with a mission or similar component of Spanish religious origin rather than an actual ship’s bell, the diagnostic element is nonetheless the date "1709" embossed around its waist. This effectively dates the site to the appropriate period, Blackbeard having run his ships aground in early June of 1718. The few other artifacts recovered all date comfortably within this period as well. Another major piece of evidence is the location where the site was found. The general position of the site coincides with that mentioned in several documents and agrees with a cartographic analysis previously undertaken. One final clue is a 24 pound cannon ball which was recovered indicating relative large cannon on board. This size gun would have been quite appropriate for a ship the size of the sloop Adventurer or the Spanish treasure ship Salvador which may also be in the area. In addition, the files maintained at the North Carolina Underwater Archaeology Unit which contain information on almost 5000 ships lost in our state’s waters, reveal no other references to vessels lost around Beaufort Inlet from this period.

The significance of this project is multi-fold and its impact both globally and on North Carolina maritime history and archaeology specifically will possibly be too great and far reaching to calculate, at least at this initial point in the investigation. Apart from the potential association with the notorious Blackbeard and the rare opportunity to look at a microcosm of piratical society, this site and possibly that of the Adventure if found, represent the earliest shipwrecks yet located in North Carolina waters. In addition, they provide archaeologists the chance to study and record ship types of typical colonial vessels from a period in which limited information exists both archaeologically and in the historic record. The Queen Anne’s Revenge should also provide valuable insight into the mechanics of the notorious transatlantic slave trade where very limited work has been accomplished to date, particularly in regards to the ships and commodities utilized.

It should be fascinating to observe events unfold on what has to be considered one of the most significant and exciting shipwreck projects ever undertaken anywhere in the world.