Stephen Young

The Queen Anne's Revenge

Session #7

Queen Anne's RevengeQueen Anne's Revenge

The Ship300-ton vessel, originally named Concord,

Built in England in 1710, captured by the French one year later

Renamed La Concorde de Nantes.

Captured by the pirate Captain Benjamin Hornigold on November 28, 1717, near Martinique

Hornigold turned her over to one of his men —Edward Teach—and made him her captain.

Teach's first mate, Christopher Blackwood (known as Blackbeard's Claw), was feared as a ferocious fighter and led many of Blackbeard's boarding parties.

Blackbeard added cannons and renamed her Queen Anne's Revenge

The name may come from the War of Spanish Succession (Queen Anne's War), in which Blackbeard had served in the Royal Navy

Ship sailed from the west coast of Africa to the Caribbean, attacking British, Dutch and Portuguese merchant ships

Grounded in 1718 near Beaufort Inlet, NC

“Blackbeard"Edward Teach (c. 1680 – 22 November 1718)Pirated around the West Indies and American

ColoniesMost famous for blockading the port of Charleston,

SC and successfully ransoming its inhabitants Soon after, ran ship aground on a sandbar near

Beaufort, North Carolina to allow crew escapeAccepted a royal pardon but was soon back at sea, Governor of Virginia arranged for a party of soldiers

and sailors to captureKilled on 22 November 1718

Information based on Port documents, Piracy records, city historical documents

Wreck DiscoveryIntersal Inc., a private research firm, discovered the wreck believed to be the Queen Anne’s Revenge on

November 21, 1996.

The vessel is in the in shallow water offshore from Atlantic Beach, NC

Several of the cannons and more than 16,000 artifacts have been recovered; however, none appear to be of French origin, as would be expected from a French slave ship. They are mostly British, as would be expected with a colonial pirate crew.

ConservationProject Director Mark Wild-Ramsing of the North Carolina

Underwater Archaeology Branch supervised recovery of artifacts from the site through the 2007 field season. In November 2006 and 2007, more artifacts were discovered at the site and brought to the surface.

Among current evidence to support the discovery is that the cannons were found loaded. In addition, there were more cannons than would be expected for a ship of this size, and the cannons were of different makes. Depth markings on the part of the stern that was recovered point to it have been made according to the French (and not English) foot measurements.

By the end of 2007, approximately 1/3 of the wreck was fully excavated. The North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources set up the website. Queen Anne's Revenge to build on intense public interest in the finds.

All artifacts are housed at and can be visited at the North Carolina Maritime Museum, when not on tour

Currently visitation is not allowed to the wreck site, as a conservation measure. Additional efforts are underway to preserve the wooden structure for future generations.

Most Recently

In 2011, the 1.4-tonne (3,100 lb) anchor from the ship was brought to the surface along with a range of makeshift weaponry.

On August 29, 2011, National Geographic reported that the shipwreck had been confirmed as the Queen Anne's Revenge.

Bibliography

http://www.qaronline.org/ http://nautarch.tamu.edu/ http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/

2009/03/photogalleries/blackbeard-artifacts/