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Blackbeard's Ship Confirmed off North Carolina

Started by Captain Jack Wolfe, August 31, 2011, 09:38:50 AM

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Captain Jack Wolfe

National Geographic News
Published August 29, 2011

After 15 years of uncertainty, a shipwreck off the coast of North Carolina has been confirmed as that of the infamous 18th-century pirate Blackbeard, state officials say.

The Queen Anne's Revenge grounded on a sandbar near Beaufort (see map) in 1718, nine years after the town had been established. Blackbeard and his crew abandoned the ship and survived.

Until recently, the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources emphasized that the wreck, discovered in 1995, was "thought to be" the Queen Anne's Revenge.

Now, after a comprehensive review of the evidence, those same officials are sure it's the ship sailed by one of history's fiercest and most colorful pirates.

The entire story can be read here.
"I'm not sure about people anymore. They're responsible for some pretty nutty stuff. Individuals I'm crazy about, though." ~ Opus

Rowan MacD

#1
  Hubby and I were in Swansboro, NC to visit family in 2010, and we went to the Maritime museum in Beaufort to see the artifacts recovered thus far from the QAR.
   Like the article said; the ID of the ship was never really in doubt, but it's nice to have the scientific community positively credit the wreck as Captain Teach's flagship.  8)
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Welsh Wench

I'm glad they finally reached a conclusion.

Too cool that the apothecary weights were French...and so was the surgeon.
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Bob of the Lake

Thanks for this, Mad Jack Wolfe--very interesting.
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DonaCatalina

Quote from: Welsh Wench on August 31, 2011, 09:27:11 PM
I'm glad they finally reached a conclusion.

Too cool that the apothecary weights were French...and so was the surgeon.
I wonder what the surgeon's name was. But that is a cool detail to find.
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kcdcchef

if I am not mistaken earlier this year they also positively id'd blackbeards sword from the wreckage.

Welsh Wench

Well, it was a sword from the ship but no way to tell if it was his personal sword.

Dona, I can't find the name of the surgeon....yet.  :D

But here are the apothecary weights with the fleur de lis and an interesting link on them.

http://nccultureblogger.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/big-duty-for-little-weights-aboard-blackbeards-ship/




Show me your tan lines..and I'll show you mine!

I just want to be Layla.....

Anna Iram

An interesting sidenote. I'd always thought Blackbeard was the one who captured this ship but as I've read it was captured by Captain Benjamin Hornigold and then given to Blackbeard, one of his crewmen. It was originally an English ship captured by the french and of course turned into a slaver. She sure had an interesting history.

Captain Jack Wolfe

Quote from: DonaCatalina on September 01, 2011, 11:11:50 AM
Quote from: Welsh Wench on August 31, 2011, 09:27:11 PM
I'm glad they finally reached a conclusion.

Too cool that the apothecary weights were French...and so was the surgeon.
I wonder what the surgeon's name was. But that is a cool detail to find.

A research project for the long weekend!  I'll dig into my Blackbeard books and see if they can shine any light on our mysterious Frenchman.   :)
"I'm not sure about people anymore. They're responsible for some pretty nutty stuff. Individuals I'm crazy about, though." ~ Opus

DonaCatalina

Amazing, it looks like the found the complete set.
At the bottom of the sea.
In a wrecked ship.
Amazing.
Aurum peccamenes multifariam texit
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Welsh Wench

If he took two out of the three surgeons...what happened to the third?
And were those that he marooned ever rescued?

Dona, quite a bit of medical supplies were recovered.

"It's an interesting wreck,"says Queen Anne's Revenge Shipwreck Project director Mark Wilde-Ramsing. "The vessel should have had a lot of stuff on it. If it was a raging storm [that sunk the ship], you'd have shoe buckles and personal items. At the same time, if you had an abandoned ship, in a common enough area, it'd be stripped clean. So there's something going on there in between that's part of the mystery."

The more you answer questions, the more questions to be asked.

Jack? Don't you have homework to do, young man?  :D
Show me your tan lines..and I'll show you mine!

I just want to be Layla.....

Captain Jack Wolfe

Sure, keep me locked in my study the entire weekend, why dontcha?   :D
"I'm not sure about people anymore. They're responsible for some pretty nutty stuff. Individuals I'm crazy about, though." ~ Opus

Welsh Wench

Well then, I guess you will have to scrap those faire plans this weekend, won't you?
:D

I love marine archaelogy. It would be fun. 

Except I hate to get my hair wet.
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Lady Renee Buchanan

I'm not knowlegable about the ocean (except to surf in), but with the multitude of hurricanes throughout the years in that region, is there a possibility that the sea bottom was churned up a lot and washed a lot of the artifacts away?

Jack and WW, this is such an interesting thread.  Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
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Captain Jack Wolfe

#14
Thanks, Renee!  This kind of stuff is like catnip.  Marine archaeology (and archaeology in general) has always been incredibly fascinating.

Ordinarily, like the Atocha, the Wydah, or the 1715 Spanish treasure fleet wrecks, storms broke up the wrecks and spread artifacts pretty badly.  In the case of the Queen Anne's Revenge, however, she sank in a relatively shallow inlet in calm weather.  Storms buried the wreck over time, but didn't churn things up and hopelessly redistribute the artifacts.  It was very, very fortunate she went down where she did, at least where the preservation of history is concerned.
"I'm not sure about people anymore. They're responsible for some pretty nutty stuff. Individuals I'm crazy about, though." ~ Opus