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. (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/08/110829-blackbeard-shipwreck-pirates-archaeology-science/#.Tl45c91Joj8.facebook)
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)
I'm glad they finally reached a conclusion.
Too cool that the apothecary weights were French...and so was the surgeon.
Thanks for this, Mad Jack Wolfe--very interesting.
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.
if I am not mistaken earlier this year they also positively id'd blackbeards sword from the wreckage.
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/
(http://nccultureblogger.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/qqrnestweights-021.jpg)
(http://nccultureblogger.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/qarnestingweight2.jpg)
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.
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. :)
Amazing, it looks like the found the complete set.
At the bottom of the sea.
In a wrecked ship.
Amazing.
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
Sure, keep me locked in my study the entire weekend, why dontcha? :D
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.
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.
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.
Fascinating info. Thanks for sharing Jack .
I need to go search thru my pirate books, cause i'm just as curious as everyone else to know what happen to the surgeon and what his name was.
this might give us a clue to the name of the surgeon :
Blackbeard the Pirate is a 1952 Technicolor adventure film made by RKO. The film was directed by Raoul Walsh and produced by Edmund Grainger from a screenplay by Alan Le May based on the story by DeVallon Scott. The film follows Edward Maynard (Keith Andes), who sets out to earn a reward by proving that privateer Henry Morgan (Torin Thatcher) also engages in piracy. Maynard, however, winds up posing as a surgeon on a ship captained by Blackbeard
Although in reality...Lieutenant Robert Maynard, of the HMS Pearl, was the active-duty naval officer dispatched by the governor of Virginia to put an end to Blackbeard's plundering. A detailed, eyewitness report of their bloody battle is part of the official record. (Adding to the implausibility of the plot itself, it is difficult to imagine how a bounty hunter could disguise himself as a surgeon, especially when called upon to perform delicate surgery, as he is in the film!)
Well, we know how Hollywood likes to take poetic license with things!
This article is not for the squeamish--
http://www.cindyvallar.com/medicine.html
Medicine at sea was pretty primal. But as it pointed out, a medicine chest stocked was worth between £300-400.
So a man who knew how to use it was invaluable.
I still wonder why he didn't take all three of the surgeons. And I guess the only way to find out the name of the surgeons would be to find La Concorde's roster in the French archives.
Blackbeard sure as heck didn't take any time to write down his rollcall!
Dang, all I can find is that Le Concorde was owned out of Bordeaux, Pierre HIRIGOYEN, captain, Paul Raymond, owner.
http://naviresnouvellefrance.com/vaisseau1700/html/page1753.html
Anyone want to visit the archives in Paris for me?
Musée national de la Marine - Paris
And that the only thing we know about her use before her career as a slaver was her turn as a privateer during Queen Anne's War (appropriate, no?) with one Rene Montaudoin as captain.
From the French Archival Research section of the Queen Anne's Revenge online research site: http://www.qaronline.org/History/french.htm (http://www.qaronline.org/History/french.htm)
Otherwise, she's a ship of currently unknown provenance. She evidently changed hands more than once.
Welsh Wench I don't know how accurate this is. This article suggests all three surgeons went aboard as well as a french cabin boy, carpenters etc. As stated in the officers depositions at the time.
Jack I've read, through google university, that the ship was perhaps Dutch built.
Love the bit here about Blackbeard giving his smaller ship to thr French captors and their renaming it "The Bad Encounter" . This may or may not be factual, but I like the spirit of the thing. :)
http://www.qaronline.org/History/search.htm
Quote from: DonaCatalina on September 02, 2011, 11:35:22 AM
Dang, all I can find is that Le Concorde was owned out of Bordeaux, Pierre HIRIGOYEN, captain, Paul Raymond, owner.
http://naviresnouvellefrance.com/vaisseau1700/html/page1753.html
Anyone want to visit the archives in Paris for me?
Musée national de la Marine - Paris
A trip to Paris ?! OOO...french wine, pastries, french men, and shopping .....I'm in !!!! LOL !
Lady Amy--I know a patisserie three blocks from the Louvre that is fantastic and the quiche at the Musee D'Orsay is not to be believed!
So..I am up for a trip to Paris.
So, Jack, how is that homework in the French Archives coming along?
And don't give me that mowing the grass/going to faire excuse again.
<<----Happy girl.
My trip next month looks like I may drive up to Beaufort and see this for myself.
Paris? Mai oui! Sign me up!! ;D
Research got interrupted by errands, so I'm back to it. Breaking out the books feels good. I love good old-fashioned page turning!
As for faire, yeah. But my suit is all pressed and sneakers (relatively) clean... ;)
Well, finding out about our mysterious French surgeon has been a bust so far. But I have found out a great deal about the ship herself. So much for my "unknown provenance" statement. This is why I love books for research! ;D
I'm drawing from two sources, Captain Charles Johnson's "A General History of the Pirates" (1724) and noted historian Angus Konstam's "Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate" (2006).
In Capt. Johnson's (surprisingly terse) account, we find out just what type of ship La Concorde was: Hornigold and Teach "returned to the West Indies, and in the Latitude 24 mad a Prize of a large French Guiney Man, bound to Martinico (Martinique), which, by Hornigold's consent, Teach went aboard as Captain... Aboard this Guiney Man Teach mounted 40 guns, and named her the Queen Anne's Revenge."
The French Guineaman was a very specific type of ship. She was built like a frigate, only on a smaller scale. She was definitely built for speed, perfect for intercepting other vessels. This fits because, as we'll see, she was originally a warship.
Konstam's research gives us a fuller picture. The captain of La Concorde, Pierre Dosset, described in his report to his superiors in Paris, as being overtaken "by two boats of English pirates, one of 12 and the other of 8 guns armed with 250 men controlled by Edouard Titche, English..."
So we're definitely talking about the same ship. Based on this, Konstam found that La Concorde was owned by a Monsieur Rene Montaudouin of Nantes. The ship was built there in 1709-1710, originally purposed as a privateer. She served in Queen Anne's war and had a fairly respectable record in service to the French government, taking a British and Portuguese ship on her maiden voyage. But when the war ended, her value plummeted since no one wanted a ship linked to warfare. Montaudouin, a prosperous businessman, was able to snap her up for a song and fitted her out as a slave ship.
Something of note in the way Capt. Johnson described the association of Benjamin Hornigold and Edward Teach at this point. He described them as being "in Company". Taking from his normal usage of this term throughout his work, this would indicate they were working together as associates, not as master and apprentice. Given this, Hornigold didn't "allow" or "give" La Concorde to Blackbeard. He agreed to a business decision that Teach should have the prize. Hornigold retired from the Account soon after this action to become a pirate hunter, so it would make sense that he wouldn't want to add egregiously to his crimes before looking for a pardon.
I'll keep digging to see what else I can find.
Wow, when you research something.....LOL
But a report that is only six years past the grounding of Queen Anne's Revenge would be alot more reliable.
And the fact that Konstam had access to the French captain's report lends credence to it all.
Thanks, Jack!
Now....no more playing around and try to find that surgeon's name!
That is your homework.
OK, today I officially got a personal invitation from the QAR site to go to their Meet and Greet on October 26th...so I am shifting my plans around and doing my best to go there!
Wow. That was be so exciting!
The QAR Research Team reported today that they found the lid to the nesting weights this afternoon whilst dredging the site. They've searched for this item for several years, and are excited to have finally found it. Perhaps it will shed some light on the identity of the original owner of the weights.
Ok...his name etched on it some where is probably too much to ask for. Who would have thought that the identity of one person could become so interesting just because a few personal artifacts were discovered?
Looks like the weather is not cooperating this week.
They are trying to bring up one of the largest cannons. But a snag---it is surrounded by a kettle, wooden deadeyes, a pewter plate, cannonballs and a number of unidentified objects,
More stuff!
And it appears a shackled leg iron when it was La Concorde!
As the article said, it is fascinating to wonder who last touched it. The Captain himself?
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/10/12/dive-to-rescue-blackbeards-pirate-ship-hits-snag/#ixzz1afwyBXoo-
I can imagine the cannoneer scraping a meal off beans and hard tack off the plate waiting for the ship to founder..........
One interesting artifact is this one--
(http://nccultureblogger.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/bell-2-clean.jpg?w=217&h=300)
It is believed to be Spanish from the inscription ANO DE 1705 IHS MARIA
http://nccultureblogger.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/the-bell-that-tolled-for-blackbeard/
As the article says, 'Was this bell part of pirate plunder, recovered from some raid of another ship or village? Was it taken from a parish church? Had it been part of the fabric of some small town life? Did it signal to the mates at the approach to land, or an approaching storm? Did this bell summon Blackbeard to dinner? Had it ever summoned the "brother of the devil himself" to prayer?'
But what is really awesome is that you can click on the sound byte and actually hear what Blackbeard heard!
And I had no idea how huge that 3,000 lb anchor was!
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2428/5765170761_587da8308e_z.jpg)
wow, that is one HUGE anchor!!!
fun anchor photo tidbit - there is an old photo of the anchor from the Titanic being pulled, taking like 24 horses to pull it to the ship, it's pretty cool!
The bell sound bit was really cool. Thanks for sharing that.
for some reason i was expecting it to be more shrill, but still neat!
***RESEARCH UPDATE***
Additional research has revealed the name of the French surgeon. Details to follow!
I saw the footage of another cannon being lifted off the ocean floor yesterday!! WOW!
Hint: I was in Beaufort NC yesterday. ;)
I'm still unclear why you maintain there was only one french surgeon brought aboard when the QAR's own site that I referenced earlier quotes records showing three surgeons were brought aboard. Curious. Perhaps their research is wrong.
Quote from: Mad Jack Wolfe on October 28, 2011, 01:43:31 PM
***RESEARCH UPDATE***
Additional research has revealed the name of the French surgeon. Details to follow!
I AM SO EXCITED. My friend who teached fifth grade has been very interested in this. They are covering the slave trade and the history of La Concorde is making it come alive for those 88 students at least.
From me and her, thanks for keeping up wit this.
I just came back from the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, NC.
And all I can say is.....WOW!
And this is what I found.
AT LEAST three surgeons are named. Which means more could have served him at any time.
(http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e65/welshwench/DSC03291.jpg)
I found the crew rote for Le Concorde dated 1717. This is the rote on the ill-fated trip of which Hornigold captured the ship and gave it over to Blackbeard.
I knew the French word for surgeon was chirurgien and there it was.
Jean Dubert and also F. Etienne Varzae-- (last letter is not clear).
(http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e65/welshwench/DSC03336.jpg)
Conclusion drawn--
Jean Dubert was definitely on Le Concorde when it was taken. He then served under Blackbeard.
And so we have the definite proof of the name of at least one of the surgeons.
F. Etienne Varzae
I think I can solve this one. Varzaez/Varzaes is a Portuguese surname derived from the town of Varzea.
The use of Z/S was pretty randomly interchangeable up until the twentieth century.
Queen Anne's Revenge was a mile out in Beaufort Inlet under 20' of water. Fishing lines and net were found snagged on it.
That means fishermen were cursing their broken lines and lost hooks, not knowing they were fishing over one of the best archaelogical finds!
In my eternal sleuthing, I found the documents naming all three surgeons.
The site won't let me copy/paste but here it is--
http://rdu.net/MRI/crew_doc_1.swf
As we can see, the three surgeons listed are--
Jean DuBois (possibly Jean Dubert?)
Mark Bourgeneuf
Claude De Shayes
I wonder if the number in front of their names are their ages.
Thank you all for the wonderful information! It's exciting and worth delving into further for those who want to know more and bring it to light for others to read.
More and more ships are being found thanks to today's instruments/computers. I think it's great!
Rumba
(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y287/RumbaRue/TN_SHIP01.jpg)
Where is that anchor now?
Sitting in a 6,500 gallon tank at the QAR lab!
http://www.ecu.edu/cs-admin/news/qarcannon.cfm
Excavation will begin on the main mound when diving begins again--50% of the artifacts are there and I can't wait to see what they can bring up next!
Fascinating ! Thanks Welshie, Jack, and everyone else for sharing what info you have all found.
Concretion restoration pictures have just been release on the Queen Anne's Revenge site!!
All I can say is.....WOW! Incredible jobs, conservation team!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Blackbeards-Queen-Annes-Revenge/307533847347#!/media/set/?set=a.10150719799862348.421442.307533847347&type=3
Wow!
Thanks for sharing.
An update on the surgeons that I got from a knowledgeable person on Pyracy Pub--
I know of two sources for the statement that surgeons were forcibly retained aboard the French slaver formerly named La Concorde--one secondary source and one primary source.
The secondary source comes from "In Search of Blackbeard: Historical and Archeological Research at Shipwreck Site 003BUI," Richard Lawrence and Mark Wilde-Ramsing authors, published in Southeastern Geology February 2001: "The cabin boy and three of his fellow French crewmen voluntarily joined the pirates, and ten others were taken by force including a pilot, three surgeons, two carpenters, two sailors, and the cook."
The primary source comes from the signed deposition of La Concorde's former captain, Pierre Dossett, given upon his return to Nantes on 13 October 1718 after surrendering his ship to Edward Thatch in the Windward Islands. Dossett listed the fate of his crew members including those who died enroute. Dossett indicated that Jean Dubert d'Arzal, "chirurgien," returned to Nantes aboard an English vessel. The two "aides chirurgiens," Marc Bourgneuf and Nicholas Gautrain, remained with the newly named Queen Anne's Revenge. Therefore, based on the Dossett deposition, it would seem that only two surgeon's aides were conscripted by Thatch.
Thanks for the update. Putting names to these people makes it seem more real somehow.
From the Queen Anne's website on FB--
Contingent on good weather and smooth logistics, next week marks the start of the 2012 Fall Expedition to the Queen Anne's Revenge Shipwreck Site to continue systematic excavation, documentation, and recovery of features and artifacts.
Can't wait to see what they find!
fingers crossed for the end of Hurricane season.
Two more cannons were found at the QAR site.
They were found right before the dive site was shut down for the season.
That brings the total number of cannons to 27.
Some of the cannons found were fully loaded.
Oh, and 294 years ago today, Blackbeard met his fate. He lost his head to Lieutenant Robert Maynard.
Literally.
http://www.carolinacoastonline.com/news_times/news/article_91dd5770-3005-11e2-871b-0019bb2963f4.html
thnaks for the update....loaded with powder shot and three broken bolts..
The first cannon was brought today....
(http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e65/welshwench/QAR8_zps8cc69ae9.jpg) (http://s37.photobucket.com/user/welshwench/media/QAR8_zps8cc69ae9.jpg.html)
...followed by the second one.
(http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e65/welshwench/QAR7_zpsc684d84c.jpg) (http://s37.photobucket.com/user/welshwench/media/QAR7_zpsc684d84c.jpg.html)
Way to go, QAR!
I'm more than a little surprised at the lack of concretions on those guns. It's going to make the conservation work that much easier, which means they'll be on display relatively soon!
I think the area is more sandy and doesn't have much in the way of iron bearing clay that you might see further north.
The anchor found in the salvage....
(http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e65/welshwench/queen-annes-revenge-blackbeard-ship-anchor_31159_600x450_zps21422776.jpg) (http://s37.photobucket.com/user/welshwench/media/queen-annes-revenge-blackbeard-ship-anchor_31159_600x450_zps21422776.jpg.html)
...and now into the chemical bath.
(http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e65/welshwench/pirate-blackbeard-updates-anchor_69302_600x450_zps65a39452.jpg) (http://s37.photobucket.com/user/welshwench/media/pirate-blackbeard-updates-anchor_69302_600x450_zps65a39452.jpg.html)
Part of a sword.....
(http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e65/welshwench/pirate-blackbeard-updates-handle_69306_600x450_zpsec7b3c0f.jpg) (http://s37.photobucket.com/user/welshwench/media/pirate-blackbeard-updates-handle_69306_600x450_zpsec7b3c0f.jpg.html)
A slave shackled wrapped in rope to prevent chafing.
(http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e65/welshwench/pirate-blackbeard-updates-shackle_69310_600x450_zps596e1e2d.jpg) (http://s37.photobucket.com/user/welshwench/media/pirate-blackbeard-updates-shackle_69310_600x450_zps596e1e2d.jpg.html)
A cork in a broken wine bottle....or maybe a Combo gone bad.
(http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e65/welshwench/pirate-blackbeard-updates-wine_69311_600x450_zpsc7ea9790.jpg) (http://s37.photobucket.com/user/welshwench/media/pirate-blackbeard-updates-wine_69311_600x450_zpsc7ea9790.jpg.html)
The reason they are so well-preserved is that they were buried in silt and sand, protecting it from oxygen.
Isn't it amazing what is being found so many hundreds of years later. Both the ocean and the land (Richard) harbor many secrets, and it will be wonderful to learn more through the discoveries.