North Carolina Maritime Museum

			ARCHIVES & HISTORY \| A&H VISITS & TOURS QAR PROJECT \| SUNNY NC: THE CRYSTAL COAST

Blackbeard the Pirate
. . . and the Presumed Wreck of Queen Anne's Revenge.

THE ARTIFACTS . . .

All of the items recovered from the wreck were within a few feet of a pile of large cannon and anchors. The number and size of the cannon, along with the date and type of the recovered artifacts, all support the belief that the site likely represents the remains of the 40-gun Queen Anne's Revenge, lost near Beaufort Inlet in June 1718.

Blackbeard Exhibit - NCMM

The Search for Queen Anne's Revenge: Artifacts from the wreck.
North Carolina Maritime Museum

Mike Daniel, Intersal's Director of Operations, discovered the site on Thursday, November 21, 1996. Realizing that he and his crew had possibly found the QAR, and well aware of the potential historical importance of the wreck, Daniel halted diving operations less than one hour after they began. He knew of the archaeological necessity of maintaining site integrity and keeping disturbance to a minimum.

Daniel immediately notified the Underwater Archaeology Unit (UAU) of the North Carolina Office of Archives and History. The following day (November 22, the 278th anniversary of Blackbeard's death) Richard Lawrence, head of the UAU, Leslie Bright of the UAU, and Phil Masters, president of Intersal, studied the recovered artifacts and dove on the wreck to confirm the sighting. Since it was very late in the season, all agreed that the best course of action was to immediately suspend operations until the following year.

The Bell: When recovered, the one-foot-tall bronze bell was heavily encrusted. After chemical treatment, the one-inch-high letters on its surface clearly read "IHS [Iesu, Hominorum Salvator] Maria" near the bell's top, and "ano de 1709 [year of 1709]" near the bottom. Brass Bell The bell is believed to be too small to be the QAR's bell. It is probably of either Spanish or Portuguese origin. In the eighteenth-century Catholic world, church and ship bells were often emblazoned with the names of saints. The crudeness of its casting and lettering suggests it was made in the New World.

There are a number of possible explanations for such a bell being aboard QAR. As the French Concorde in 1711, she is believed to have been part of a squadron which captured and sacked Rio de Janeiro. She may also have been the same Concorde that sailed to Chile and Peru in 1713. And, in early 1718, as the QAR, Blackbeard captured a Spanish sloop off Cuba. Any of these could have been the source of the bell.

The Blunderbuss Barrel: The most unusual object recovered from the site at Beaufort Inlet is the 26.5-inch brass barrel of a blunderbuss. When recovered, it was so heavily encrusted that, to an inexperienced eye, it looked like nothing more that an old piece of metal pipe with a flared end. A careful and thorough cleaning in the lab (by conservator Leslie Bright of the UAU) has restored it to its former brilliance.

The blunderbuss was a short shoulder-fired flintlock weapon popular in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England, where small quantities were issued to British army units and Royal Navy vessels. It was usually loaded with a handful of small shot, and was deadly in confined spaces or at short range. Its function and use were similar to today's sawed-off shotgun.

In the early seventeenth century, many weapons of inferior quality were being made, imported, and/or sold in England. It was not uncommon for a cannon, musket, or pistol to blow up in the face of its user when fired. To solve the problem, a law was passed in 1637 ordering all weapons to be inspected and test- fired by the Gunmakers Company of London, a craft guild of the leading English gunsmiths. Henceforth, all weapons were required to have three specific proof marks engraved on their barrels, near the breach. The lower two from the Gunmakers Company, and the other the maker's mark. At the bottom was the "V" (beneath a crown) signifying that the weapon had been "viewed" and approved for testing. In the middle was the "GP" (beneath a crown) attesting that the weapon had been test-fired and "Gunmakers Proved." Above that was the maker's mark, usually two initials combined with a unique symbol previously registered with the company. The shape of the two Gunmakers Company engravings changed slightly after 1637—once in 1672, and again in 1702.

The brass blunderbuss barrel recovered from the wreck at Beaufort Inlet has the appropriate three engravings near its breach, confirming its English origin. Some of the definition has worn away, but the outline of the two Gunmakers Company marks date the weapon as almost surely post-1672. The maker's initials could be "TH." Research indicates there were at least four London gunsmiths with those initials from 1672 to 1718.

The Sounding Weight: A lead sounding weight typical of the period was also recovered and has been treated and conserved by the UAU's laboratory. It is marked "XXI" and has some illegible markings scratched onto the surface. When the artifact was weighed, it was found to measure exactly 21 pounds, thereby demonstrating that it was of English origin, since other European pounds of the period were markedly different in weight.

Cannon Balls: A number of iron cannon balls were recovered and are currently under conservation. Their size indicates that they are 24-pounder balls, which further supports the belief that this is the wreck of Queen Anne's Revenge, since smaller vessels could not have carried such large weapons.