On a cold day in January 2004 a 33.5' male sperm whale beached himself at Cape Lookout in North Carolina.  A necroposy (animal autopsy) revealed no obvious signs of trauma.  No cause of death was determined.  Staff and volunteers buried the whale with the plan of exhuming the relatively clean bones after several years and preparing them for display at the North Carolina Maritime Museum.  This project came to be known as Bonehenge. 

After eight years of hard work by both staff and volunteers the 33.5' sperm whale skeleton will be hung in the North Carolina Maritime Museum this February with the accompanying exhibit opening in June.

Please visit the website www.bonehenge.org to learn more about the project of recovering, rearticulating and preparing a 33.5' for display. 

Whales & Whaling General Information 

Information Compiled by: North Carolina Maritime Museum Education Staff

In 1718, the notorious pirate Blackbeard lost his flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, when it ran aground in Beaufort Inlet.

For more than 270 years, it was hidden by water and sand – a mystery to archeologists around the world.

In 1996, private company Intersal, Inc. discovered the shipwreck. The Museum became the official repository for all Queen Anne’s Revenge artifacts and has offered a small exhibit of them since 1997.

Now, through a new exhibit that opened in June 2011, Blackbeard and his crew sail again in history, artifacts, interactive features and legends. The "Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge" Exhibit is permanent.