ATLANTIC BEACH – After nearly 300 years resting on the ocean floor, an eight foot, 2,000 pound cannon will emerge from the Atlantic on Tuesday, Oct. 28. The big catch from the 2008 fall research dive at the wreck of the presumed Queen Anne’s Revenge (QAR), Blackbeard’s flagship, will be displayed for the media at noon at the U.S. Coast Guard Station, 2301 Fort Macon Rd., Atlantic Beach, N.C. The cannon will be off-loaded from the research vessel Shellpoint at 11:30 a.m.
Another cannon of this size was recovered in 1997. It is on exhibit at the Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City. A similar 6 foot cannon is now exhibited at the N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort. Spectators will get a rare before-and-after effect when the newly recovered cannon and other artifacts make a public showing from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct 29, at the Maritime Museum. The museum is repository for the conserved artifacts and has three cannons and scores of other QAR artifacts on display.
“This season’s catch includes the large cannon, cannonballs, and lead shot,” observes Dr. Jeffrey Crow, deputy secretary of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, which administers the Queen Anne’s Revenge Shipwreck Project. “That we have recovered 12 cannons and the more than twice as many that remain at the site demonstrate how extraordinarily well-armed this vessel was.”
While speaking at the media day on Tuesday, Dr. Crow will transfer from the QAR Shipwreck project to the N.C. Maritime Museum, a “seat of ease” recovered from the shipwreck in 2005. The cylindrical lead object was the working part of a toilet.
This wreck was located in November 1996 by Intersal, Inc., with information provided to Operations Director Mike Daniel by company president the late Phil Masters. Archaeologists with the Underwater Archaeology Branch in the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources have led research for more than 11 years and found substantial evidence that this wreck is the Queen Anne’s Revenge.
Video coverage of the event courtesy of News 14 Carolina.
Underwater Archaeology Branch and the N.C. Maritime Museum are within the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, a state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina’s arts, history and culture. Now podcasting 24/7 with information about the Department of Cultural Resources, all available at www.ncculture.com.