GREENVILLE – Visitors soon will see how researchers figure out what are some of the artifacts recovered from the wreck of the purported Queen Anne’s Revenge (QAR), Blackbeard’s flagship, found near Beaufort. The loot includes gold dust, cannons, ballast stones, bones, and bells, among more than 100,000 recovered artifacts. Conservators analyze and document the artifacts using x-ray machines, computers, photography, and an array of old and new tools. Even that doesn’t always yield an answer.
Participants at the QAR Open Lab Open Day on Saturday, April 25, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., at the conservation lab at West Research Campus at East Carolina University in Greenville, can help figure things out. They will be able to look down a microscope and see the artifacts on a computer screen. They will help identify objects in x-rays that are within a cement-like coating of sand, shells and sea life. They will see how the tiniest objects, such as 3/16 inch diameter beads, are recovered from sand and sediment. It can take weeks for gold dust or years for iron cannons to be ready to exhibit.
“Rocks and gold are the easiest materials to conserve,” explains QAR Chief Conservator Sarah Watkins-Kenney. “Cannons are more challenging because the salts have to be removed that might cause corrosion.”
The largest collection of artifacts from the shipwreck ever displayed is in the “Knights of the Black Flag” exhibit at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh through January 2010. The N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort, the official repository for the project, hosts a permanent exhibit of QAR artifacts.
Visitors will see some artifacts undergoing the 12-step process of artifact conservation, guess the weight of an 8-foot cannon, and see the newly discovered fleur de lis pattern on a nesting cup weight. This find further strengthens the French connection, as the weight and the shipwreck may be of French origin. The Queen Anne’s Revenge was a French slave ship when captured. Watkins-Kenney and conservators Wendy Welsh and Shanna Daniel will explain the conservation process and answer questions about the objects on view.
QAR Project Director Mark Wilde-Ramsing and archaeologists David Moore, Richard Lawrence, Chris Southerly and Nathan Henry will comment on artifact recovery at this, the oldest shipwreck found in North Carolina’s waters. The wreck was located in 1996 by Intersal, Inc., with information provided by President Phil Masters to Operations Director Mike Daniel.
For additional information call (252) 744-6721. The Queen Anne’s Revenge Shipwreck Project, QAR Archaeological Conservation Laboratory, and N.C. Museum of History are agencies of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, the state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina’s arts, history and culture. Join in observing the Cultural Resources 2009 theme, “Treasure N.C. Culture.” Now podcasting 24/7 with information about the Department of Cultural Resources, all available at www.ncculture.com.