NC Cultural Resources Newsroom

The notorious pirate Blackbeard’s flagship Queen Anne’s Revenge still lies in the depths of the Atlantic, nearly 300 years after it ran aground off Beaufort, North Carolina in 1718.

From Australia to India, the international press is abuzz with news of Blackbeard and the exciting discovery by archaeologists from the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources – a sword that could be one of Blackbeard’s own. The shipwreck’s location remained a mystery for centuries, until the site was discovered in 1996 by Intersal, Inc. through information provided by Intersal President Phil Masters to Operations Director Mike Daniel.

North Carolina’s state underwater archaeologists have conducted extensive scientific excavations and recovery at the site and oversee the conservation of the encrusted artifacts.

Recognized as a national treasure, and listed on the National Register of Historic Sites, the Queen Anne’s Revenge shipwreck site has already yielded more than 250,000 artifacts, including cannon, gold, platters, glass, beads, shackles, and rope. Moviegoers and fans of Jack Sparrow’s crew and the “Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides” will especially enjoy a visit to the N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort Saturday, June 11 as it opens an exciting exhibit of “Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge 1718.”

Great Scientific Research Costs Money

The Queen Anne’s Revenge Shipwreck site is a protected national archaeological site. Recovery of the artifacts, their conservation, and subsequent display and interpretation at public museums will enable hundreds of thousands of people to see and learn this history. That includes children and adults, residents and visitors. The educational work at the project involves historians, researchers, scientists, and students of history, physics, chemistry, and other disciplines, as well as several universities.

If you want to help this great scientific research to continue, get involved with the Friends of the Queen Anne’s Revenge, or the Friends of the N.C. Maritime Museum, both of which are supporting this great work.