Learning From the Remains of the Queen Anne’s Revenge

In the 1700s, a vicious pirate roamed the seas of the Caribbean, pillaging and capturing ships and sending his victims to a watery grave.  His name was Edward Teach, though most new him by the title of Blackbeard.  He managed to have one of the most successful careers of any pirate, accumulating a horde of wealth in just two years of unlawful activity.  In 1718, Blackbeard’s famous ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge sank beneath the seas.  While Blackbeard was not on the ship at the time, he would meet his own end shortly afterwards.

Since 1988, archaeologists have been searching the evidence, looking for clues as to where Blackbeard’s ship might have gone under.  Finally, in 1996, they found the Queen Anne’s Revenge off the coast of North Carolina.  In the fall of 1997, excavation began on the ship’s remains and it has been progressing steadily for nearly 15 years since, despite consistent interruptions due to storms and hurricanes.

Underwater archaeologists have their hands full with this relic.  More than 500 separate pieces have been removed from the site so far, many of them molded together by the effects of the sea.  There are an estimated 10,000 different artifacts in total, waiting to be cleaned and treated to protect them from rapid destruction at the hands of the open air.

Countless bits of information can be learned from Blackbeard’s ship.  Archaeologists are studying each artifact in order to discover where its origins were, putting the pieces of the puzzle together and figuring out what life aboard a pirate ship might have really been like.  Items on the ship, such as cannons, can relate what the pirate was thinking in the way that he outfitted it.  The presence of multiple and varied cannon types and origins already begin to pose questions as to Blackbeard’s strategy of armament.  Artifacts that were taken from other ships can give clues as to where Blackbeard sailed his ship and what

was considered useful enough to keep.

Finds such as this put events that were unseen and only partially recorded into focus, providing the much-needed information that can fill gaps in our understanding.  Many of the stories surrounding the pirate’s exploits can be confirmed or denied by what items are found on his ship.  In the end, the learning becomes exponential, and as more is discovered about the life and make-up of a pirate ship, more models can be built and related to other ships, giving people today a unique insight into what life as a pirate might have been like nearly 300 years ago.