QUEEN ANNE'S REVENGE

[Dutchman]

Anything pertaining to the ship most likely to be QAR and her recovery or research

[Dorian Lasseter]

Here's the official website;

http://www.qaronline.org/

And a 'Friends of the QAR' site;

http://www.friendsofqar.org/

There's a special program run down there that you can dive on the wreck-site... a friend of mine did it this past summer, said it was awesome!

[Honour Bright]

The last issue of Pirates Magazine had such an excellent article on the restoration of the arifacts that I couldn't put it down.

[Josephine Legard]

I took part in the QAR Dive Down program last summer in Beaufort, NC. It was a two day program that consisted of classes both mornings and a dive each afternoon. The first day was general information about the are, what the geology was like and what sea creatures we could expect to see. The first day we did what they called a familiarization dive on the Theodore Parker, a sunken Liberty ship in the area. The second day, we had classes on Blackbeard and the QAR specifically and then did a dive on the wrecksite. I have been told that so much sand had moved onto the site that the program did not happen this year (or if it did it was a different set-up). Hopefully they can get it started again next year.

As for the experience, it was amazing! At the end of the QAR dive, we were told to head to the North anchor where the photographer with the group took pictures of the buddy groups having a "moment with Blackbeard." Absolutely fabulous!! We received a Heritage Diver specialization from the dive organization PADI. I kept EVERYTHING from that program...one of the top 10 experiences in my life!

[capn'rob]

Why Back yer Mains'ls! About, about! Ye must attend the Pirate Invasion of Beaufort in Arrrgust the 13th and 14th. Ze'll be stoppin' t' call upon yer ol' shipmates at the Museum. Be like ol homeweek fer ye. We'll keep an eye peeled ta windward fer ye, Josephine Legard.

[Dread Pyrate Greyhound]

I have noted that in popular depictions of Blackbeard's ship, she was a large vessel with a Spritsail Topmast. But every once in a while you'll find one where she has a plain bowsprit. Any thought as to which depiction is right?

Personally I think the Queen Anne looks better with a Spritsail Topmast, but they were more common in the 1600s, not the 1700s when Blackbeard would've taken and then converted her for pyracy.

[Fox]

Won't comment on which depiction is right, but spritsail-topmasts were still being built onto English and Dutch ships at least as late as 1720, so for an English-built ship of 1710, such as the QAR, a spritsail-topmast would be quite possible.

[PoD]

Won't comment on which depiction is right, but spritsail-topmasts were still being built onto English and Dutch ships at least as late as 1720, so for an English-built ship of 1710, such as the QAR, a spritsail-topmast would be quite possible.

Wasn't the QAR a French ship originally? I thought I had read that it was originally called "Le Concorde de Nantes" and was built in Nantes in France?

If you go to the Transatlantic slave trade database, Voyage 30090, Concorde (1717) shows the information on the ship although admittedly it doesnt have the place of construction filled in.

http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/database/search.faces

Edited February 22, 2011 by PoD

[Fox]

Wasn't the QAR a French ship originally? I thought I had read that it was originally called "Le Concorde de Nantes" and was built in Nantes in France?

She was certainly French when she was captured, but I had it in the back of my mind that she was English built, and captured during the War of the Spanish Succession. Jiggered if I can find that reference now though, so I may have imagined it. The QAR website says that there's no real evidence where she was built.

[peglegstrick]

Found this on wikipedia

The 3,000-ton vessel, originally named Concord, was a french-man-of-war built in the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1710. She was captured by the French a year later. The ship was modified to hold more cargo, including slaves, and renamed La Concorde de Nantes. The slave ship was captured again by the pirate Captain Benjamin Hornigold on November 28, 1717 near the island of Martinique. Hornigold turned the ship over to one of his pirates—Edward Teach, who was later known as Blackbeard—and made him captain. His first mate, Christopher Blackwood (known as Blackbeard's Claw) was feared as a ferocious combatant and led many of Blackbeard's boarding parties.

[Tartan Jack]

Anyone know of the source used saying the Concorde was British built originally?

As I recall, the ship is named/renamed after what English speakers call the "Edict of Nantes" (and NOT the modern plaza in Paris, built decades AFTER the ship was destroyed on that Carolina sandbar).

For easy and simplicity, rather than as a great source (easy to "get the picture," rather than a real source)- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Nantes

[Dread Pyrate Greyhound]

Won't comment on which depiction is right, but spritsail-topmasts were still being built onto English and Dutch ships at least as late as 1720, so for an English-built ship of 1710, such as the QAR, a spritsail-topmast would be quite possible.

Thanks for the precise dates Foxe. I'm currently working on an illustration of the QAR and wanted to know if the spritsail topmast design I love, and used, is plausible for Blackbeard's flagship.

I also read that she may have lost her figurehead in a storm, is it possible Blackbeard would have replaced it with something more piratey? Though I suppose that since pirates tried to conceal their ship's origonal identities, and refit them for their new purpose, he may have replaced the figurehead anyway.

[MarkG]

Popular Mechanics has a very short piece on an archeologist working on the Queen Anne's Revenge.

[DSiemens]

Just thought I'd throw this out there and see if there were any thoughts. I have been doing some research on the Queen Annes Revenge and decided to look at similar ships in the time period. I have a book called "Story of Sail" by Veres Laszlo and Richard Woodman. It has over a thousand plans and information about ships through out history. As I looked at frigates within the time period a particular ship got my attention. The Sweepstakes was a frigate built by the British in 1708. It had 22 guns on the upper deck and 14 bigger guns on the lower gun deck. According to the book the ship was fast but the lower guns were to few to be effective and the ship was captured by the French. Sound familiar says I.

So I thought if QAR were a very similar ship to the sweepstakes what would have happened after her capture by the French. Likely they would have sailed her home and some one would say, "thats a fast ship to bad it's a frigate lets re plank her into something more useful." So they would re plank the ship covering up the gun deck leaving only the vents and make her a merchant ship and slaver. Later it would be captured by Benjamin Hornigold and given to Edward Teach. Teach seeing the gun deck would think, "this would make a great pirate ship given it had use of this gun deck." Twenty or so portholes would be cut out, which would no longer be to few to be effective, and the QAR would become a fast 40 gun frigate.

Just a shot in the dark and chances are we'll never know but thought I'd see if there were any thoughts.