Raising of the Queen Anne's Revenge

[Shipwreck John]

Found this article on the web this morning while searching for another one. Thought you you history buffs might be interested

Blackbeard dive site still posing questions

April 25,2006

PATRICIA SMITH

DAILY NEWS STAFF

BEAUFORT — State archaeologists don’t know why there are nine cannons in a cluster in the main ballast area at the center of the shipwreck believed to be Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge.

It is not normally where the experts would expect to find armament on a pirate ship, said QAR Project Director Mark Wilde-Ramsing.

“Something pushed all these things together,” Wilde-Ramsing said.

It may be that the cannons were not part of the armament, but were in storage, Wilde-Ramsing said. It could be they were being moved when the ship went down, he said. Or they may have simply fallen to the heap from another part of the ship sometime in the nearly 300 years they’ve been underwater in Beaufort Inlet.

The archaeologists hope to get clues to the answer during a diving expedition planned for the site next month.

“We’re going to bring up one of the cannons sort of out on the edge of the pile,” Wilde-Ramsing said.

They want to see if the gun is loaded like the others that have been recovered from the site, he said.

It will be part of a diving expedition planned for May 8-20, Wilde-Ramsing said.

Divers will begin May 2 preparing the site to finish what was started in the spring of 2005, he said.

Last year, the QAR project began excavating different 5-foot-square units from different places across the shipwreck in order to get a sample of artifacts from the entire boat.

“This is sort of the first step of what we hope will be an effort to get everything up in the next several years and get it out of harm’s way,” Wilde-Ramsing said.

It will also be a representative sample of the artifacts should the site get destroyed by a hurricane before a full excavation can occur, he said.

Wilde-Ramsing said he does not know what artifacts, other than the cannon, divers might bring up.

“Look what we found last year, and we’ll be doing more of the same,” he said.

In addition to bringing up two cannons, divers found several other artifacts including a toilet liner and stemware.

[Tora of Tortuga]

Very neat, can not wait to see what they dig up.

Speaking of what they have found, the article makes no mentions of what they found last year. Does any one have any links to info about the past excavation?

Thanks for the post Shipwreck John

~Tora of Tortuga~

[Capt Thighbiter]

actually, i have read that there are some serious inconsistancies with this site and that this may not be the QER after all.

[Tora of Tortuga]

actually, i have read that there are some serious inconsistancies with this site and that this may not be the QER after all.

Great and Blackbeard and the Queen Elizabeths Revenge are my faviorts of the GAoP era. I hope it really is the QER after all and not just some other tallship. Anyways thanks for the info.

~Tora of Tortuga~

[Captain Midnight]

actually, i have read that there are some serious inconsistancies with this site and that this may not be the QER after all.

Great and Blackbeard and the Queen Elizabeths Revenge are my faviorts of the GAoP era. I hope it really is the QER after all and not just some other tallship. Anyways thanks for the info.

~Tora of Tortuga~

That should be Queen Anne's Revenge...