Raising Blackbeard's "Queen Anne's Revenge"

Arms

Two cast iron cannons were retrieved from the site in 1997. Only one features any markings; crudely chiseled numbers 17 3 and possibly a 0 running lengthwise along the first reinforce. The numbers appear to represent the weight of the gun in Old English hundredweights [17(112) + 3(28) = 1988 pounds]. A third cast iron cannon was brought to the surface in 1998 and is considerably smaller than the others, measuring only 6 feet in length. That gun features the numbers 6-3-7 stamped laterally on the breech (Figure 9). Measured in hundredweights [6(112) + 3(28) + 7], the cannon weighs 763 pounds. The letter P appears on the tube just behind the trunnions and indicates that the cannon had been officially "proofed." The muzzle is comparatively clean of encrustation and may have been protected by a tompion, and the touchhole is stopped with a wooden peg, perhaps indicating that the gun is loaded.

Artifacts associated with the cannons include iron round and bar shot, lead aprons or touchhole covers, bag shot with shrapnel, and possible carriage hardware. Small arms from the

Figure 9. Cannon C-4 with weight numerals and proof mark.

site include a brass blunderbuss barrel, a brass side plate in the form of a sea serpent (Figure 10), a brass butt plate, and three chert gunflints. A wide variety of lead round shot ranging in diameter from .073 to .96 inches has also been recovered, as were two gunpowder-filled hand grenades. No edged weapons have yet been found.