Raising Blackbeard's "Queen Anne's Revenge"

The absence of carronades, a type of naval cannon in wide use by the first quarter of the nineteenth century, supported by the lack of creamwares, a predominant pottery type by the Revolutionary War, strongly suggests that the shipwreck dates to before the nineteenth century. The search for ship candidates that match the Beaufort Inlet wreck has been thorough, and eleven vessels sunk during the eighteenth century were located in the literature. Since none were military vessels and the majority were small, lightly armed or unarmed merchant ships, only Blackbeard's flagship Queen Anne's Revenge was large enough or contained the armament suggested by the historical and archaeological evidence.

Figure 13. A bronze bell dated 1709 was the first artifact to indicate the date of the wreck.

The Whydah Galley, under the command of the pirate Sam Bellamy, was lost off Cape Cod in 1717. In 1982 the ship was located, excavated, and reported in three volumes. Whydah Galley and Concorde/Queen Anne's Revenge were remarkably alike in a number of ways. Both vessels were similar in size, both were engaged in the African slave trade, and both ended their careers as pirate ships. The artifacts recovered from the Beaufort Inlet wreck, particularly the cannons and munitions, gun parts, wine bottles, ceramics, and pewterware, compare favorably with those found on the Whydah. Some, such as the decorative lead tacks, dividers, serpentine side plate, and grenades, are nearly identical.

Perhaps the strongest circumstantial evidence supporting the identity of the Beaufort Inlet shipwreck comes from the smallest of the artifacts so far recovered. Approximately seventy flakes of gold (2 grams) in its natural form were found on the wreck, and several historical accounts place gold dust on board the Concorde. According to Lt. Ernaut, for example, "fourteen ounces of gold in powder" was loaded on board the slaver at Judas on July 8, 1717. Pierre Dosset, captain of the Concorde, claimed that the pirates stole twenty pounds one-ounce of West African gold dust from the officers and crew of the Concorde. Henry Bostock, master of the sloop Margaret, also refers to gold dust on board the pirate vessel: "this deponent further saith that among other riches he believed they had much gold dust on board."