Cannon recovered from presumed Blackbeard ship
Associated Press
Published: Thursday,
October 30, 2008 at 8:30 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, October 30, 2008
ATLANTIC BEACH, N.C. – Researchers have recovered one of the big cannons from the wreck of
the vessel presumed to be Blackbeard’s flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge.
Cindy Burnham,
Lucky Shot Productions
Raising a cannon Thursday from the presumed ship of Blackbeard are
Capt. Tom Piner, captain,
N.C. Marine Fisheries Shell Point;
Jerry Spencer, crew, Shell Point (hidden);
David Moore, Queen Anne's Revenge archaeologist; and
Wendy Welsh, QAR field conservation supervisor, foreground.
Rough seas delayed the retrieval earlier this week, but the 2,000 pound, eight-foot cannon was
brought to the surface near Beaufort Thursday morning.
It had rested on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean for nearly 300 years.
A news release from the state Department of Cultural Resources said the cannon will spend the next five years
at the Queen Anne’s Revenge Conservation Lab at East Carolina University in Greenville,
being prepared for museum exhibit.
This is the 12th cannon to be recovered from the shipwreck site.
Experts think Blackbeard’s crew abandoned the ship after it ran aground in Beaufort Inlet in 1718.
The wreck was discovered in 1996.
