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Raising Blackbeard's "Queen Anne's Revenge"

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Bianca
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« Reply #60 on: April 18, 2009, 08:27:27 am »








Who Was Blackbeard?



The fearsome pirate left reminders of his legacy elsewhere on the North Carolina coast.

In Plymouth—about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Bath—actor Ben Cherry has made a full-time career of doing Blackbeard impersonations.

The 1996 discovery near Beaufort of a shipwreck thought to have been Blackbeard's vessel rekindled widespread interest in the pirate. (Read "'Blackbeard's Ship" Yields New Clues to Pirate Mystery.")

And there are enduring legends that Blackbeard hid some of his gold in the surrounding swamps, and that his ghost still frightens away anyone foolish enough to look for the treasure.

He may have been born in England sometime before 1690. His real name is thought to be Edward Teach, or perhaps Thatch. He probably became a sailor during the War of Spanish Succession from 1701 to 1714, when England's Queen Anne hired privateers to plunder French and Spanish ships.

Like many sailors who were out of work when the war ended, Teach turned to piracy. He joined the crew of pirate Benjamin Hornigold and apparently proved himself to be a skillful, cunning, and daring leader.

Around 1718, Teach—who'd grown a long, black beard that covered most of his face—took command of a captured French ship he renamed the Queen Anne's Revenge and embarked on his short, spectacular career as Blackbeard.

In the summer of 1718 Blackbeard astonished England and colonial America by blockading the port of Charleston, South Carolina. He could have leveled the city with his armada but decided it would be a more impressive—and memorable—display of power to spare the town.

When the Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground off Beaufort, Blackbeard went to Bath.

The colony's governor granted Blackbeard a pardon, and it appeared that the pirate was going to settle down and become a country gentleman.

But the governor also agreed to look the other way when Blackbeard occasionally snatched a passing ship. Teach's willingness to spend freely and sell captured goods at bargain prices made him many friends in Bath.

Blackbeard was killed in November 1718 during a bloody battle with the British navy at Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina. The British displayed Blackbeard's head on the bowsprit of one of their ships.
« Last Edit: April 18, 2009, 08:29:38 am by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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Bianca
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« Reply #61 on: April 18, 2009, 08:31:32 am »









Blackbeard's Legacy



Moore, the North Carolina Maritime Museum curator, said he's often asked why Blackbeard is still remembered when other pirates have been forgotten.

"My stock answer is that it's the nickname," Moore said. "Blackbeard. That's easily remembered."

Parry, the London author, said that Blackbeard died a prestigious death, which helped secure his place in history.

"He wasn't killed by a jealous husband," Parry said. "He was killed by the Royal Navy."

Cherry, the actor who impersonates Blackbeard, said the pirate is remembered because he knew how to market himself.

"He created an image that scared the daylights out of people," he said.

That image conveyed the assumption that Blackbeard was a murderer. But, Moore said, while Blackbeard probably was "inhumane" and even "barbarous," he probably did not routinely kill people.

Blackbeard's reputation as a killer "was all done with smoke and mirrors," Cherry said.

It's also unlikely that Blackbeard buried any of his ill-gotten loot.

"He probably spent it," Parry said.

Tales of pirates' ghosts and buried treasure are "great entertainment," he said.

"I love the stories. They're great over a beer."

But Blackbeard was "a man of great excesses" and a determined hedonist who wasn't likely to plan for the future by saving his money.

"Pirates didn't believe in the future," Parry said. "They had a two- to three-year life expectancy."



North Carolina writer Willie Drye is the author of Storm of the Century: The Labor Day hurricane of 1935, published by National Geographic.
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« Reply #62 on: April 18, 2009, 08:37:49 am »










                                                             EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS:


                                                   Blackbeard Pirate Relics, Gold Found   







NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
March 30, 2009

—A brass navigational instrument known as a chart divider is among artifacts recently recovered from a
shipwreck thought to be the Queen Anne's Revenge, the ship of the infamous 18th-century pirate Blackbeard, archaeologists said in March 2009.

Some of the newfound relics add to evidence that the ship belonged to the pirate. ""We feel pretty comfortable that that's what this is," said Marke Wilde-Ramsing, director of the Queen Anne's Revenge project for the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology.

Underwater archaeologists from the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources have been excavating the wreck—which lies 22 feet (7 meters) underwater a few miles off Beaufort, North Carolina—since 1997.

(Related: "Blackbeard's Legend, Legacy Live on in North Carolina.")

Navigational instruments were favorite targets of looting pirates, because the tools could easily be sold or traded, said archaeologist David Moore of the North Carolina Maritime Museum, who is working on the wreck site.
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« Reply #63 on: April 18, 2009, 08:42:10 am »








On March 26, 2009, two fleurs-de-lis (iris flowers)—the royal symbol of France—were revealed on an apothecary weight from a shipwreck off the coast of North Carolina, archaeologists said in March 2009.

Originally stuck to other nested weights but separated via an electrolysis process, the weight and a fleur-de-lis-shaped keg spigot found in the shipwreck are among the strongest evidence that the ship was originally French—a key to tying the ship to Blackbeard.

The pirate captured the French ship Le Concorde and renamed it Queen Anne's Revenge in 1717.

Le Concorde's surgeon, who was forced to serve briefly in Blackbeard's crew, may have owned the weights, designed for pharmaceuticals. Pirates could have also used the weights to measure gold dust, experts say.
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« Reply #64 on: April 18, 2009, 08:44:09 am »








This mortar and pestle, found in an underwater wreck thought to be Blackbeard's ship Queen Anne's Revenge, probably was used to crush medicine or spices, archaeologists said in March 2009.

What appear to be ornate designs on the mortar are actually minerals that hardened on the objects, which were discovered off the coast of North Carolina.

North Carolina state archaeologists have already used an electrolysis method to remove the mineral buildup from the pestle, hence its more uniform finish.
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« Reply #65 on: April 18, 2009, 08:45:59 am »








This small disc—found on a shipwreck thought to be the pirate Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge—is actually a silver coin covered with nearly three centuries of mineral buildup, archaeologists said in March 2009.

Build up of this type, known to form only on silver, will be removed by electrolysis.

An x-ray of the coin may have also revealed a picture (right), according to North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources archaeologists.
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« Reply #66 on: April 18, 2009, 08:48:29 am »








A copper-alloy sword guard was recently found in a shipwreck thought to be Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge, archaeologists said in March 2009.

The guard would have sat between the sword's steel blade and its wooden handle. An x-ray of the sword guard (bottom) shows a small hole where a decorative chain might have been attached.

Infamous pirate Blackbeard grounded his ship while trying to enter the harbor of Beaufort, North Carolina in 1718.
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« Reply #67 on: April 18, 2009, 08:50:38 am »








A thimble's worth of gold bits—the largest a fifth of in inch (half a centimeter) wide—was found recently in a shipwreck that could be Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge, archaeologists said in March 2009. The miniature booty may have been overlooked by the pirate, whose crew would have scoured the ship for treasure after hijacking the formerly French vessel in 1717.

The gold was found intermingled with lead shot, causing archaeologists to speculate that a pre-Blackbeard crew member had hidden gold in a long-since-disintegrated ammunition keg.

The smidgen of gold treasure is among a series of recent discoveries adding to evidence that the North Carolina shipwreck is Blackbeard's. "I think we can pretty much assume that's what we have," said Queen Anne's Revenge project director Mark Wilde-Ramsing.
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« Reply #68 on: April 18, 2009, 08:53:45 am »











                             PBS Announces SECRETS OF THE DEAD "Blackbeard's Lost Ship"


                                            - Premieres Wednesday, April 22, 2009 -






Apr 14, 2009
PBS

Archaeological Discoveries From Queen Anne's Revenge,
Legendary Flagship of Infamous Pirate Blackbeard,
Rewrite History

Edward Teach, alias Blackbeard, was the most notorious pirate of his day. At the height of his regin,
he commanded a fleet of four ships and a crew of 400 men. They were ruthless seafaring raiders who terrorized vessels in American waters. In 1717, Blackbeard even blockaded the city of Charleston, crippling its economy. Eventually he was caught and beheaded by a posse from the Royal Navy. Now, 300 years later, a marine archaeology team believes it has found Blackbeard's sunken flagship, Queen Anne's Revenge, off the North Carolina coast. The remains of the shipwreck are helping to solve the most enduring mystery surrounding the infamous pirate captain - did he accidentally run his ship aground or was it a deliberate plot to betray his crew and cheat them out of their share of the plunder?         

SECRETS OF THE DEAD "Blackbeard's Lost Ship" airs Wednesday, April 22, 2009, 8:00-9:00 p.m. ET on PBS. Narrated by actor Liev Schreiber ("CSI," Manchurian Candidate), the documentary takes viewers
on an underwater archaeological adventure. The discoveries from the ongoing research are rewriting
the final chapter of Blackbeard's wild life. 

Featured experts include Lisa Briggs, marine archaeologist; Angus Konstam, author of Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate; and David Moore, curator of nautical archaeology, North Carolina Maritime Museum.

"It's amazing how history comes full circle," says Jared Lipworth, executive producer of SECRETS OF
THE DEAD. "Three hundred years ago the colonists were faced with a pirate who instilled fear into the hearts of all who crossed his path, and today we're seeing a troubling resurgence of deadly piracy off the coast of Somalia. While we recognize today's pirates as the terrorists they are, we often have a tendency to romanticize the swashbuckling villains of the past. This program aims to set the record straight." 

"Blackbeard's Lost Ship" captures the rigorous and painstaking efforts to salvage the fragile wreckage. Among the many challenges facing the archaeological team are risky dive conditions and artifacts made fragile by centuries in salt water. Much like evidence from a crime scene, each item must be tagged and catalogued before it can even be picked up off the seabed. From tiny game pieces to guns encased in sediment to cannons weighing more than a ton, every artifact reveals more detail about life aboard an active pirate ship. The team even found gold dust - a staple of every pirate legend!

The team was able to identify the ship as the Queen Anne's Revenge by carbon-dating wood from the hull, x-raying concreted artifacts and retracing makers' marks and dates on the weapons. But that was only the beginning. Analyzing the position of an anchor and a pile of cannons leads one expert to posit that the ship had clearly run aground by accident. But when the testimonies of Blackbeard's crew are taken into account and the cannons are examined more closely, it seems more likely that the grounding was carefully orchestrated by a pirate captain who was trying to get rid of his crew. After beaching the ship, Blackbeard transferred all the valuables onto a smaller vessel, left the majority of his men stranded on a nearby island and then sailed off into the sunset.

The archaeological treasure trove found on the Queen Anne's Revenge provides a unique opportunity to reexamine Blackbeard's legacy. Three hundred years after his death, experts can piece together an archaeological puzzle that separates fact from fiction and reveals the true story of the infamous pirate.
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