Bringing up Blackbeard's booty

Centuries of marine growth cover Blackbeard's relics on the sea floor

Researchers retrieve more artifacts from pirate's sunken flagship

BEAUFORT, North Carolina (CNN) -- Nearly 300 years after the pirate ship Queen Anne's Revenge sank just off the North Carolina coast, underwater archaeologists have resumed retrieving artifacts from the vessel, the flagship of perhaps the most infamous pirate of all -- Blackbeard.

Dives that started up again this month continue a state-led recovery effort from the spring, when researchers were able to raise an exposed portion of the ship's hull in danger of being damaged or lost.

VIDEO CNN's Brian Cabell has history and objects from the Queen Anne's Revenge Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

Some of the artifacts recovered earlier are on display at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, and reports from the latest dives are being posted on the Internet -- at http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/qar/default.htm -- by the North Carolina Division of Archaeology and History's Underwater Archaeology Unit.

The wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge -- which hit a Beaufort Inlet sandbar and sank in 1718 -- was discovered four years ago.

If the weather cooperates, archaeologists hope to work through October 20 on this latest phase of the pirate ship recovery project that may take another five years to complete.

Blackbeard's ship tells a tale of environmental change
December 16, 1998
Treasures may mark ocean grave of Blackbeard's ship
October 9, 1997

The Queen Anne's Revenge Shipwreck Project
  • Dive Reports
North Carolina Maritime Museum
Blackbeard's Homepage ........the King of Pirates

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