Blackbeard’s Sunken Prize: The 300-Year Voyage of Queen Anne’s Revenge

Abstract

B Edward Thache (Teach). Three hundred years after the notorious pirate’s death in a bloody battle on Ocracoke Island in November 1718, the name still evokes a frisson of fear. Now imagine the terror felt by eighteenth-century Atlantic seafarers and coastal dwellers as Blackbeard seized ships and plundered coastal towns in his quest for treasure and pirate riches. Blackbeard’s Sunken Prize: The 300Year Voyage of Queen Anne’s Revenge recounts the discovery of Blackbeard’s flagship near Beaufort, North Carolina, and uses recovered artifacts to identify the ship and place it in historical context. The authors, Wilde-Ramsing and Carnes-McNaughton, are archaeologists who have been intimately involved in the Queen Anne’s Revenge (QAR) Shipwreck Project and write from first-hand experience of the project’s activities and discoveries over the past twenty years. With sixty-percent of the site excavated and hundreds of thousands of items recovered, including 29 iron cannons, 250,000 pieces of lead shot, and other items left behind during the ship’s abandonment, the authors’ recounting of the archaeological expedition, recovery of concretions, and conservation of recovered artifacts makes for a fascinating look at life on an eighteenth-century pirate ship. The book consists of eight chapters interspersed with vignettes, each of which explains a project activity or recovered item in more detail. The first chapter uses historical accounts to examine pirate lore and known facts about Blackbeard’s life, while the second chapter uses historical records to show how the French privateer turned slave ship, La Concorde de Nantes, became Blackbeard’s flagship, Queen Anne’s Revenge, in 1717. Less than six months later in early June 1718, the QAR ran aground in Beaufort Inlet and its pirate crew abandoned ship. The next two chapters discuss the evolution of the North Carolina coastline over the last three centuries, the discovery of the shipwreck’s remains on November 21, 1996, and the recovery of sample artifacts from the wreckage that identified the site as the resting place of the QAR. Conservation of the recovered artifacts is the focus of chapter five; the longest chapter (chapter six) is devoted to classifying, cataloging, and discussing groups of artifacts from the wreckage. The final two chapters delineate how the archaeological record confirmed the identity of the QAR and discuss how the Queen Anne’s Revenge Shipwreck Project has captured the imagination of today’s public. Beautiful, full-color art reproductions, illustrations, and photographs appear on nearly every page and add wonderful detail to the book’s rich content and conversational style. Detailed endnotes support the text and lead the reader to relevant primary and secondary sources while the index is well-organized and complete. This book is a superb addition to North Carolina libraries of all types, especially public and academic libraries. While the subject matter is useful for undergraduates in many disciplines (history, archaeology, and American Studies, for example), the text is accessible to general readers and the subject matter would definitely appeal to armchair historians. Updates on the QAR Shipwreck Project are available at www. qaronline.org. Blackbeard’s notoriety continues to fascinate three hundred years later!