News From the Department
Capturing the Prize Catch Cannon
For more information contact Mark Wilde-Ramsing at (910) 458-9042, x 202 or Fay Mitchell at (919) 807-7389.
Morehead City — After about a year of trying, a cannon weighting about 2,500 pounds will be raised from the wreck of the presumed Queen Anne’s Revenge, Blackbeard’s flagship, and available for public viewing. On Wednesday, Oct. 17, 11 a.m., at the N.C. Maritime Museum expansion site at Gallants Channel, the heavy weapon will be displayed before traveling to the conservation lab at East Carolina University.
Researchers have known about the six-pounder cannon since 1998. Recovery had been planned for last fall, but a vessel capable of lifting the large artifact wasn’t available. Bad weather thwarted a planned spring recovery dive. On Monday, the Cape Fear Community College vessel Dan Moore will perform the task during a training exercise for its Maritime Technology Program. It seems as if Blackbeard himself is holding the cannon back, but the sheer size and lifting capacity of this 96-foot ship could be the match for the pirate captain.
“Lots of small artifacts will be encased in the concretion, possibly even be tiny bits of gold,” Project Director Mark Wilde-Ramsing explains. “A pewter plate, parts of the gun carriage, and other things will be hanging off the cannon.”
The pirate Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge ran aground in Beaufort Inlet in June 1718. It was located in November 1996 by Intersal, Inc., with information provided to Operations Director Mike Daniel by company President Phil Masters. State archaeologists’research over 11 years supports the wreck’s identity as the QAR.
After nearly 300 years on the Atlantic Ocean floor, concretions of sand, shells and salt have formed a cement-like coating around cannons and other iron objects. Some previously recovered and conserved artifacts can be viewed at the N.C. Maritime Maritime Museum in Beaufort.
For additional information, visit www.qaronline.org or contact Mark Wilde-Ramsing at 252-726-6841, ext. 169. The project is administered by the Office of Archives and History in the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, a state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina’s arts, history and culture. Podcasts and information are available 24/7 at www.ncculture.com.
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