Blackbeard's Anchor Resurrected

The nearly 3,000 pound anchor was brought up off the coast of the Carolinas just weeks ago.
(Photo by Robert Willett, AP)

2011 is turning out to be “the summer of pirates.”  On May 27, just one week after the blockbuster opening of Disney's Pirates of the Carribean:  On Stranger Tides, an archaealogical team raised from the ocean floor one of the anchors from what is believed to be the pirate Blackbeard's flagship, Queen Anne's Revenge.

The wreckage site was discovered in six meters of water three kilometers off the coast of North Carolina in 1996 and was quickly declared off limits except to the archaelogical team that had already invested $300,000 in the discovery, an amount they hope to recuperate from book sales and movie proceeds.

Wendy Welsh, field conservator and Queen Anne's Revenge lab manager who has been with the QAR project for nine years, along with archaealogist Chris Southerly made the dive with intentions to hook up the second largest of three giant anchors.  However, their intended target was too attached to other items in the pile of ballast to remove.  Going in through the side of the ship, they were able to hook to what has been described as the “everyday anchor.”


Apparently, ships of that time period carried several anchors, with each having its own purpose.  Some were to be used in emergencies.  Others, like one earlier pulled from the site, were lighter grapnel anchors.  The one pulled up on May 27 was certainly not a grapnel.  It weighed between 2,500 and 3,000 lbs.  As the third largest artifact in the wreckage, its size is impressive:  11 feet, 4 inches long with arms stretching 7 feet, 7 inches across.  It is thought to be the anchor used on a daily basis by the ship's crew.  The two larger anchors were most likely used to secure the ship in times of storms.  The second largest anchor has arms that span 8 feet and is 13 feet in length.

The anchor pulled from the wreckage, like all other iron artifacts from the ship, is covered in concretion which is a combination of sea shells, sand, and other forms of debris which over time become attached to wrought iron through a process called leaching.  Small, previous items pulled from the site have been x-rayed to see the original object inside the concretion.

The QAR team, under the direction of project manager Mark Wilde-Ramsing, has already recovered more than 250,000 artifacts from the site.  These items are the property of the State of North Carolina and are on display at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort.  The anchor was scheduled to be placed on display in the museum June 11, 2011.

Wilde-Ramsing's team will continue recovery dives with hopes of completing the recovery process by the end of 2013.

The ship was originally a French ship, La Concorde, used in the African slave trade.  It was captured by Edward Teach, most commonly referred to as Blackbeard the pirate, in 1717.  He renamed the ship Queen Anne's Revenge and made it his flagship.

In 1718, Blackbeard and his crew received pardons from Britain's Governor of North Carolina, Charles Eden.  These pardons were offered to pirates to squelch the theft and destruction of British property.  The notorious pirate settled in Bath, North Carolina, and with riches he managed to keep in a deceptive plan where he stole from and marooned his own crew, he lived a comfortable life.  However, he had made many enemies.  In November 1718, only five months after Queen Anne's Revenge had plunged into the ocean, volunteers with the Royal Navy killed and claimed to have decapitated Blackbeard in Ocracoke Inlet.