Blackbeard's pirate ship's Anchor Recovered

Blackbeard's pirate ship's Anchor Recovered

North Carolina archaeologists retrieved an anchor from one of Blackbeard's pirate ships, the wreckage of the notorious ship “Queen Anne's Revenge”. The anchor is a piece of pirate history that many people will be interested in seeing, and it is certain that there will be much research about the pirate ship and the man whose real name was Edward Teach.

Queen Anne's Revenge was the legendary ship used by Blackbeard, the infamous English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the east coast of the American colonies.

Named after his flowing black beard, he was reported to have worn lit fuses under his hat to frighten his adversaries.

The anchor was recovered Friday after spending nearly 300 years in the murky depths off the coast of North Carolina. The recovery of the artifact comes just a week after the release of the latest "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie--"On Stranger Tides"--which features Blackbeard.

Researchers have worked for the last week on recovery of the 13-foot long treasured anchor. The area was located in 1996 by a Florida company called Intersal, Inc.

Archaeologists believe the anchor belonged to Blackbeard's flagship, Queen Anne's Revenge. While Blackbeard was a notorious pirate before his death at the hands of the Royal Navy in 1718, his legend has lived long into the 21st century.  

This latest recovery from the Queen Anne's Revenge is certain to attract plenty of attention and boost visitors at the N.C. National Maritime Museum in Beaufort. The anchor is scheduled to take its place at the museum in June and recovery of artifacts from the wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge is expected to continue through 2012.

In 1717, Blackbeard captured a French slave ship and renamed it Queen Anne's Revenge.

Edward Teach or Thatch aka Blackbeard was widely believed to have settled in Bath, North Carolina, where he eventually received a governor's pardon.

Some experts say he grew bored and returned to piracy.

He was killed by volunteers from the British Royal Navy in November 1718, five months after the ship thought to be Queen Anne's Revenge sank.

The ship will be featured in the fourth movie of the Disney "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, which hits U.S. movie theatres on Friday.

The Queen Anne's Revenge shipwreck site, located off North Carolina's coast, has yielded more than 250,000 artifacts and is listed on the National Register of Historic Sites.