Notorious pirate Blackbeard's flagship, Queen Anne's Revenge, was run aground in what is now Beaufort Inlet in 1718. Some believe Blackbeard intentionally did this. For more than 200 years the ship lay in the bottom of the sea off Shackleford Banks in North Carolina. It was in 1996 that the ship was discovered and since then archaeologists have recovered thousands of artifacts that are being conserved at the QAR Museum at ECU in Greenville, NC.
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| Blackbeard the notorious pirate who sailed the Queen Anne's Revenge. |
Dan's grandson, Erik, who just finished his Master's Degree at University of Durham, England, is a conservator at the QAR Conservation Laboratory.
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| Grandson Erik. |
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| Dan talks with Sarah the Director of the Laboratory. |
In addition to learning about the techniques used to conserve these artifacts, many artifacts were on display.
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| Xray of shoe buckle. |
Xrays are used to locate artifacts within the concretions. A shoe buckle was located by xray and later carefully removed from the concretion.
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| Shoe buckle. |
There have been a number of cannons removed. A map shows the position of cannons at the site of the shipwreck.
 Add Map showing location of cannons and anchors at the site of the shipwreck. |
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| Cannon with cannon balls. |
Perhaps the most impressive artifact is the 12 foot anchor.
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| Twelve-foot anchor. |
We thoroughly enjoyed the Open House that the Laboratory held on Saturday, and we especially enjoyed learning about some of Erik's work.
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