Blackbeard's Revenge: UNCW, CFCC star in real-life pirate saga
- On 20/05/2011
- In Famous Wrecks
- 0 comments
Photo Ken Blevins
By Jason Gonzales - Star News
On Friday, Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge will be resurrected on the big screen in the fourth "Pirates of the Caribbean" film, but a less flashy event next week could signal something more historic.
That's when the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources will attempt to retrieve a 3,000-pound anchor from the Queen Anne's Revenge shipwreck in the waters near Beaufort.
Buried in 20 feet of water, the notorious pirate Blackbeard's prized flagship has sat since June 1718. Both Cape Fear Community College and the University of North Carolina Wilmington will help pull the anchor to the surface on May 26.
Linda Carlisle, secretary of the state cultural resources department, said it will be a historic day for North Carolina during a press conference Wednesday at UNCW's Center for Marine Science.
"I can assure you when the anchor is brought up next week, it will be an event of international significance," she said.
The nearly 300-year-old shipwreck was discovered in 1996 by Intersal Inc., a marine recovery and consulting company. Since then, archaeologists have been able to recover more than 250,000 artifacts.
Many of those artifacts are on display at the N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort.
Carlisle said the state is hoping to find private funding to help pull up the wreck by 2013.
"(We) really need the extra funding and are looking for those private dollars," she said.
Queen Anne's Revenge pirate Blackbeard Cape Fear
Add a comment