Historical documents and eyewitness accounts tell us no lives were lost during the event, but what remained on the ocean floor awaited archaeological recovery. Working in collaboration with East Carolina University, the UAB established a Conservation Laboratory on their west campus which would receive the artifacts brought up from the salt-water wreck and begin the long process of conservation—a process that must be done quickly before the artifacts deteriorate from exposure to air and other elements.
When the weather was cooperative the divers would work as a team to map, photograph, and excavate portions of the shipwreck site. As with most archaeological endeavors, this recovery and documentation process has been a slow and tedious process as great care is taken to first record and then remove the artifacts from their original context. Some artifacts, like cannons and anchors, weight 1, of pounds or more, and can be challenging to bring up from the ocean floor. During seasonal visits to the shipwreck site, divers have now recovered more than , artifacts from about 60 percent of the site.
The site, which spans an area ft. Very little of the wooden ship has survived the harsh salt-water environment, but a few structural elements like the sternpost, some planking, the toilet liner, some sailcloth, metal fasteners iron nails and eye-bolts , and lead patches tell us what the ship may have looked like. Artifacts related to weaponry have been found, including iron cannons 29 total , cannon balls, gun parts, ammunition s of lead shot , sword parts, and hand-grenades.
It reflected an arsenal, ready to fight. Personal gear of the French crew and later the pirates and their passengers included mostly metal items such as shoe buckles, buttons, straight pins, and scissors as well as ceramic tobacco pipes and lead gaming markers.
Navigational instruments made of copper or brass have been found, such as compasses, dividers, sounding weights, and measuring implements. A single fragment of a Chinese porcelain teapot lid has been identified, suggesting someone on board enjoyed the ritual of tea drinking.
The French gave their new and much smaller vessel the appropriate name Mauvaise Rencontre Bad Encounter and, in two trips, succeeded in transporting the remaining Africans from Bequia to Martinique. Learn about La Concorde's journeys prior to its capture by Blackbeard.
Examine some of the tools and instruments Blackbeard and his crew used to navigate and survive at sea. Leaving Bequia in late November, Blackbeard cruised the Caribbean in his new ship, now renamed Queen Anne's Revenge , taking prizes and adding to his fleet. Vincent, St.
From there, a former captive reported that the pirates were headed to Samana Bay in Hispaniola Dominican Republic. It was there that Blackbeard captured the sloop Adventure, forcing the sloop's captain, David Herriot, to join him. Sailing east once again, the pirates passed near the Cayman Islands and captured a Spanish sloop off Cuba that they also added to their flotilla. Turning north, they sailed through the Bahamas and proceeded up the North American coast. In perhaps the most brazen act of his piratical career, Blackbeard blockaded the port of Charleston for nearly a week.
The pirates seized several ships attempting to enter or leave the port and detained the crew and passengers of one ship, the Crowley , as prisoners. As ransom for the hostages, Blackbeard demanded a chest of medicine.
Once delivered, the captives were released, and the pirates continued their journey up the coast. During that attempt, Queen Anne's Revenge and the sloop Adventure grounded on a sandbar and were abandoned. Research has uncovered two eyewitness accounts that shed light on where the two pirate vessels were lost. In that letter Brand stated that: "On the 10th of June or thereabouts a large pyrate Ship of forty Guns with three Sloops in her company came upon the coast of North carolina ware they endeavour'd To goe in to a harbour, call'd Topsail Inlet, the Ship Stuck upon the barr att the entrance of the harbour and is lost; as is one of the sloops.
In his deposition, Herriot claims that Blackbeard intentionally grounded Queen Anne's Revenge and Adventure in order to break up the company, which by this time had grown to over pirates. Intentional or not, that is what happened as Blackbeard marooned some pirates and left Beaufort with a hand picked crew and most of the valuable plunder. Blackbeard's piratical career ended six months later at Ocracoke Inlet on the North Carolina coast.
In a desperate battle aboard Maynard's sloop, Blackbeard and a number of his fellow pirates were killed. Capable of carrying about tons and armed with 16 cannons, the vessel carried hundreds of slaves and 20 pounds of gold dust.
After offloading most of the slaves and the captured crew, and relieving them of their gold, Blackbeard spent months marauding in the Caribbean, acquiring a miniature navy of smaller boats and amassing a huge crew. After collecting the ransom, Blackbeard retreated to North Carolina, which had plenty of hiding spots in obscure coves and inlets behind the Outer Banks.
The details of how the ship ran aground remain a matter of dispute. Some experts believe Blackbeard was just another victim of the treacherous sandbanks at the mouth of Beaufort inlet, which tend to shift during storms, confounding even modern captains. Luckily, the archaeologists have a different notion of treasure.
The dive yielded an ornate sword hilt made of iron, copper and an animal horn or antler. But the clues keep mounting. The boat was also armed to the teeth—excavators have recovered some , pieces of lead shot and identified at least 25 cannons though La Concorde carried only 16, the pirates would likely have added some of their own. The guns were apparently kept loaded at all times, a typical scofflaw practice.
At least one has iron bolts in its bore, and there are other suggestions of deck-clearing ammunition, like the remains of canvas bags full of broken glass, nails and other shrapnel.
0コメント