Blackbeard’s Sunken Flagship Found

Treasure hunters have discovered what is believed to be Blackbeard’s flagship less than two miles offshore, nearly three centuries after the pirate ship went down. “We’ve not found the smoking blunderbuss yet, but we have found enough artifacts to make us think this may be Queen Anne’s Revenge,” said Jeffrey Crow, director of the state Division of Archives and History. The wreck was found in November by Intersal Inc., a treasure-hunting company, in just 20 feet of water in Beaufort Inlet. Queen Anne’s Revenge, flagship of the fearsome English buccaneer Edward “Blackbeard” Teach, sank in June 1718 after running onto a sandbar. So did the Adventure, a sloop in Blackbeard’s fleet that went to its aid. Blackbeard himself was slain later that year in a skirmish with the British Navy off the North Carolina coast.