Blackbeard's Cannon Salvaged from Pirate Shipwreck (Video)

by NowPublic Staff | October 27, 2011 at 07:24 am

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Blackbeard: Edward Teach's Cannon Raised from Watery Grave

A cannon aboard Queen Anne's Revenge, the pirate ship belonging to Blackbeard, was raised to the surface off the coast of Beaufort, North Carolina. The 8-foot, 2,000-lb cannon is one of 280,000 items, large and small, recovered from the pirate flagship, which sank in 1718.

Blackbeard, born Edward Teach, was one of the most notorious pirates in history. He was known for lighting fuses in his beard to terrify his enemies (and his crew).

The Queen Anne's Revenge Project has been salvaging items from Blackbeard's flagship, from jewelry to cannon (13 so far).

The Qeen Anne's Revenge was originally La Concorde, a French slave ship, before Blackbeard captured it, renamed it, and put it to a more folk-hero-friendly vocation.

"The last people who saw this were pirates," QAR project director Mark Wilde-Ramsing told more than 100 spectators who later gathered in front of Beaufort's Maritime Museum for a closer look at the 18th century weapon.