Aged wine bottle is found in shipwreck

[Mr T.]

Aged wine bottle is found in shipwreck
May 24,2005
Patricia Smith
Freedom ENC

ATLANTIC BEACH - It was an odd place to find a wine bottle.

At least underwater archaeologists didn't expect to find that type of artifact in the bottom of the mid-section of the remains of a ship they think belonged to the pirate Blackbeard.

"It was nestled in between two ballast stones," said Chris Southerly, field supervisor for the state's Queen Anne's Revenge Project, which is in the middle of a month-long dive at the site.

There it was, though, an intact onion-shaped bottle - the kind typically used for wine on board ships in the 18th Century.

They were very durable with a sturdy base, said QAR Project Director Mark Wilde-Ramsing

"Perfect for a rocking ship," he said.

The bottle found last week was much like two others divers found on the shipwreck in earlier expeditions, Wilde-Ramsing said. They were found in the stern area, in what is believed to be the captain's quarters, along with various science instruments and gold dust.

"This one was in the bilge area," Wilde-Ramsing said.

You wouldn't expect there would have been a lot of activity down there, he said.

Archaeologists don't know if it was put there intentionally, or not.

"It's light enough that it could have been transported as part of the wrecking process," Southerly said.

Too, the crew may have reused the bottles for other purposes once they emptied them of wine, Southerly said.

Then there's another thought.

"It may be an indication that wine bottles were not just confined to the officers' quarters but were spread across the vessel," Southerly said.

David Moore, nautical archaeologist and maritime historian for the N.C. Maritime Museum, said it would not be surprising for wine to be spread throughout the ship.

"The pirates would drink that stuff up as quickly as they got it so they always had their eyes open for a ship carrying wine.

"They would do all kinds of strange things," Moore continued. "They literally would take baths in the stuff."

Moore recalled one tale of Blackbeard and his men on a drinking binge. They were up drinking the night before the pirate's final battle with Lt. Robert Maynard, commander of a small Brittish sloop that confronted Blackbeard off Ocracoke Island, he said.

Charles Johnson's General History of Pirates records Blackbeared offering this toast:

"Damnation seize my soul if I give you any quarter or take any from you."

Blackbeard was killed the next day while fighting Maynard and his men.

[Mr T.]

QAR dive produces interesting artifacts
May 23,2005
PATRICIA SMITH
DAILY NEWS STAFF ATLANTIC BEACH - Mention Blackbeard's head, and it conjures images of the pirate's decapitation after his final battle off Ocracoke.

But state divers found something at the Queen Anne's Revenge shipwreck site last week that gives a whole new meaning to the term.

"It's a pissdale; it's essentially a urinal" said Richard Lawrence, head of the N.C. Underwater Archaeology branch.

And they were apparently pretty common on 18th century vessels - at least in the officers' quarters, said David Moore, nautical archaeologist and maritime historian for the N.C. Maritime Museum.

"Basically it's just a tapered lead tube that leads from the 'seat of ease,' as they called it out into the water," Moore said.

It is similar to one Moore saw while working on the wreckage of the Henrietta Marie, a slave ship that went down off Key West, Fla., in 1700. He has seen reports of pissdales found on other shipwrecks from the period.

Divers found the artifact in the area of the wreckage believed to have been the stern of the vessel. It's the same area of the wreckage from which divers have brought up scientific instruments.

"This could well have been in the captain's cabin because that's where we found it," Lawrence said.

The divers are in the middle of a monthlong expedition at the site, which was discovered in Beaufort Inlet in 1996.

The underwater archaeologists also confirmed that what they thought was another cannon in the forward area of the wreckage was indeed another gun.

"It's a big gun; it's probably a 6-pounder," said Queen Anne's Revenge Project Director Mark Wilde-Ramsing. "It's probably a sister gun to the one we found last fall."

That brings the total of cannons and rail guns found at the site to 24.

The 8-foot-long cannon is one of two the QAR team plans to raise from the water Tuesday. The other is a 6-foot gun that would likely have fired a 4-pound cannon ball.

Other artifacts the divers have retrieved this month include a batch of nails, an intact wine bottle, the remains of a cast iron pot, a piece of wood with a ring bolt, bar shot and cannonballs.



Contact staff writer Patricia Smith at psmith@freedomenc.com or (252) 808-2275.

[Mr T.]

Divers recover cannon from Blackbeard's shipwreck

Powered by CYBER DIVER News Network
by PATRICIA SMITH

A six-foot cannon that fired a four-pound ball breaks the surface at Beaufort Inlet as it is recovered from what is likely the Queen Anne's Revenge, flagship of the pirate Blackbeard. (Chuck Beckley)

ATLANTIC BEACH, North Carolina (24 May 2005) -- Tom and Kim Bennett have been big believers in the Queen Anne's Revenge Project for several years now.

The Morehead City motel owners even provided free rooms to state underwater archaeologists who came to town for diving expeditions. But since the shipwreck was discovered in 1996, they had never gotten to see those divers bring up a cannon . . .until Tuesday.

The couple and their son, Thomas, watched from their private boat as a six-foot-long gun was hauled from the water.

"Good Lord look at that old thing," Kim Bennett said, joining in a round of applause as the divers pulled what was estimated to be a 700-pound to 800-pound artifact to the deck of the research vessel Martech owned by Cape Fear Community College.

"Think of the history, how long that's been down there," she said. "This is so cool."

Archaeologists believe the weapon had been on the ocean floor for 287 years. It was the fifth cannon raised from the site, they think is the wrecked remains of the pirate Blackbeard's flagship that ran aground in Beaufort Inlet in 1718.

Divers had planned to retrieve a second cannon from the site later in the day, but had problems with the wench on the research vessel they were using, said Richard Lawrence, head of the Underwater Archaeology Branch of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.

"We had it on the surface with the lift bags and just weren't able to get it out of the water," Lawrence said.

The 8-foot-long cannon, a six-pounder (meaning it would have shot a 6-pound cannonball), weighed probably three times that of the smaller one, said David Moore, nautical archaeologist and maritime historian with the N.C. Maritime Museum.

QAR Project Director Mark Wilde-Ramsing said he hoped the divers could still get the second cannon out before the month-long expedition ends this week.

The sheer weight of the cannon is one reason Moore thinks it may have been part of the original armament on board La Concorde when it was taken by pirates in 1717.

"We know she was carrying 14 (guns) when Blackbeard captured her," Moore said.

Historical records document that Blackbeard renamed the vessel Queen Anne's Revenge and increased the firepower to 40 guns as he began to take more prizes.

"We suspect that the guns he added from that point on were probably the smaller, 3-to-4-pounders and even some rail guns," Moore said.

They would have been easier to move from one ship to another, Moore said.

About 18 of the 24 cannons found on the shipwreck are the larger cannons, Moore said.

The smaller cannon raised Tuesday, which probably shot a 4-pound cannonball, is likely a sister gun to an English-made cannon already retrieved from the site, Wilde-Ramsing said.

Using electrolysis, conservators have found the makers mark "IF" on that cannon which indicates it was made by Major John Fuller in a Heathfield furnace between 1694 and 1722, Nathan Henry, a state archaeological conservator, said at a recent symposium on the shipwreck.

The smaller cannon went on public display in the parking lot of Fort Macon State Park for about an hour before it was taken to the QAR conservation lab in Greenville. There it will be cleaned and preserved in a process that could take more than three years, Wilde-Ramsing said.