Queen Anne's Revenge

Artist's Drawing of Queen Anne's Revenge Run Aground
Courtesy NC Department of Cultural Resources    
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Security at the QAR Site

  • November 1996 – A shipwreck is discovered in Beaufort Inlet by Intersal, Inc., with information provided to Operations Director Mike Daniel by company president Phil Masters. Many factors suggest it could be Queen Anne’s Revenge. 
  • 1997 - The North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort becomes the official repository for the artifacts from this historic wreck and begins exhibiting them for the public. 
  • Fall 1997 – The NC Underwater Archeology Branch, part of the NC Department of Cultural Resources, begins assessment of the site and recovery of additional artifacts. Each year since, state archeologists have conducted one to two field seasons at the site. Many seasons have been hampered by storms. All of them have been dependent on funding. 
  • 2003 – The state’s Queen Anne’s Revenge Conservation Lab is established on the campus of East Carolina University. A team of conservators work on cleaning, identifying and cataloging artifacts. 
  • 2010 – Work starts at the NC Maritime Museum on the planning for the first full scale exhibit of artifacts from the wreck The Friends of the Museum begin the fundraising efforts that will eventually fully fund the construction of the entire exhibit.  
  • June 11, 2011 the first permanent and largest exhibit of the artifacts from Queen Anne’s Revenge, is scheduled to open. The museum staff and the Friends organization are working hard to put the finishing touches on the new nearly 1200 square feet dedicated to the exhibit and to the celebration of that event.
There has been interest around the nation and even international coverage about the artifacts. More than 50 news media have reported various aspects about Blackbeard, the artifacts, and the exhibit in the last six months. Over 130 individuals have become new members in anticipation of the June festivities and to support the exhibit. Including the participation and proceeds from the "Fish Towne Get Down 2010" and generous sponsors, more than $112 thousand has been donated and an additional $35 thousand of in-kind materials or advertising have made the “Life Aboard the Queen Anne’s Revenge” exhibit and the celebration possible.

Archaeologists believe the site holds an estimated 750,000 artifacts, with approximately 50% recovered to date. Many of the artifacts are in the process of conservation, which often takes years. A small percentage of artifacts have been on exhibit at the Museum in Beaufort and in a temporary exhibit at the NC Museum of History in Raleigh. 
- Anchor Pulled to Surface May 27, 2011 -

(AP) MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. - Archaeologists recovered the first anchor from what's believed to be the wreck of the pirate Blackbeard's flagship off the North Carolina coast Friday, a move that might change plans about how to save the rest of the almost 300-year-old artifacts from the central part of the ship.

Divers had planned to recover the second-largest artifact on what's believed to be Queen Anne's Revenge but discovered it was too well-attached to other items in the ballast pile, said project Mark Wilde-Ramsing. Instead they pulled up another anchor that is the third-largest artifact and likely was the typical anchor for the ship.

Apparently, pirates had everyday anchors and special anchors just as the rest of us have everyday dishes and good china.

"That's a big ship to be putting that out to stop it," Wilde-Ramsing said admiringly as a pulley system of straps and men holding ropes moved the anchor from a boat to the back of truck. It's the first large anchor that divers have retrieved; they earlier brought up a small, grapnel anchor.

The anchor is 11 feet, 4 inches long with arms that are 7 feet, 7 inches across. It was covered with concretion — a mixture of shells, sand and other debris attracted by the leaching wrought iron — and a few sea squirts. Its weight was estimated at 2,500 to 3,000 pounds.

The anchor's size is typical for a ship the size of Queen Anne's Revenge, while the two other anchors probably were used in emergencies, such as storms, Wilde-Ramsing said.

Archaeologists had planned to remove the second-largest anchor, which is 13 feet long with arms that are 8 feet across, from the top of the ballast pile. But it was too well-attached, so instead the divers went in from the side to retrieve the everyday anchor. That means that future dives may involve going in from the side of the shipwreck rather than the top, he said.


Snapshot of Maritime History


Silver Chalice 
Michael B. Alford, then the curator of maritime research at the North Carolina Maritime Museum, designed Silver Chalice to represent and interpret the type of work boat vessel used in 1585 during Richard Grenville's exploration of coastal North Carolina and in the establishment of the Ralph Lane colony. Geoffrey Scofield, as master builder, supervised construction of Silver Chalice at the Beaufort Museum for the Elizabeth II. Elizabeth II is now the centerpiece at Roanoke Island Festival Park. Images courtesy ncmaritimehistory.org  

USS Monitor - The Beaufort Link 
Although Swedish inventor John Ericsson submitted plans, in 1854, to Napoleon III for an “impregnable battery” that included a revolving cupola, it wasn’t until 1861 that Ericsson’s plans for such an ironclad ship were accepted by the US Navy Department.
USS Monitor was launched from Continental Iron Works in Greenpoint, NY on January 30, 1862. In October Monitor spent several weeks at the Washington Navy Yard where it was repainted and modified. Battle damages were repaired with iron patches – each scar was labeled according to its origin: “Merrimac”- “Minnesota”- “Ft. Darling” and “Merrimac’s Prow”.
Shortly afterwards, on December 24, 1862, orders were issued for Monitor to proceed to Beaufort, North Carolina. On December 31 she encountered a severe storm several miles off the coast of North Carolina. Efforts by the crew were in vain and the ship slowly sank – four officers and 16 crewmen lost their lives. MORE...

Periauger
Periauger, a long-lost Colonial boat, was constructed in Beaufort at the North Carolina Maritime Museum by The Periauger Project. The project was a unique partnership of the Perquimans County Restoration Association (the parent organization of the historic 1730 Newbold-White House in Hertford, NC), the North Carolina Maritime Museum, Perquimans County and East Carolina University’s Program in Maritime Studies. The project was made possible by a successful private fundraising campaign and through a grant from the NC Department of Transportation’s Enhancement Program. MORE...

Swift
Geoffrey Scofield built Swift at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort in 1982-1984. Its current owner is Dr. Thomas Loftfield of Wilmington, North Carolina, who keeps it in use.
Whitehall rowing boat...
Image courtesy ncmaritimehistory.org 

 

 

Bonnerton Boat
Benjamin Franklin Sawyer built this split-log dugout kunner in Hyde County, North Carolina, in the 1870s. It worked in the Alligator River and on Albemarle Sound for well over a century, most of the time under the ownership of the Sawyer family. Luther G. Sawyer and his son, Steve, donated the boat to the North Carolina Maritime Museum in 1992, and it currently is on exhibit in the Boat Shed in Beaufort. Image courtesy ncmaritimehistory.org



Mail Boats

Prior to bridge and road construction in the eastern part of the Carteret County, mail boats were a lifeline for folks - used to deliver passengers, cargo as well as mail to points east of Beaufort - all the way to Ocracoke Island. The photo to your right is an example of a typical US Mail Boat. 

The Beaufort mail boat was in service until the 1957. At one time Matt Marshal ran the mail boat from Beaufort. The town of Marshallberg was renamed for him. The Down East community of Marshallberg was originally named Deep Hole Point. It is said that clay dug from the area was used to fill ramparts and cover easements at Fort Macon on Bogue Banks - leaving a large hole. MORE...



Shad Boat - Spirit of Roanoke

Photo circa 1900
Sometime about the mid-1870’s, Roanoke Island boat builder George Washington Creef began building a new style boat. Creef, who had earlier built log boats, combined those techniques with conventional planking methods and produced a craft that sailed very well, was able to carry heavy loads, and could navigate in shallow water. Creef shaped his boat hull from the root ball of Atlantic white cedar, also known as Juniper, trees that grew along the shoreline of the pocosin wetland region of southeast Virginia and northeast North Carolina. MORE...

Model by Jim Goodwin - Click Image for More

Crissie Wright

On January 7, 1886, the Philadelphia schooner Crissie Wright, on her way from Baltimore to Savannah, was forced to beach herself three miles east of Beaufort during the bitter winter of 1886. Six of the crew drowned and froze to death. Two of the crew were lost at sea and three were buried in a common grave in Beaufort’s Old Burying Ground.
Amy Muse wrote, in the History of the Methodist Church, “…..that winter so cold that no one remembered its like before or has acknowledged its equal since. The winter when Crissie Wright foundered on Shackelford Banks, the crew lashed to the rigging and freezing while men who would rescue them could only signal helplessly from our shore unable to put out a boat in the storm.
The Nellie B. Dey, Mr. Dey's fish boat, finally brought the victims in to the wharf at the foot of Turner Street. But one man was revived; the others were laid out in the sample room of Mr. Billy Dill's hotel on the southwest corner of Front and Turner Streets and Mr. Jurney buried them in the graveyard back of the Church. MORE...

Whaling License issued to Samuel Chadwick 1726
Samuel Chadwick the Whaler
Chadwick's license: "To Samuel Chadwick you are hereby permitted with three boats to fish for whale or Other Royall fish on ye Seay Coast of this Government and whatsoever you shall catch to convert to your own use paying to ye Hon, ye Governor one tenth parte of ye Oyls and bone Made by Vertue of this License. By ye Hon. y Govern. Ord."
Samuel Chadwick 1691/96-1749 came to the Core Sound area from the Cape Cod area in 1726. He was born in Falmouth, Barnstable County, Massachusetts to Samuel Chadwick 1645-1707 and Mary Stocker 1670- married January 22, 1685. His grandfather John Chadwick 1601-1680, the immigrant, was born in Rochdale, Lancashire, England. Samuel, the whaler, married Mary Bosworth 1695-1749 about the same time he ventured to the Straits area of Core Sound, North Carolina. It appears that Samuel’s brothers and/or cousins Ephraim Ephraim 1700-1762 and Ebenezer Chadwick 1685-1765 were part of the whaling group that  traveled to North Carolina. MORE...

THE STORY OF NORTH CAROLINA'S MARITIME MUSEUM
Written in 2000 for the the Museum's 25th Anniversary

Hampton Mariners Museum 1960 Turner Street - Drawing by Mamre Wilson
Though the museum has roots back to the 1898 International Fisheries Exposition 
in Bergen, Norway, the year 2000 was chosen as the 25th Anniversary.

"My family and I came down from New Bern on an excursion train," recalls J.O Barbour, long time resident, and machinist and local businessman, describing an event he says happened about 1917. "We went over to a building on Piver's Island. It was open to the public on occasion, but it wasn't an everyday thing. I saw huge turtles there and they were alive and kept in a circular pen. That was quite a sight for a kid five or six years old. And we went in the building and saw the exhibits. I remember that very well." . . . The "Story of North Carolina's Maritime Museum" is included in Mary Warshaw's book, Beaufort, North Carolina: A Treasury of Significant Town History.

Early Bogue Banks and the Borden Connection

Bogue - the word and the name:
  • In old Norman-French and Spanish, “bogue” signified a mouth; used in Spanish topography to describe a narrow channel or passage of water.
  • A bayou, stream or waterway; Choctaw creek, stream or river.
  • William Bogue settled in Perquimans Precinct, in the Albemarle of Carolina by 1689. Descendants Josiah and Mark Bogue were noted in Jones County in 1790, near Bogue Banks; much too late for the inlet to carry the Bogue name.
  • John Lawson’s 1709 map noted “Bogue Inlet”—most likely a name used by Indians who fished and hunted on the sand banks.
JOHN LAWSON'S 1709 MAP NOTED "BOGUE INLET"
Bogue Inlet, Bogue Banks and Bogue Sound 
The Early Years
During his 1524 voyage, it is believed that Verrazano sent a man ashore on what would become known centuries later as Bogue Banks—an east-west barrier island, a few miles southwest of Beaufort Inlet. The Indians encountered were Coranine, later referred to as Coree.

 In his 2009 book, Bogue Banks - A Look Back, Jack Dudley wrote "Edward Moseley conveyed two tracts of land totaling 35,000 acres on Bogue Banks to Christopher Gale in 1717. In 1720 Louis Mitchell conveyed 2,500 acres to Christopher Gale. The Lords Proprietors also granted Gale 9461 acres. Gale, like many investors, was an absentee owner; his patent lapsed and the island was claimed by William Borden" [between 1732 and 1733.] 

 A shipbuilder from Rhode Island, “…in 1732 William Borden disposed of his business and removed to North Carolina." 1 William Borden, Sr. settled his family on the west side of Harlowe Creek which flows into the north side of Newport River—known as the Mill Creek area—where they built a shipyard and sawmill. The first Quaker meeting in Carteret County was organized on August 1, 1733, at the home of William Borden.2 Borden quickly amassed wealth and became one of the largest landowners in Carteret County.
 
The original 1733 Edward Moseley Map, “A New and Correct Map of the Province of North Carolina,” included an inset titled “Port Beaufort or Topsail Inlet.” That inset noted the eastern tip of Bogue Banks as “Part of Burden’s Island.” 

 The eastern tip of Bogue Banks was only a few miles south of Borden’s shipyard and sawmill at the mouth of the Newport River. 

 Governor George Burrington described the nearby town of Beaufort, at this time, as one of “little success and scarce any inhabitants.”
 
BRICKELL MAP circa 1729
John Brickell’s 1737 book, A Natural History of North Carolina, included his “Map of North Carolina.” 

 This map, most likely created after 1729 (noting of New Hanover Precinct formed in 1729), noted Bogue Inlet, Bogue Banks and Bogue Sound.

William Borden Sr. built his Beaufort home about 1768. He was able to view the east end of Bogue/Borden Banks from either of his two porches overlooking Taylor’s Creek.
 
1798 SURVEY NOTED "BORDENS BANKS"
1798 Survey hand-colored print, mounted on linen, by Jonathan Price; To David Stone and Peter Brown Esqrs. This First Actual Survey of the State of North Carolina Taken by the Subscribers is respectfully dedicated By their humble Servants Jona. Price, John Strother.3 On the west end of the island near Swansborough, this map noted Bordens Banks, Bogue Inlet and Bogue Sound, as well as “Bill Borden” as owner of the acreage across the sound.

 In 1799, William Borden Jr. inherited the “dwelling house and manor plantation” with all the old patent land and 800 acres to be laid out at Harlowe Creek. Borden Sr. left many acres of land on Bordens Banks to be divided among his children and grandchildren.
1863 drawing from H.E. Valentine’s sketchbook
Caption notes “Borden Banks"
1Historical and Genealogical Record of the Descendants, as Far as is Known, of Richard and Joan Borden Who Settled in Portmouth, RI in 1638, published in 1899, Hattie Borden Weld 
2NC Highway Historical Marker Program essay; ID: C-35, CORE SOUND MEETING, Location: NC 101 southeast of Harlowe, Carteret County 
3 North Carolina State Archives
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