Cannon may hold clue to Blackbeard’s flagship

OFF THE COAST OF ATLANTIC BEACH, N.C. – Researchers Tuesday raised another cannon from an underwater site 2 miles offshore, and they hope it will help prove the sunken wreckage was once the flagship of the pirate Blackbeard.

“We knew it the first day and we still have absolutely no doubt that she’s the Queen Anne’s Revenge,” said Phil Masters, whose Florida-based research firm located the wreckage in 1996. “There is no other ship lost at Beaufort Inlet with anything more than 10 cannons, nor more than 110 tons that we know of.”

The team has recovered more than 20 cannons so far; more than 16,000 artifacts have been retrieved from the wreck.

The expedition is the first for the researchers since two professors published an article last month casting doubt about the find, saying it looks more like a mid-18th century merchant ship.

Blackbeard, whose real name was believed to be Edward Teach or Thatch, and his band of sea robbers plagued the shipping lanes in the region in the early 18th century.