Birth of La Concorde

The ship that would become the Queen Anne's Revenge was born not in infamy, but in the bustling shipyards of Nantes, France — the largest slave-trading port in the country. She was constructed around 1710, during the reign of Louis XIV, as a vessel purpose-built for the rigors of Atlantic commerce and, eventually, the transatlantic slave trade.

French records identify her original name as La Concorde (sometimes written La Concorde de Nantes). She was built as a frégate — a fast, maneuverable ship-rigged vessel with three masts, designed to be both a merchant carrier and, when necessary, a fighting ship. This dual purpose was standard for the era: in a world where commerce and war were inseparable, every merchant vessel carried guns.

Shipbuilding Methods of the Era

Early 18th-century French shipbuilding was among the most advanced in Europe. The hull of La Concorde was constructed using the frame-first method, in which a heavy oak keel was laid first, then ribs (frames) were erected and planking was fastened over them. French shipwrights favored European white oak (Quercus robur) for structural members — keel, keelson, frames, and hull planking — due to its exceptional strength and resistance to rot.

Below the waterline, the hull was sheathed in sacrificial softwood planking or coated with a mixture of tallow, sulfur, and tar to resist the teredo navalis — the shipworm that devoured wooden hulls in tropical waters. Some French vessels of this period also used lead sheathing, though this was more common in the Royal Navy. The seams between planks were caulked with oakum (tarred hemp fiber) driven in with caulking irons and sealed with hot pitch.

Her masts were fashioned from tall, straight pine or fir, ideally single trunks for the lower masts, with upper masts and yards assembled from multiple pieces. Standing rigging — the shrouds and stays that held the masts upright — was made of tarred hemp rope. Running rigging, which controlled the sails, used both hemp and, in some cases, lighter cordage.

The sails themselves were cut from heavy canvas (flax linen), sewn in panels called cloths. A ship of La Concorde's size would carry a full suit of square sails on all three masts, plus fore-and-aft staysails between the masts and a spritsail or jibs at the bow.

Iron was critical. Hand-forged iron bolts, nails, and straps held the hull together. The rudder hung on iron pintles and gudgeons. Anchors were massive wrought-iron forgings — La Concorde likely carried at least three: a best bower, a small bower, and a sheet anchor, plus a kedge for warping. Archaeological evidence from the wreck site confirms the presence of multiple large anchors consistent with early 18th-century French manufacture.

Commissioning and Early Service

La Concorde was owned by René Montaudoin, one of the wealthiest slave traders in Nantes and a major figure in the French triangular trade. Montaudoin's fleet operated the classic triangle: manufactured goods from France to West Africa, enslaved people from Africa to the Caribbean, and sugar, tobacco, and indigo back to France.

Before entering the slave trade, La Concorde may have served briefly as a privateer during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), when French shipowners were granted letters of marque to prey on English and Dutch shipping. Privateering and slave trading were intertwined industries in Nantes — many vessels alternated between the two as circumstances demanded.

The Slave Trade Years

La Concorde made at least two documented slave-trading voyages across the Atlantic, and possibly more. These voyages followed the triangular trade route that defined the brutal economics of the era.

The First Slaving Voyage (1713–1714)

Under the command of Captain René Dossett, La Concorde departed Nantes in early 1713, sailing south along the African coast to the slave ports of Juda (Ouidah) on the coast of present-day Benin. There, Dossett purchased enslaved Africans from local brokers who had captured them in wars and raids in the interior.

The ship then crossed the Atlantic on the infamous Middle Passage, delivering its human cargo to Martinique in the French Caribbean. The conditions aboard slave ships were among the most horrific in human history: men, women, and children were shackled in the hold, packed into spaces barely 18 inches high, fed minimal rations, and subjected to disease, violence, and death.

La Concorde carried an estimated 500+ enslaved people per voyage, though mortality rates of 15–25% were common on the Middle Passage. After selling the surviving captives in Martinique, the ship loaded colonial goods — sugar, rum, tobacco, indigo — for the return voyage to Nantes.

The Final Slaving Voyage (1717)

La Concorde's last documented voyage began under Captain Pierre Dosset (sometimes cited as a relative of the earlier captain). The ship departed Nantes on March 24, 1717, with a crew of approximately 75 men and 16 cannons.

She sailed to the Bight of Benin coast, trading at Juda, where she took on 516 enslaved Africans. The voyage was plagued by disease. By the time La Concorde turned west for the Caribbean crossing, scurvy and dysentery had killed 16 crewmembers and 61 of the enslaved captives. Captain Dosset himself fell ill.

It was in this weakened state — undermanned, overloaded, with a sick crew and hundreds of suffering captives below decks — that La Concorde sailed into the waters near Martinique in November 1717. She was about to meet Blackbeard.

Ship Specifications

The dimensions of the Queen Anne's Revenge have been reconstructed from a combination of French colonial records describing La Concorde, English deposition testimony, and the archaeological footprint of the wreck site itself.

Armament Details

As La Concorde, the ship carried 14 to 16 cannons — typical for a well-armed merchantman of the period. Blackbeard expanded this dramatically. The archaeological record at the wreck site has revealed ordnance ranging from small swivel guns (half-pounders) to 6-pounder and 9-pounder cannons, plus several larger pieces. The total count of approximately 40 guns made her one of the most heavily armed vessels in the western Atlantic — rivaling small warships of the Royal Navy.

The cannon types identified include Swedish-made iron guns, English cannons, and at least one French bronze piece. This eclectic mix is characteristic of pirate vessels, which accumulated ordnance from captured ships of every nationality. Swivel guns — small, rapid-fire cannons mounted on the ship's rail — were used for anti-personnel fire during boarding actions.

In addition to cannon, the ship carried grenades, muskets, pistols, cutlasses, and boarding axes. Archaeological finds include lead shot of various calibers, grenade casings, sword hilts, and flintlock components.

Hull and Rigging

La Concorde was classified as a frégate in French records, indicating a relatively sleek hull form optimized for speed rather than maximum cargo capacity. Her three masts carried square sails on all three — making her "ship-rigged" — with a bowsprit carrying headsails.

The mainmast was the tallest, likely standing 80–100 feet above the waterline when fully stepped and rigged. Total sail area, including studding sails (extra sails set outboard of the main yards for light winds), may have exceeded 10,000 square feet.

Blackbeard Takes the Ship

On or about November 28, 1717, near the island of St. Vincent in the Lesser Antilles (some accounts place the capture closer to Martinique), two pirate vessels flying black flags intercepted La Concorde. The larger of the two was commanded by Edward Teach — Blackbeard.

Teach was already an experienced pirate. He had served under Captain Benjamin Hornigold, one of the founders of the pirate republic at Nassau in the Bahamas. By late 1717, Teach was operating independently with a growing flotilla and an appetite for a flagship worthy of his ambitions.

The Capture

The encounter was barely a fight. La Concorde was ravaged by disease: only 36 of her original ~75 crewmen were fit to man the ship. She was carrying 516 enslaved captives, making her sluggish and difficult to maneuver. When Blackbeard's ships fired a broadside, Captain Dosset struck his colors almost immediately.

"The pirates fired two volleys from their guns, upon which the said Captain Dosset, seeing that he could not resist the force of the pirates, surrendered his ship." — Deposition of Captain Pierre Dosset, December 1717

Teach kept the ship, the enslaved captives (many of whom were likely forced into piracy or sold at later ports), and several French crewmembers who agreed to join the pirates. Captain Dosset and the remaining crew were given one of Teach's smaller vessels — a sloop — and set free to sail to Martinique.

The Renaming

Teach renamed the vessel Queen Anne's Revenge. The name is politically loaded. Queen Anne had ruled Great Britain until her death in 1714, and the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) that ended the War of the Spanish Succession had thrown thousands of former privateers out of work — men who now turned to piracy. The name may have been a statement of Jacobite sympathy, a nod to the displaced Stuart monarchy, or simply a provocative declaration that piracy was the revenge of men abandoned by their queen and country.

Whatever the intent, the name stuck. Within months, the Queen Anne's Revenge became the most notorious vessel in the Atlantic.

Transformation into a Warship

Blackbeard did not simply rename La Concorde. He rebuilt her from the inside out, transforming a merchantman into a floating fortress. Over several weeks in the Caribbean — likely at a secluded anchorage in the Grenadines or off the coast of Hispaniola — Teach oversaw a radical refit.

Armament Expansion

The ship's original 14–16 guns were supplemented with cannon taken from captured vessels. Teach cut additional gun ports in the hull to accommodate the new weapons. By the time the refit was complete, the Queen Anne's Revenge bristled with approximately 40 cannons on two gun decks, plus swivel guns on the weather deck and fighting tops.

This was an extraordinary armament. A Royal Navy sixth-rate ship of the period typically carried 20–28 guns. Blackbeard's ship outgunned most warships that might be sent to catch him.

Structural Modifications

The slave decks — the low-ceilinged platforms where hundreds of captives had been shackled during the Middle Passage — were stripped out or repurposed as crew quarters and magazine storage. The hold was reorganized for powder, shot, provisions, and plunder.

Blackbeard may have also modified the ship's stern and quarterdeck to provide better command visibility and defensive positions. Pirate vessels were often adapted with reinforced bulwarks and netting to protect against boarders.

Crew Composition

At its peak, the Queen Anne's Revenge carried over 300 men — a massive crew for a vessel of her size. This included:

Volunteers — willing pirates drawn from the Caribbean's large population of unemployed sailors, deserters, and former privateers. Forced men — skilled sailors kidnapped from captured ships (navigators, carpenters, surgeons were especially prized). Former enslaved Africans — some of the captives from La Concorde and subsequent captures who joined or were pressed into the crew. Historical records indicate Blackbeard's crews included significant numbers of Black sailors, some of whom fought alongside the pirates.

Reign of Terror: Voyages & Prizes

From November 1717 to June 1718 — a span of barely seven months — Blackbeard and the Queen Anne's Revenge conducted a campaign of piracy that terrorized the Atlantic seaboard from the Caribbean to the mid-Atlantic colonies.

Caribbean Operations (Nov 1717 – Mar 1718)

After refitting the ship, Blackbeard cruised the Leeward Islands, preying on merchant shipping between the islands and along the trade routes to Europe. He captured numerous prizes, including the sloop Margaret near Crab Island (Vieques) in December 1717, whose captain, Henry Bostock, later provided one of the most detailed firsthand descriptions of Blackbeard and his ship.

"The ship had 36 mounted guns and 300 men aboard. Teach was a tall, spare man with a very black beard which he wore very long." — Deposition of Captain Henry Bostock, December 1717

During this period, Blackbeard also encountered the pirate Stede Bonnet, the so-called "Gentleman Pirate" of Barbados, who commanded the sloop Revenge. Bonnet, an incompetent sailor and poor leader, effectively surrendered command to Blackbeard, who placed one of his own lieutenants in charge of the Revenge while Bonnet stayed aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge as a humiliated guest.

Northward Advance (Spring 1718)

By March 1718, Blackbeard's fleet had grown to four vessels: the Queen Anne's Revenge, the Revenge (Bonnet's sloop), the sloop Adventure, and a smaller tender. With this flotilla, he sailed northward along the American coast, capturing ships as he went.

Notable prizes included the merchant ship Protestant Caesar off the coast of Honduras, which Blackbeard looted and burned. He also captured The Crowley, a large merchantman, along with several smaller vessels. Each capture added to his arsenal of weapons, supplies, and forced recruits.

By late April 1718, Blackbeard's fleet was off the coast of the Carolinas, and he had set his sights on the richest port in the southern colonies: Charleston, South Carolina.

The Blockade of Charleston

In late May 1718, Blackbeard executed one of the most audacious acts of piracy in colonial American history: a week-long naval blockade of Charleston Harbor, one of the busiest ports in British North America.

Charleston (then Charles Town) was the economic heart of the Carolina colony, a hub for the export of rice, indigo, deerskins, and naval stores. Its harbor was the gateway to the Atlantic for the entire region. Blackbeard anchored his flotilla across the harbor entrance and seized every vessel that attempted to enter or leave.

The Hostages

Over the course of approximately five to seven days, Blackbeard captured at least eight or nine vessels. The most significant was a ship carrying Samuel Wragg, a member of the Grand Council of the Province of Carolina — one of the most prominent citizens in the colony. Wragg, his young son William, and other passengers were taken hostage.

The Demand

Blackbeard's demand was unusual. He did not ask for gold, silver, or ransom money. Instead, he demanded a chest of medicine — specifically, mercury-based treatments for syphilis and other venereal diseases that were ravaging his crew.

He sent a delegation ashore with an ultimatum: deliver the medicine within two days, or he would execute the hostages, burn the captured ships, and bombard the city. The governor complied. The medicine chest, valued at approximately £300–£400 (equivalent to roughly $50,000–$70,000 today), was delivered.

Blackbeard released the hostages (stripped of their valuables and some of their clothing), lifted the blockade, and sailed north.

Political Fallout

The blockade humiliated the colonial government and shocked the British establishment. Charleston had no warships to oppose Blackbeard — the Royal Navy's presence in the southern colonies was minimal. The event accelerated colonial demands for anti-piracy action and contributed directly to the campaigns that would end the Golden Age of Piracy within a few years.

Grounding at Beaufort Inlet

Less than a month after the Charleston blockade, on or about June 10, 1718, the Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground on a sandbar at Beaufort Inlet (also called Topsail Inlet), on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The sloop Adventure also grounded while attempting to assist.

Accident or Conspiracy?

The grounding has been debated by historians for three centuries. The official account — that the ship simply struck an uncharted sandbar in the treacherous Outer Banks shoals — has always seemed inadequate. Blackbeard was an experienced navigator who knew these waters.

The prevailing modern theory, supported by considerable circumstantial evidence, is that Blackbeard ran the ship aground deliberately as part of a calculated scheme to:

1. Reduce his crew. With over 300 men to share plunder with, each man's share was small. By "losing" the flagship, Blackbeard could abandon the majority of his crew on a sandbar, keeping only his most trusted men and the lion's share of the loot.

2. Accept the King's Pardon. Blackbeard had been negotiating with Governor Charles Eden of North Carolina for a royal pardon. Arriving with a 40-gun warship and 300 pirates would complicate the pardon process. Arriving with a small crew on a sloop was more... discreet.

3. Betray Stede Bonnet. After the grounding, Blackbeard told Bonnet he would seek the pardon and offered Bonnet the Revenge back. While Bonnet went ashore to obtain his own pardon, Blackbeard stripped both wrecked vessels of all valuables, marooned the bulk of the crew on a nearby sandbar with minimal provisions, and sailed away on the sloop Adventure with approximately 40 loyal men and all the treasure.

"Teach... went into the said Inlet with a pretence to clean his Sloop, and purposely ran the said ship on shore, in order to break up the Company, and to secure what Plunder he had got to himself and some others." — Captain Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates (1724)

Stede Bonnet returned to find the ships stripped and most of the crew abandoned. He rescued the marooned pirates, but his subsequent attempt to resume piracy ended in his capture, trial, and hanging in Charleston on December 10, 1718.

The Ship's Final Resting Place

The Queen Anne's Revenge settled into the sandy bottom at Beaufort Inlet in approximately 20–25 feet of water, barely a mile from shore. Over the centuries, she was buried and revealed by shifting sands, battered by storms, and slowly consumed by the marine environment. But she never fully disappeared.

The Death of Blackbeard

After abandoning the Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard lived as a nominal citizen of Bath Town, North Carolina, under Governor Eden's pardon. But he couldn't stay retired. Within months, he was pirating again, using Ocracoke Island as a base.

The governor of Virginia, Alexander Spotswood, decided to act where North Carolina would not. In November 1718, he secretly dispatched Lieutenant Robert Maynard of the Royal Navy with two armed sloops, the Jane and the Ranger, to hunt Blackbeard.

The Battle of Ocracoke

On the morning of November 22, 1718, Maynard's sloops found Blackbeard's sloop Adventure anchored in a shallow channel off Ocracoke Island. Blackbeard had only about 25 men aboard. What followed was one of the most violent engagements in the annals of piracy.

Blackbeard fired a devastating broadside of grapeshot that killed or wounded nearly a third of Maynard's men. Maynard hid his surviving crew below decks to lure Blackbeard into boarding. When Teach and his pirates swung aboard, Maynard's men surged up from the hold.

In the ensuing hand-to-hand combat, Blackbeard fought with extraordinary ferocity. According to Maynard's report, Teach sustained five gunshot wounds and more than twenty sword cuts before finally falling dead. His head was severed and hung from the bowsprit of Maynard's sloop as proof of the kill.

"Here was an End of that courageous Brute, who might have pass'd in the World for a Heroe, had he been employ'd in a good Cause." — Captain Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates (1724)

The surviving pirates were taken to Williamsburg, Virginia, where thirteen were tried and hanged. Blackbeard's severed head was displayed on a pole at the entrance to the Hampton River as a warning to other pirates — a location still known today as Blackbeard's Point.

Discovery of the Wreck

For 278 years, the Queen Anne's Revenge lay hidden beneath the sands and waters of Beaufort Inlet. Generations of treasure hunters and historians speculated about her location, but it wasn't until modern technology met meticulous historical research that she was found.

The Search

In the early 1990s, a private research firm called Intersal, Inc., led by Phil Masters, began a systematic search for the wreck. Masters studied French colonial documents, English depositions, and early maps of the Outer Banks to narrow the search area. Using side-scan sonar and magnetometer surveys, his team scanned the seabed off Beaufort Inlet.

The Discovery

On November 21, 1996 — almost exactly 278 years after Blackbeard's death — Intersal located a shipwreck in approximately 22 feet of water, less than one mile from shore, near Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. The site, designated 31CR314, covered a scattered debris field of approximately 25 by 60 feet.

Initial dives revealed cannons, anchors, and other artifacts consistent with an early 18th-century armed vessel. The site's location matched historical descriptions of where the Queen Anne's Revenge went aground.

Confirmation

Definitive identification came through a convergence of evidence:

Cannon count and types — The number and variety of cannon (Swedish, English, French) matched no known naval vessel but perfectly matched a pirate ship that accumulated guns from multiple sources.

Date range of artifacts — All datable artifacts fell within the period 1690–1718, consistent with the ship's operational life.

Location and depth — The site matched Captain Johnson's 1724 account and French depositions describing Beaufort Inlet.

A ship's bell — dated 1705, consistent with the vessel's construction period, was recovered. While no name was inscribed, the date and provenance matched.

In 2011, the State of North Carolina officially recognized the wreck as the Queen Anne's Revenge. No other candidate vessel has been proposed that fits all the evidence.

Excavation & Archaeology

The excavation of the Queen Anne's Revenge is the largest and longest-running shipwreck excavation in North Carolina history, and one of the most significant maritime archaeological projects in the world.

The Excavation Campaign

Full-scale excavation began in 1997 under the direction of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (formerly the Department of Cultural Resources), working through the Queen Anne's Revenge Shipwreck Project. The project was led by underwater archaeologists including Mark Wilde-Ramsing (project director for many years) and later Billy Ray Morris.

Excavation seasons ran annually, typically during summer months when water conditions at Beaufort Inlet were most favorable. Even in good conditions, the site presented extraordinary challenges: strong tidal currents, limited visibility (often less than 3 feet), shifting sands that could bury or expose artifacts overnight, and marine life including sharks and barracuda.

Methods

Archaeologists used a grid system to map every artifact in three dimensions before removal. Dredges powered by surface pumps cleared sand and sediment while divers carefully excavated by hand around delicate objects. Every artifact was tagged, photographed, drawn, and catalogued before being raised to the surface.

Large objects like anchors and cannons required specialized lifting equipment. Several cannon weighed more than 2,000 pounds each. The largest anchor recovered weighed approximately 3,000 pounds.

Scale of the Project

By the time the final excavation season concluded, the project had recovered more than 400,000 individual artifacts (including small finds like shot, nails, and organic fragments) from the site. Excavation continued for nearly two decades of field seasons. The site has yielded one of the richest assemblages of early 18th-century maritime artifacts ever found in the Western Hemisphere.

The Artifacts

The artifacts recovered from the Queen Anne's Revenge provide an unparalleled window into life aboard an early 18th-century pirate ship. They tell stories that no written account preserves — stories of daily life, medical care, diet, trade, warfare, and the diverse origins of the ship's crew.

What the Artifacts Tell Us

Taken together, the artifacts paint a picture far more nuanced than the popular image of piracy. The medical instruments reveal that even pirates invested in healthcare — a crew was only as effective as its health. The navigational tools show that skilled navigation was essential; piracy required seamanship, not just violence. The trade beads and gold dust connect the ship's pirate phase directly to its earlier life in the slave trade, reminding us that piracy and the transatlantic slave trade were interwoven chapters of the same Atlantic world.

The diverse origins of the weaponry — Swedish iron, English bronze, French manufacture — illustrate the global nature of 18th-century maritime trade and warfare. And the personal items — buttons, pipes, a thimble — remind us that the crew of the Queen Anne's Revenge were real people with daily habits, not just characters in a legend.

Conservation & The QAR Lab

Recovering artifacts from the ocean is only half the battle. Artifacts that have spent nearly 300 years in saltwater are saturated with dissolved salts and chlorides that, if left untreated, will destroy them from the inside out once they dry. The conservation process is painstaking, expensive, and can take longer than the original excavation.

The QAR Conservation Lab

The Queen Anne's Revenge Conservation Lab is located at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. Operated by the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, it is one of the premier maritime artifact conservation facilities in the United States.

The lab processes artifacts through a multi-stage pipeline:

1. Documentation — Every artifact is photographed, measured, drawn, and catalogued before any treatment begins.

2. Desalination — The most critical and time-consuming step. Iron artifacts (which make up the majority of the collection) are soaked in chemical baths to draw out embedded chlorides. This process can take months to years for large objects like cannons. The solutions are monitored and changed regularly until chloride levels drop to safe thresholds.

3. Electrolytic Reduction — For heavily corroded iron objects, electrolysis is used to convert corrosion products back to stable iron. A low electrical current is passed through the artifact in a chemical bath, stripping away centuries of marine concretion while preserving the original metal.

4. Stabilization — Once desalinated, artifacts are treated with protective coatings. Iron objects receive tannic acid and microcrystalline wax treatments. Organic materials (wood, leather, rope) may be treated with polyethylene glycol (PEG) — the same substance used to preserve the Swedish warship Vasa.

5. Storage and Display — Conserved artifacts are stored in climate-controlled conditions or prepared for public exhibition. Many artifacts are now on display at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort and other institutions across the state.

Concretions

One of the most fascinating aspects of the conservation work involves concretions — lumps of marine growth, sand, shell, and corroded metal that form around groups of artifacts on the seabed. A single concretion the size of a basketball might contain dozens of individual objects: musket balls, nails, coins, buttons, and beads, all fused together by centuries of chemical reaction.

Breaking open concretions is one of the most exciting parts of the lab's work. Before physical disassembly, concretions are X-rayed to reveal their contents, allowing conservators to plan the most careful extraction of each embedded artifact.

Legal Battles & Legacy

The story of the Queen Anne's Revenge didn't end with her discovery. A protracted legal battle over ownership and intellectual property rights added a modern chapter to the ship's contentious history.

Intersal vs. North Carolina

Intersal, Inc. — the company that discovered the wreck — entered into an agreement with the State of North Carolina that gave the state ownership of the artifacts while granting Intersal certain salvage rights and documentation privileges. However, the relationship deteriorated over the years as disputes arose over access, compensation, and the use of images and video of the wreck and its artifacts.

The Blackbeard's Ship Display Act

In 2015, the North Carolina General Assembly passed the "Blackbeard's Ship Display Act" (formally, an amendment to the state's public records law), which declared that all photographs and video of the QAR wreck site and its artifacts were public records not subject to copyright. This effectively stripped Intersal of its intellectual property rights to the images and footage it had created.

Allen v. Cooper (2020)

Intersal's founder, Frederick Allen, sued the State of North Carolina for copyright infringement, arguing that the state had used Intersal's copyrighted photographs and videos without permission or compensation. The case escalated to the United States Supreme Court.

In March 2020, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Allen v. Cooper that states cannot be sued for copyright infringement under the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act (CRCA) of 1990, because the Act exceeded Congress's power under the Fourteenth Amendment. The ruling was a major decision on sovereign immunity and intellectual property law, with implications far beyond the QAR case.

In practical terms, Intersal lost. The State of North Carolina retained control of both the artifacts and the associated media.

Legacy

Today, the Queen Anne's Revenge project continues to yield discoveries as conservators work through the massive backlog of artifacts. The collection is the most extensive assemblage of pirate-era artifacts ever recovered from a single vessel. Key exhibits are permanently housed at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, within sight of the inlet where the ship met her end.

The QAR's story has reshaped our understanding of the Golden Age of Piracy. Far from the romanticized image of jolly rogues, the artifacts reveal a world of organized maritime crime, industrial-scale violence, global trade networks, and the inseparable link between piracy and the transatlantic slave trade. The ship's triple identity — French merchantman, slave ship, pirate flagship — mirrors the complexity of the Atlantic world in the early 18th century.

And that is why we are building her again.