Bottles
Two intact, dark green
glass bottles, which most likely held spirits, were found adjacent
to one another between two cannon where they were protected from breakage
for 380 years. When compared to Noel Hume's Colonial Williamsburg typology,
the "onion" type bottles nearly match those dated to 1710. Several
additional necks and bases from similar bottles have also been recovered,
along with fragments of square case bottles, and the neck of an apothecary
bottle still retaining its cork.
|
Ceramics
The ceramic assemblage from the Beaufort Inlet site so far includes a single rim shard of tin-glazed, red-bodied Faience, five pieces of salt-glazed stoneware, and several fragments of a very large red earthenware oil jar(s) including a rim shard, base piece, and a half-oval handle fragment. When intact, the jar would have resembled several recovered from Colonial Virginia that date to the early eighteenth century. Jars such as this were used for the storage and transportation of various liquids or items requiring a waterproof container.
Related Images:
Ceramic "beer" bottle-UNC-TV
|
Pewterware
Four
large
pewter chargers (diameter 20.25 in.) and two smaller pewter plates
(diameter 9.5 in.) have so far been recovered from the QAR.
Two additional plates remain attached to one of the cannon on the wreck
site. Two of the chargers and both plates feature a set of four unofficial
"hall marks" on their upper rims. Hallmarks identify the maker and were
designed to imitate gold and silversmith marks to give an official appearance
to pewterware. The monogram
B.A.S. occurs on the upper rim of one of the chargers and may well
identify the owner of the plate or the vessel to which it was assigned.
A plate from Henrietta Marie, for example, had HM stamped
on its base, while another from the Whydah Galley featured
the initials WG. A search through the inventory of vessels captured by
Blackbeard, along with the list of the ship officers, has not yet revealed
a name matching the initials. The underside of the rim of the same charger
features the word LONDON bracketed by two circular marks, one identifying
the maker, the other a London secondary guild mark. A smaller plate also
features base marks including the word LONDON, a London/Tudor Rose secondary
mark, and the partial name of [GEO]RGE HAMM[OND] above a flexed arm wielding
a sword. Hammond's mark occurs on both plates recovered from the QAR,
and from several basins recovered from the British slaver Henrietta
Marie, lost in the Florida Keys in 1700. Hammond is known to have
worked in London from as early as 1693, and was made steward of the Worshipful
Company of Pewterers in 1709.
The mark and name of Jon Stiles appears on the bottom of another pewter
charger from the QAR. IO. STILE within a sunken cartouche
is located beneath a crowned Tudor rose. The LONDON is stamped nearby,
as is Stiles' name again above a bird devouring a snake. Stiles produced
pewterware in London from 1689 until at least 1730.
The pewter occurring on the QAR may well have been left over trade items destined for the African market like the pewter on the Henrietta Marie. Two of the chargers, for example, still retain the impressions of fabric on their surfaces, suggesting they were in storage when the ship sank.
|
Animal Bones
Two dozen well-presereved animal bones have so far been found on the site. Most are legs, ribs, and skull fragments from immature pigs, and likely represented living animals kept by the pirates for food. Three cow bones, two with butcher marks, were also foodstuffs. The right ulna of a rat reflects an unwanted guest on the ship. Several other bones came from marine mammals and may be intrusive to the site.
|