Canadian TV Crew Takes a Look at Booty From the QAR

The mystery and allure of discovering Blackbeard’s flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, (QAR) drew a film crew from Montreal, Canada, to Carteret County this week. The crew of Mystery Hunters, a children’s educational show that is part of Discovery Kids on the Discovery Channel, taped a segment on the QAR project Wednesday and Thursday. It will be broadcast later this fall.

The show’s host, Christina Broccolini, said the directors picked the project because of the international interest. “There is a big interest in the “Queen Anne’s Revenge”” she said. The crew went Wednesday morning to the wreck site, which is about 20 feet below the surface in Beaufort Inlet. In the afternoon they filmed artifacts stored in a warehouse at Carteret Community College and at the Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS), both in Morehead City.

The spent Thursday filming at the N.C. Maritime Museum with Sinbad, a Beaufort pirate. They were also scheduled to film artifacts at Fort Fisher near Wilmington. One segment features archaeologist Nathan Henry talking with Ms. Broccolini about a cannon that was brought up from the wreck site in 1999.

The cannon, which is currently being cleaned, has a Swedish maker’s mark and numbers “713”. Mr. Henry believes the numbers indicate the cannon was made in 1713. The cannon’s date is another clue that the shipwreck is, indeed, Blackbeard’s flagship. That’s because 1713 predates 1718, the year historical records say the ship sank. “It doesn’t get any better than that”, Mr. Henry said.

With state funding cut from the project this year, archaeologists are scraping to find money to continue work on the thousands of artifacts that have been excavated from the wreck site, which was discovered in November 1996. Thanks to a Save America’s Treasures grant, a limited staff has been able to continue cleaning and conserving artifacts for eventual display at the N.C. Maritime Museum.

But the work is slow and laborious, and the grant will run out in two years. Another hit the project took this year was news that artifacts would have to be moved from CCC and IMS because of construction. Many artifacts will be moved this fall and winter to a building owned by East Carolina University in Greenville. Artifacts on display include a ship’s bell, wine bottles, cannon balls, and navigational and surgical instruments.