Bullet Mold

The larger of the lead shot recovered from Queen Anne’s Revenge was made with a two-part bullet mold, in which individual round wells were filled with molten lead, cooled, and then removed, ready to fire. Until recently, no such mold had been recovered, but a heavily corroded surprise turned out to be just that! The diameters of each mold are not highly accurate or consistent, and while they do match many of the two-part mold in our collection, we cannot say for sure if this mold was used for making the shot we have recovered, or if the pirates were even making lead shot onboard. Found in two pieces, they likely would have been hinged like scissor with wood handles.

Updated 03/16/18 Courtney Page