Divers Seek Artifacts from Blackbeard's Ship Off NC Coast

The pirate Blackbeard's flagship is the focus of a spring dive that begins May 23rd. The Queen Anne's Revenge went down off the North Carolina coast in June, 1718. Recovery efforts have been underway for years at the site of the wreck near Beaufort. Mark Wilde-Ramsing is the state underwater archeologist and is heading up the project. He says there are several goals for the two-week dive.

Mark Wilde-Ramsing: "Hopefully recover a large anchor that is on the main ballast pile. There's a lot of these rock, stones and these anchors, two of them, plus a lot of cannon underneath."

Wilde-Ramsing says the thirteen-foot anchor could weigh as much as 3,000 pounds. He says divers will also try to install devices that will help stop corrosion on other artifacts, including 12 cannons that will be brought to the surface over the next three years.