Blackbeard’s anchor to be recovered off NC coast

MOREHEAD CITY, NC (AP) — An anchor from what’s believed to be
the wreck of the pirate Blackbeard’s flagship may see daylight
again for the first time in almost 300 years.

Archaeologists hope to recover an anchor from what’s presumed to
be Queen Anne’s Revenge on Friday morning in the waters off the
coast of Beaufort, where the ship sank in 1718, just five months
before Blackbeard was killed in a battle at Ocracoke Inlet. The
artifact is the second-largest item at the shipwreck, outsized only
by another anchor.

Researchers will go out on two boats to retrieve the anchor from
the shipwreck that’s about 20 feet underwater, then bring it
ashore. The work to retrieve the anchor began last week. It’s about
13 feet long with arms that are 8 feet across.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)