NC Maritime Museum: Blackbeard's Flagship Under Glass

The North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort displays artifacts recovered from the Queen Anne's Revenge, the flagship of the pirate Blackbeard, which ran aground near Beaufort Inlet in seventeen eighteen. The wreck was discovered in nineteen ninety-six, nearly three centuries after Blackbeard deliberately grounded and abandoned it. Conserved artifacts on display include cannons, grenades, belt buckles, medical instruments, and the bones of livestock consumed aboard ship.

The vessel had an earlier life as the French slave ship La Concorde before Blackbeard captured her in seventeen seventeen and converted her into a heavily armed warship. The museum also houses a large seashell collection and exhibits on boatbuilding, the fishing industry, and North Carolina's seafaring tradition going back to the colonial era.