A Publication of the North Caroina Maritime History Council October 2001 Number 11
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A Publication of the North Caroina Maritime History Council October 2001 Number 11 North Carolina Maritime Museum Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2020 with funding from State Library of North Carolina https://archive.org/details/tributaries11nort A Publication of the North Carolina Maritime History Council October 2001 Number 11 s ' i rit/uiu*lit October 2001 is published by the North Carolina Maritime History Council Inc., 315 Front Street, Beaufort, North Carolina, 28516-2124, and is distributed for educational purposes. Chair Lindley S. Buder Editor Paul E. Fontenoy Typesetting and Design NC Maritime Museum Design Department Printing AccuCopy Copyright © 2001 North Carolina Maritime History Council North Carolina 2 Maritime Museum A Publicadon of the North Carolina Maritime Members of the Executive Board For the Period 2001—2002 . The North Carolina History Council About its Mission, Accomplishments and Membership Opportunities TL. E. «Bab | its* Pirates . David D. Moore Blackbeard’s Capture of the Mike Daniel Nantaise Slave Ship La Concorde: A Brief Analysis of the Documentary Evidence Interim Site Plan George Ward North Carolina Maritime Museum and Shannon, Jr* the Queen Anne's Revenge Shipwreck Project Lindley S. Butler The Quest for Blackbeard’s Queen Annes Revenge David D. Moore Blackbeard’s Queen Annes Revenge: Archaeological Interpretation and Research Focused mam "*.isi m on the Hull Remains and Ship-related Accoutrements Associated with Site 31-CR-314 iss : ■ or* *« of the Executive Board 2001-2002 Lawrence E. Babits Ed Merrell Bob Warren Associate Professor Director N.C. Historic Preservation Foundation Program in Maritime Studies Museum of the Albemarle 125 South Fifth Avenue East Carolina University Rt. 6, Hwy. 17 South Wilmington, NC 28401 Greenville, NC 27850-4353 Elizabeth City, NC 27909 910-763-5029 252-328-6788 fax 252-328-6754 252-335-2987 fax 252-335-0637 [email protected] [email protected] emerrell@coas talnet. co m Harry Warren Lindley S. Buder George Ward Shannon, Jr. Director Professor Emeritus of History Director N.C. Museum of Forestry 628 Cedar Lane North Carolina Maritime Museum 415 Madison Street Reidsville, NC 27320 315 Front Street Whiteville, NC 28472 336-349-5727 Beaufort, NC 28516 910-914-4185 fax 910-641-0385 b u tlerl@vnet. net 252-728-7317 fax 252-728-2108 [email protected] [email protected] Paul Fontenov Curator of Maritime Research Barbara Snowden North Carolina Maritime Museum Currituck County Whalehead Preservation 315 Front Street Trust & Currituck Historical Society Beaufort, NC 28516 P.O. Box 134 252-728-7317 fax 252-728-2108 Currituck, NC 27929 [email protected] 252-453-0014 fax 252-453-0016 [email protected] Richard W. Lawrence Head Harry Thompson Underwater Archaeology Unit Director P.O. Box 58 Port O’Plvmouth Roanoke River Museum Kure Beach, NC 28449 P.O. Box 296 910-458-9042 fax 910-458-4093 Plymouth, NC 27962 [email protected] 252-793-1377 fax 252-793-3500 [email protected] North Carolina 4 Maritime Museum siim mi Tributaries m A Publication of the North Carolina Maritime History Council the Maritime History Council The North Carolina Maritime History Coun¬ of the North Carolina Division of Archives and cil came together in 1988 when a group of History and are administered by the Outer Banks individuals professionally involved in maritime HistorvJ Center. history programs began meeting informally to share information and to discuss issues of mutual The council advises the North Carolina Maritime concern. Museum on the newly instituted N.C. Historic Vessel Register. This journal has been published Aware that the sheer size of the state's coastal area, every October by the group since 1991. increasingly rapid development, and the variety of coastal waters have tended to fragment efforts Council membership is offered to nonprofit orga¬ to preserve the state’s maritime history, the group nizations and institutions involved in the study began to explore ways to pool the resources of and teaching of the state’s maritime culture and w 1% sWSM ' S:% disparate state and federal agencies. to individuals interested in maritime history. ; ■; I y \ " •J The North Carolina Maritime History Council This issue of Tributaries is unusual in that it is Itplpflp • was incorporated in 1990 with the mission to devoted entirely to a single topic. Since it is five KlfjM / m il 'Ml? identify and encourage historical and educational years since the discovery of the site thought to be IgiV" > ippflv / lllipg SI m .Hp. ^ V projects that have as their purpose the enhance¬ the wreck of Blackbeard’s flagship, Queen Anne's ment and preservation of the state’s maritime his¬ Revenge, the Council thought it would be appro¬ tory and culture, and that create public awareness priate to survey the project’s present status, both V , V ,V ' \ ■ of that heritage. to take stock of what has been accomplished so far and to prepare the ground lor iurther hlillli The council views this heritage in broad perspec¬ progress. The Council is delighted that it can tive, noting that its influence extends to the heads publish work by such well-qualified contributors. of navigation of the state's rivers. 1 Lindley S. Butler * An example of its accomplishments is the pur¬ Chair : chase of the Edwin Champney drawings, a collec¬ tion of fifty-nine sketches of coastal scenes from the Civil War period that were obtained by the council in 1990 using funds donated by the — Frank Stick Trust and other nonprofit groups. I Tributaries October 2001 They are now part of the permanent collections . ' ‘: : i Tributaries A Publication of the North Carolina Maritime History Council Pirates by L. E. Babits Above: 18^ century As the excavation of the Beaufort Inlet wreck Most children know what a pirate looks like long woodcut of a party that continued to generate enthusiastic state¬ before they start learning any names or details of purportedly took place at ments about it being Blackbeard’s flagship. piracy. In part, this is attributable to James Ocracoke Inlet between Queen Anne’s Revenge, a close look at what might Barrie’s Peter Pan, featuring Captain Hook, first the pirate crews of Blackbeard and Charles constitute a distinctive pirate assemblage became published in 1911 (Barrie 1987). Captain Hook Vane. necessary. What distinguished a pirate from is relevant here because he was Blackbeard’s Courtesy of North Carolina sailors was the act of piracy. Sailors were distin¬ bosun (Barrie 1987:44). Aside from an “iron Maritime Museum guished from landsmen by their clothing and claw’’ replacing his right hand, Hook’s distin¬ tools. What would survive in a shipwreck to guishing attributes were that “he somewhat aped At left: Perhaps the best- demonstrate conclusively that the wreck was the attire associated with the name of Charles II” known illustration of manned by pirates is difficult to ascertain. (Barrie 1987:52), a flamboyant style that includ¬ Blackbeard the pirate from ed much lace. Hook’s pirates were described as a Captain Charles Johnson’s The wreck site was publicly identified as “villainous-looking lot...great arms bare, pieces General History of the Pyrates, 4^* edition, Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge by the of eight in his ears, [and a] gigantic man’’ (Barrie London, 1726. Governor of North Carolina. While Governor 1987:50-51). Courtesy of North Carolina James B. Hunt had obvious reasons for claiming Maritime Museum Queen Anne’s Revenge had been found, he was As they get older, many children graduate to responding to an older, popular imagery with Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and which we are all familiar. Long John Silver, originally published in 1883. Tributaries Captain Silver’s distinguishing attributes, October 2001 7 Second edition. 1774. depending on the written version rather than had a parrot, Captain Flint, and the parrot would Left: Blackbeard the films, produces a standardized pirate figure, but say, “Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight” (Stevenson Pirate.Captain Charles with one leg and a Devonshire accent drawing 1965:67). Linking Silver and Blackbeard can be Johnson’s General History of the Pyrates, 1st edition, out the r’s until they are almost words in them¬ accomplished via Israel Hands, a stalwart of London, 1724. selves. It is not simply Silver’s appearance, the Blackbeard’s crewmen and by Captain Hook, Courtesy of North Carolina book begins with nautical references and Captain “the only man of whom Barbecue was afraid” Maritime Museum Billy Bones: “a tall strong, heavy, nut-brown (Barrie 1987:44, 51). man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulders of Right: Blackbeard the his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred, The old pirates included Black Dog, “a pale, tal¬ Pirate.Captain Charles with black, broken nails, and the sabre cut across lowy creature, wanting two fingers of the left Johnson’s General History one cheek” (Stevenson 1965:11). “[H]is great hand, and though he wore a cutlass, he did not of the Pyrates, 2n<^ edition, sinewy arm. It was tattooed in several places. look much like a fighter. I had always my eye London, 1724. Courtesy of North Carolina “Here’s luck,” “A fair wind,” and “Billy Bones his open for seafaring men, with one leg or two, and Maritime Museum fancy,” were very neatly and clearly executed on I remember this one puzzled me. He was not the forearm; and up near the shoulder there was sailorly, and yet he had a smack of the sea about a sketch of a gallows and a man hanging from it” him too” (Stevenson 1965:18). Blind Pew lost his (Stevenson 1965:22). eyesight in the same broadside that took away Long John Silver’s leg.