Topics Related to Did you Know
Conservator Elise shares just why the Outer Banks are called the Graveyard of the Atlantic
Terry talks about the skill needed for making ropes and tying knots.
Sea shanties were tools to help keep sailors on task.
Most people know the Queen Anne’s Revenge Conservation Lab as the place charged with the preservation of artifacts removed from this important archaeological site. This, however, is not our only responsibility. In addition to archaeological research, we are also responsible for educating the public on what we do at the lab and why we do it! This notable shipwreck is near and dear to the hearts of many North Carolinians, so we take this duty seriously.
After the battle of Ocracoke in November 1718, only sixteen members of Blackbeard’s crew were rounded up and brought to Virginia to await trial. The men waited for three months for the seemingly inevitable guilty verdict of piracy and death sentence. During this time some of the crew attempted to save their lives by turning on their deceased pirate Blackbeard and becoming informants for Governor Spotswood. The informant crew members hoped the evidence they provided during their imprisonment would be enough to trade a death sentence for life enslavement.
When we last visited the story of the gentleman pirate, Stede Bonnet had been convicted for his crimes of piracy. Bonnet had to wait an entire month until his scheduled hanging.
Early November 1718 proved a busy time in the life of Stede Bonnet. If you recall, the gentleman pirate escaped custody in Charleston in October.
When we last visited Stede Bonnet, he was in a bad way, injured and relegated to the role of passenger after having ceded control of his shi
On July 25, 1718,* Woodes Rogers arrived in the Bahamas as the islands’ first appointed Royal Governor. Piracy grew rampant in the untamed colony, and Rogers’ official mission was to stamp it out. He first tried diplomacy, armed with another round of pardons for pirates willing to peacefully surrender their criminal ways.
In March 1718, the HMS Phoenix arrived in New Providence carrying the King’s Pardon, and among the first to sign was none other than Blackbeard’s former commander Benjamin Hornigold. Hornigold arrived on the scene as a privateer before the island of New Providence became a pirate haven and attempted to continue his legitimacy as such by claiming to only attack French and Spanish ships, well after official privateering rights were revoked.