ONGOING CONSERVATION

Partnership enables preservation of artifacts from Queen Anne's Revenge

A 10-year partnership between the Queen Anne’s Revenge Conservation Laboratory at East Carolina University and the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources was cause for celebration April 30 in Greenville.

The laboratory officially opened in 2004 to support the ongoing archaeological conservation efforts for the examination, conservation and documentation of artifacts recovered from the Queen Anne’s Revenge, Blackbeard’s flagship. The ship wrecked off the North Carolina coast, near Beaufort Inlet, in 1718.

Artifacts are recovered from the site under the direction of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources’ Underwater Archaeology Branch, then shipped to the ECU facility. There the artifacts are submerged in tanks, waiting to be conserved and prepared for display in the North Carolina Maritime Museum.

Billy Ray Morris, deputy state archeologist, said he hopes the teams can complete recovery of all artifacts within the next two years.

(Photos by Cliff Hollis)

State Archaelogist Steve Claggett speaks at the Queen Anne’s Revenge Conservation Laboratory April 30, during a celebration of a 10-year partnership with The N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.

Ron Mitchelson, ECU’s interim vice chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies, speaks at the event.

Mitchelson stands with, center, Susan Kluttz, Secretary of Cultural Resources for the State of North Carolina, and QAR laboratory director Sarah Watkins Kenney.

Artifacts from the Queen Anne’s Revenge, believed to be the pirate Blackbeard’s ship, are undergoing conservation procedures at the ECU lab.

Billy Ray Morris, Deputy State Archaeologist/Underwater, discusses plans for bringing up the artifacts remaining at the shipwreck site.