Hey, you combine history, with events surrounding pirates, and we are in. If only we could get over the claustrophobia we would experience diving within wrecks such as this. Although previously discovered, and researched, in 1996 after being located off the North Carolina coast, a dive team is going back to Queen Anne's Revenge for an intensive, two-week search to recover artifacts for research and display in museums {the ships bell and cannon balls recovered from earlier dives are pictured above}.The feared Blackbeard, born Edward Teach, was known for his fearless relentlessness. among the artifacts the team hopes to retrieve are one or two anchors {one pictured above on the bottom}, smaller 18th century relics/treasures buried beneath the hull and some of the many cannons {at least 25-some are still loaded on the bottom} that Blackbeard was known to carry aboard his flagship. The ship went down in 1718 after running aground in the shallows of the shores of Beaufort, N.C. If you have ever visited North Carolina, and perhaps looked over a map of sunken wrecks, you would know this area is a graveyard for ships of many generations past, who due to storm or poor judgment, or intentionally, sunk upon the shallow reefs along the coast.
In addition to taking away some stuff, the divers also plan to use some new technology/methods to try to spray down the wreck to preserve it from, and erase some already established effects of long-term immersion in salt water. It is nice to see that at least some people are still focused on analysis and preservation of the history on our own planet. Pretty cool beans in our book.
http://www.qaronline.org/archaeology/QARexOpsPlanMay2011.html
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/21/n-c-divers-to-search-blackbeards-ship-for-artifacts/?hpt=T2
http://www.qaronline.org/archaeology/QARexOpsPlanMay2011.html
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/21/n-c-divers-to-search-blackbeards-ship-for-artifacts/?hpt=T2