THE PROJECT . . .

The North Carolina Underwater Archaeology Unit has historically documented over 5,000 shipwrecks lost in state waters. These sites range from 4,000-year-old dugout canoes, to colonial ferries, Civil War steamers, and ships from the World War II era.

Phil Masters (R) is president of Intersal. Mike Daniel (L) is president of Marine Research Institute (MRI), a subsidiary of Intersal created in North Carolina to explore the wreck in conjunction with state agencies.

None of these underwater archaeological sites, however, has had more impact than the shipwreck discovered near Beaufort Inlet by Intersal, Inc. in 1996. This Florida-based research, survey, and recovery group—working under the auspices of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources—located an early-eighteenth-century shipwreck believed to be the remains of Blackbeard's flagship Queen Anne's Revenge.

The site is located off Beaufort Inlet near the communities of Morehead City and Beaufort, North Carolina. The exact location is being withheld for security reasons.

The shipwreck was dated by the recovery of a small number of diagnostic artifacts including a bronze bell with the date 1709 embossed around the waist. No major recovery of material was attempted in order to update the appropriate state agencies involved, and to develop a comprehensive plan of research.

Cartographic research provided additional clues to the potential location of the site and added to the circumstantial evidence of identification when the wreck was found.

The project ia being undertaken by the Department of Cultural Resources, Division of Archives and History, in conjunction with Maritime Research, Inc., a non-profit subsidiary of Intersal, Inc., and with other state agencies and educational institutions.

The project is proceeding slowly with limited archaeological testing taking place to provide a maximum amount of data with minimal effort and time. A major problem addressed will be that of positive identification of the ship, or at least adding substantially to the circumstantial evidence which currently exists.

The time involved with this project will be better measured in years and even decades, rather than weeks or months. An initial and conservative assessment of the potential time to be spent on site to totally excavate the shipwreck might be five field seasons of three to five months duration each. Every month spent in the field results in an additional ten to twelve months spent in the conservation laboratory, conducting research and writing reports.