Blackbeard & His Crew Visit Town Creek State Historic Site

Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge Traveling Exhibit is an unexpected bonus during our visit to Town Creek Visitors Center.

Miguel, a member of Blackbeard's
crew, greets visitors to the exhibit.









Edward Teach/Thatcher fought during the Queen Anne's War (1701 - 1714) as a privateer.  He was good at his job, raiding enemy merchant ships, for the English Crown.  After the war, Edward AKA Blackbeard, went into business for himself.

Blackbeard, AKA Edward Teach,

or Edward Thatch, commanded

the Queen Anne's Revenge as

he plundered the Caribbean

from 1716 to 1718.

Queen Anne's Revenge was originally Le Concorde, a French slave ship.  Captured by Blackbeard in 1717, it was refitted with 40 cannons,  The frigate was now ready for large scale larceny on the high seas.  Blackbeard menaced merchant ships in the Atlantic shipping lanes and while blockading Charleston Harbor, he and his crew plundered ships.  

Blackbeard's flag signaled

that the time to surrender

was running out... fast.

Many vessels hove to when

they saw this flag & transferred
their cargoes without a fight.

Blackbeard is holding Eric

up for $27.00 & a Food

Lion discount card.

Pirating is a lucrative career, if a ship can make its way to its hunting grounds and go after their victims.  A ship's compass was essential to navigate the seas and chart courses to selected prizes.

The ship's compass was

carefully protected in

this cabinet from weather

& possible accidents.

Blackbeard and his crew amassed large amounts of booty.  Queen Anne's Revenge traveled regularly between Blackbeard's headquarters in Beaufort, North Carolina and Nassau in the Bahamas.  While sailing the Carolina Coast in June 1718, the Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground on a sandbar. Blackbeard took all the loot and a his favorite crewmen and fled.

Treasure hunters and archaeologists have scoured the waters off North Carolina looking for the Queen Anne's Revenge for more than one hundred years.  A ship was found in 1995 and after through research on its recovered contents, it was confirmed to be the Queen Anne's Revenge in 2011.  

Artifacts from the Queen

Anne's Revenge include:

A grinding stone fragment,

lead patch to cover leaks,

lead weight, a flacon bottle,

a brass buckle frame,

straight pins

Cannon balls, a lead cannon
apron to cover the cannon's
touch hole, a gun flint, trigger
guard & various sized shot

Ballast stones, cask hoops,

brass dividers, brick tile

A crew man stands with

a trunk full of treasure.

After the Queen's Revenge was abandoned, Blackbeard asked for and received a pardon from North Carolina Governor Charles Eden.  He married and built a house on Ocracoke Island.  After laying low for a few months, Blackbeard returned to piracy aboard the Adventure.  Governor Eden provided cover for his pirates raids along the Carolina coast and took a cut of the booty.

Local merchants and seamen grew tired of Blackbeard menacing them and approached Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood. The Virginia Governor didn't care for Governor Eden and liked pirates even less.  British ships were sent to hunt down Blackbeard and his crew.  On November 22, 1718, Blackbeard was killed during a battle off Ocracoke Island.