Shipwreck Monday-Queen Anne’s Revenge

 

 

 

Queen Anne's Revenge was the name of English pirate Blackbeard's flagship, used by him for less than a year, but an effective tool in his prize taking.

 

The 300-ton vessel, originally was named Concord. She was a frigate built in England in 1710. She was captured by the French one year later. The ship was modified to hold more cargo, including slaves, and renamed La Concorde de Nantes.

 

Sailing as a slave ship, La Concorde de Nantes was captured by the pirate Captain Benjamin Hornigold on November 28, 1717, near the island of Martinique. Hornigold turned her over to one of his men —Edward Teach, later known as Blackbeard—and made him her captain. Teach's first mate, Christopher Blackwood (known as Blackbeard's Claw), was feared as a ferocious fighter and led many of Blackbeard's boarding parties.

 

Blackbeard made La Concorde into his flagship, adding cannons and renaming her Queen Anne's Revenge. The name may come from the War of the Spanish Succession, known in the Americas as Queen Anne's War. Blackbeard had served in the Royal Navy, or possibly from sympathy for Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch.

 

Blackbeard sailed this ship from the west coast of Africa to the Caribbean, attacking British, Dutch and Portuguese merchant ships along the way.

 

Shortly after blockading Charleston harbor in May 1718, and refusing to accept the Governor's offer of a pardon, Blackbeard ran Queen Anne's Revenge aground while entering Beaufort Inlet. He disbanded his flotilla and escaped by transferring supplies onto a smaller ship, the Adventure. He stranded several crew members on a small island nearby, where they were later rescued by Captain Stede Bonnet. Some suggest Blackbeard deliberately grounded the ship as an excuse to disperse the crew.