By Jay Price, Raleigh News & Observer

MOREHEAD CITY, North Carolina -- Archaeologists on Friday raised an anchor from the Queen Anne's Revenge, the ship that pirate Blackbeard and his crew intentionally grounded off the North Carolina coast in 1718.

The nearly 3,000-pound anchor is the largest artifact yet recovered from the wreck of the notorious pirate's flagship.

The anchor was atop a pile of debris, which appears to be the remnants of the middle of the ship, including its cargo hold, said Mark Wilde-Ramsing, director of the Queen Anne's Revenge project. Next week, researchers hope to dig a small test hole into the pile where the anchor was removed to get a sense of what else might be hidden there.

Queen Anne's Revenge was originally a French slave ship that Blackbeard and his band captured in the fall of 1717. Blackbeard, an Englishman whose real name was thought to be Edward Teach, was killed by British sailors in a battle near Ocracoke in 1718.