The origins of Queen Anne's Revenge's, much like its Captain's, Blackbeard, stretch into an obscurity beyond the historical record.

We do know that the story of QAR began long before it fell into the famed pirate's clutches. In fact, Blackbeard's captaining of QAR likely constituted only a small portion of the vessel's seafaring years. Before Blackbeard, it belonged to a wealthy French merchant, trafficking human cargo across the Atlantic on the notorious "Middle Passage." After 1718, it belonged, for a time, to the ocean alone.

Since its discovery near Beaufort inlet in 1996, the remains of the vessel have become the property of the people of North Carolina, under the stewardship of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Follow the Ship's Journey