Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The anchor was found in wreckage off the North Carolina coast

An anchor from what is said to be the wreck of notorious English pirate Blackbeard's flagship has been retrieved off North Carolina's coast, US archaeologists say.

The massive anchor - weighing more than 1,000 kg (2,200lb) - is one of the largest artefacts on what is believed to be the Queen Anne's Revenge ship.

The anchor will now be put in a museum.

The flagship is thought to have sunk in 1718, five months after Blackbeard was killed by British sailors.

The US archaeologists said they had first planned to lift a bigger anchor but realised it was too well-attached to other items in the ballast pile.

They said that divers would continue to work next week and then decide how to proceed to retrieve other artefacts from the ship.

Project manager Mark Wilde-Ramsing said the team hoped to recover all the artefacts by the end of 2013, the Associated Press news agency reports.

Blackbeard - whose real name is believed to be Edward Teach or Thatch - was a much-feared pirate, who operated off America's eastern coast and around the West Indies.