ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, March 4, 1997                 TAG: 9703040063
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-1  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: RALEIGH, N.C.
SOURCE: Associated Press

BLACKBEARD'S SHIP FOUND OFF N.C. COAST

Treasure hunters have discovered what is believed to be Blackbeard's flagship less than two miles offshore, nearly three centuries after the pirate ship went down.

``We've not found the smoking blunderbuss yet, but we have found enough artifacts to make us think this may be Queen Anne's Revenge,'' said Jeffrey Crow, director of the state Division of Archives and History.

The wreck was found in November by Intersal Inc., a treasure hunting company, in just 20 feet of water in Beaufort Inlet. ``If you could have seen through that dirty water, it was right there,'' said Intersal's Mike Daniel.

Queen Anne's Revenge, flagship of the fearsome English buccaneer Edward ``Blackbeard'' Teach, sank in 1718 after running onto a sandbar. So did the Adventure, a sloop in Blackbeard's fleet that went to its aid.

The wreck site is dominated by a mound of cannons encrusted with coral. Queen Anne's Revenge is thought to have carried up to 40 cannons, and their position is consistent with a ship that ran aground and tipped to one side, Daniel said.

A blunderbuss barrel was brought up from the wreck, along with a bronze bell dated 1709, a 24-pound cannonball and a sounding weight.

Phil Masters, president of Intersal, said the discovery ended a decade of research he had done in American and European archives.

The key document was a deposition published in a book in London in 1759, Masters said. The deposition by a witness to the sinking indicated the ship became stuck on the outer sandbar while trying to get into Beaufort Inlet.

Intersal used hundreds of old nautical charts to find the wreck.

All of the artifacts will be kept by the state. Intersal expects to recoup its $300,000 in expenses by selling book and film rights. The site and an area 300 yards around it were declared off-limits to boats and divers Monday.

Blackbeard cultivated a savage image and draped himself with pistols, daggers and swords.

``He created a menacing image. He talked with everyone he met about being in league with the devil, that he was the devil's brother,'' Masters said. ``Blackbeard, to me, was the first great practitioner of psychological warfare.''

Records do not indicate he killed anyone until Nov. 22, 1718, when he was trapped off Ocracoke by British warships. During that battle, in which he killed some British soldiers, Blackbeard was shot, stabbed and his throat slashed. His head was cut off and hung from the bowsprit of one of the British ships.

``Your imagination tends to run wild on you when you think about Blackbeard,'' said Gov. Jim Hunt, who helped announce the find. ``Of course, it can't run very wild because much of it was real.''

LENGTH: Medium:   57 lines
ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC:  Color map by staff.