DATE: Sunday, July 6, 1997                  TAG: 9707030514

SECTION: CAROLINA COAST          PAGE: 9    EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: COVER STORY 

SOURCE: BY CHRIS KIDDER, CORRESPONDENT 

                                            LENGTH:   29 lines

SHIP THAT MAY HAVE BELONGED TO BLACKBEARD IS SUBMERGED OFF BATH

The ship believed to be ``The Queen Anne's Revenge'' was located last fall by divers from Intersal, Inc., a private company specializing in archaeological shipwreck excavations.

Intersal, in cooperation with Maritime Research Institute and the State of North Carolina, is surveying and mapping the wreck site, located offshore in 20 feet of water 2 miles from Beaufort Inlet.

The location of the wreck matches the historical record of the 1718 grounding of ``The Queen Anne's Revenge.'' A bell retrieved from the wreck and visible cannon also are consistent with what is known about the ship.

Nothing further has been learned about the wreck since the March 3 press conference announcing the discovery, said Mary Cook, spokesperson for the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.

``We're trying to get an idea of what's down here,'' she said.

Several museums and historic sites, including the new Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum currently under construction on Hatteras Island, have been mentioned as possible homes for the ship's artifacts. No decisions have been made about where the artifacts will go, said Cook.

But lots of Outer Bankers want Blackbeard's loot to come back to the area where the pirate so loved to party.

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