DATE: Friday, October 17, 1997              TAG: 9710170660

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: STAFF REPORT 

DATELINE: BEAUFORT                          LENGTH:   28 lines

DIVERS FIND MORE ITEMS FROM VESSEL THEY BELIEVE BELONGED TO BLACKBEARD

Divers exploring the remains of a ship that they believe belonged to Blackbeard the pirate have found two more cannons, bringing the total uncovered to 11.

They also have found a large anchor with a 12-foot, wooden stock.

The artifacts, buried a foot beneath the sediment on the ocean's floor off Beaufort Inlet, were tagged and photographed this week - and may be brought to the surface later this month.

``While these findings would support that the shipwreck is the pirate Blackbeard's flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, that can't yet be conclusively stated,'' said spokeswoman Mary Cook of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources this week. ``Site-mapping continues, with accurate reference points established to assist additional research.''

Underwater archaeologists from the North Carolina Maritime Museum, the Maritime Research Institute, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, East Carolina University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University are participating in the project.

The Queen Anne's Revenge was Blackbeard's largest and most formidable ship. The 103-foot-long vessel carried 40 cannons and a crew of 125 pirates. It sank near Beaufort Inlet during the summer of 1718.

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