BOONE—Appalachian State University graduate Wendy Welsh will speak about her experiences investigating a shipwreck presumed to be Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge on Monday, Jan. 29, at 1 p.m. in Plemmons Student Union’s Calloway Peak Room on campus.

Walsh, who earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology in 2000, is an assistant conservator in the Archeology Conservation Lab at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort. The museum currently features an exhibit of artifacts gathered from a shipwreck thought to be the Queen Anne’s Revenge, the flagship of Edward Teach, more commonly known as Blackbeard.

The shipwreck was discovered in 1996 in Beaufort Inlet in about 20 feet of water. It was initially almost completely submerged in sand. Excavation revealed numerous large cannon and cannonballs, a 21-pound lead sounding weight and a bronze ship’s bell.

The excavation project is expected to take approximately five years, with analysis of the findings continuing for many years after that.

Called “the most notorious pirate in the history of seafaring,” Blackbeard and his crew terrorized merchant ships in the Atlantic and Caribbean between 1714 and 1718.

At the height of his career, Blackbeard commanded four vessels and 300 pirates.  He had captured more than 40 ships, including other pirate ships, and been offered a pardon by the governor of North Carolina. However, he was unable to change his lawless ways and died in November 1718 at the hands of the Royal Navy at Ocracoke Inlet, having sustained five gunshot wounds and more than 40 sword lacerations.

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