Photograph by Rodrigo Pacheco-Ruiz, Courtesy EEF, Black Sea Map It's one of a trove of ships recently found by a research vessel. This shipwreck from the Ottoman period was discovered 300 meters below the surface of the Black Sea. He forced Le Concorde's surgeon to join the pirate crew, and a surgeon at that time likely would have had apothecary weights. Queen Anne's Revenge was actually a former French ship, Le Concorde, captured by Blackbeard in 1717. Apothecary weights stamped with tiny fleurs-de-lis, royal symbols of 18th-century France. Such loot has helped archaeologists link the wreck to Blackbeard since excavations started in 1997. Some historians have speculated that he deliberately ran the Queen Anne's Revenge aground so that he could keep the most valuable plunder for himself. (Also see 'Grim Life Cursed Real Pirates of Caribbean.') Shipwreck Loot Points to BlackbeardД«lackbeard achieved his infamous immortality in only a few years, operating in the Caribbean Sea and off the coast of colonial America before being killed in a battle with British ships in North Carolina's Pamlico Sound in 1718. No other ship as big as the Queen Anne's Revenge was known to have been in the area at the time, and a pirate ship would have been well armed, she said. (Related: 'Pictures: Blackbeard's Ship Yields Ornamental Sword.') There were two main reasons for the team's certainty, Aubel said: the sheer size of the wreck and the many weapons that were found in the rubble. 'There was a collection of moments and a deduction based on the evidence.'

'There was not one aha moment,' Claire Aubel, public relations coordinator for the North Carolina Maritime Museums, said in 2011.

Blackbeard and his crew abandoned the ship and survived.ДЇor 15 years, the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources emphasized that the wreck, discovered in 1995, was 'thought to be' the Queen Anne's Revenge.ДЄfter a comprehensive review of the evidence, those same officials declared in 2011 that they were certain the wreck was the ship sailed by one of history's fiercest and most colorful pirates. The ship grounded on a sandbar near Beaufort in 1718, nine years after the town had been established. No 'Aha' MomentДЄfter years of official uncertainty, North Carolina state authorities confirmed in 2011 that the shipwreck just offshore from the small beach town of Beaufort was indeed the Queen AnneвЂ™s Revenge. Meanwhile, no excavation work has been done at the Queen AnneвЂ™s Revenge wreck site since 2015.ДЄttorneys for the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources did not respond to a request for comment on the legal issues. Intersal and Nautilus Productions have filed suit, and the legal actions are working their ways through courts in North Carolina. Those disagreements were resolved in 2013 with a new arrangement involving the state and Intersal and Nautilus Productions of Fayetteville, North Carolina, which had made videos and photos of the site and artifacts that had been recovered.Д«ut in 2015, the North Carolina State Legislature passed a law declaring that all images related to the Queen AnneвЂ™s Revenge excavation were automatically the property of the state and thus are public records not subject to copyright protection.ДЄs a massive British naval fleet approached a crucial New World port, a Spanish admiral ordered several warships sunk to block the entrance. Meanwhile, divers from the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources began excavating the wreck.Дisputes about intellectual property rights emerged, however. The state and Intersal made an agreement in 1998 that gave Intersal rights to make copyrighted photos and videos of the wreck. The wreck was found in 1996 by Intersal Inc., private salvagers based in Palm Bay, Florida. A few months after the grounding, Blackbeard was killed in a battle with British naval forces in the Pamlico Sound. The Queen AnneвЂ™s Revenge went aground in 1718 just offshore from Beaufort. The state of North Carolina is defending itself against two lawsuits brought by private interests in the excavation of the wreck of the Queen AnneвЂ™s Revenge, the flagship of BlackbeardвЂ™s small fleet of pirate ships. The struggle for Blackbeard's legacy is continuing 300 years after history's most infamous pirate was killed in the coastal waters of North Carolina. Editor's Note: This article was updated on Jto reflect the current legal status of the shipwreck.

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