Anyone dressing up as a pirate this year? Well just in time for Halloween archaeologists have lifted a 300 year old cannon from Blackbeard the pirate’s ship right here on the Outer Banks coast.
The eight-foot-long cannon was covered in sand and ocean debris called “concretion,” which will take archaeologists and students at East Carolina University as many as eight years to crack through before getting to the metal cannon. So far 12 cannons have been lifted from the ship including bits of rope, lead shot, gold dust, wine glass stems and leg shackles they have brought up with them.
They have been bringing up pieces of the ship since 1997 and are expected to be finished sometime in 2013. Artifacts can be found in various museums around North Carolina and all around the United States. It is the largest archeological project in the country.
Divers began preparing the ship weeks ago for the crane that eventually pulled the cannon to the surface. The sand-encased cannon will be taken to the Beaufort Maritime Museum for public viewing, and then moved to East Carolina University where researchers will work on it.
Maybe Blackbeard has some hidden treasure down there? Fun OBX fact… next time you are in the area make sure you check out all the spots around town where there are known shipwrecks or sunken reefs. There are a ton! If you are an adventure junky you can even go scuba or snorkeling down and see the wrecks. Lots of OBX’ers spearfish around the vessels because the fish hang out near structure. Don’t do this unless you have experience though because the ocean can be a dangerous place if you don’t know what you are doing. There are also restrictions on fishing on some of the wrecks so be careful!
