The ship grounded on a sandbar near Beaufort in 1718, nine years after the town had been established. No 'Aha' MomentĪfter 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 Anne’s Revenge. Meanwhile, no excavation work has been done at the Queen Anne’s Revenge wreck site since 2015.Īttorneys 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.īut in 2015, the North Carolina State Legislature passed a law declaring that all images related to the Queen Anne’s Revenge excavation were automatically the property of the state and thus are public records not subject to copyright protection.Īs 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.ĭisputes 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 Anne’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 Anne’s Revenge, the flagship of Blackbeard’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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