User:Roseanob/Draft

Queen Anne's Revenge
The article I have chosen to elaborate on is about the Queen Anne's Revenge. The Queen Anne's Revenge was the name of the flag ship for the famous pirate Blackbeard. Most people today know Blackbeard as a main character from the Disney movie Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides; when he was much more than just that. Before I go into a synopsis about the article, there are a few things missing, specifically about the captain of the Queen Anne's Revenge and its known travels, which should be added to the article. The article is relatively short, but does a good job going over the basics of the Queen Anne's Revenge a long with the discovery of the wreck. One of the first things I noticed was that the article was missing information about how and why the Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground, and also what it was doing in the area when it grounded. After some quick research, however, I came to discover that it is in fact currently unknown as to how and why the Queen Anne's Revenge wrecked, and also what it was even doing in the area it wrecked in. Therefore, the article is close to being complete, although in order to make it a well-rounded source of information on the Queen Anne's Revenge, it requires more information about its many activities and of course about the Blackbeard, the captain of the ship.

Now time for the research that I found on the Queen Anne's Revenge. Coincidentally, aside from a few paraphrased sentences, the vast majority of information that I found has already made its way to the article on Wikipedia. For the purposes of the assignment, I quoted from the varying sites, however I did find it quite interesting how almost all the information I discovered on different sites were very similar to that posted on the article on Wikipedia, except for the paraphrased sentences of course.

The Beginning of the Legacy
The Queen Anne's Revenge was originally a 300-ton vessel named Concord, and served as a small warship in the Royal Navy (Daniel, 2008). I was built as a frigate in England in 1710. One year later she was captured by the French and was modified to hold more cargo, specifically slaves and cotton barrels, and was renamed the La Concorde de Nantes (Daniel, 2008).

The La Concorde de Nantes, sailing as a slave ship, was captured by the infamous pirate Captain Benjamin Hornigold on November 28, 1717, near the island of Martinique (Daniel, 2008). What was so intriguing about Captain Hornigold was that he was one of the first pirate captains to become renowned as an actual Pirate of the Caribbean. When Hornigold grew ill of an unknown disease, he turned the La Concorde de Nantes over to one of his men, at the time known as Edward Teach, and made him captain (Daniel, 2008). Edward Teach later changed his name, and then was known as Blackbeard (Daniel, 2008).

Blackbeard made the La Concorde de Nantes his command vessel of his growing group of pirates and pirate ships. He added cannons and renamed the La Concorde de Nantes the Queen Anne's Revenge. His motivation for choosing that name is unknown; however speculation is that the name possibly comes from the War of the Spanish Succession, known in the Americas as Queen Anne's War, in which Blackbeard had served in the Royal Navy(Daniel, 2008). It could also possibly stem from sympathy towards Queen Anne, but the true nature behind the name is unknown.

Common areas that Blackbeard sailed the Queen Anne's Revenge ranged from the west coast of Africa to the Caribbean, and he spared no expense in attacking British, Dutch and Portuguese merchant ships along the way, as the method was his only source of income to keep his pirate fleet up and running (Daniel, 2008).

The End of an Era
Though it is not known for sure, common belief is that shortly after blockading Charleston harbor in May 1718 and refusing to accept the Governor's offer of a pardon, Blackbeard ran Queen Anne's Revenge aground while entering Beaufort Inlet (Underwater Archaeology Branch, 2004). He disbanded his flotilla and escaped by transferring supplies onto a smaller ship, the Adventure (Underwater Archaeology Branch, 2004).

Some suggest Blackbeard deliberately grounded the ship as an excuse to disperse the crew. Shortly after the wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard surrendered to the local militia and accepted a royal pardon for himself and his remaining crewmen from Governor of North Carolina, Charles Eden at Bath. However, shortly after his surrender, he eventually returned to piracy, and was killed in combat during a skirmish with the Dutch East India Company.

Currently, the Queen Anne's Revenge lays in the Atlantic Ocean, in the shallow waters offshore from Fort Macon State Park, Atlantic Beach, North Carolina (Underwater Archaeology Branch, 2004).

From the wreck, several of the cannons have been recovered, and thousands of artifacts have been pulled from the wreckage (Underwater Archaeology Branch, 2004). Interestingly enough, none of the recovered artifacts or cannons appears to be of French origin, which would be as expected from a French slave ship. The cannons and the majority of the artifacts are indeed British, and resemble an entourage of items that would match the description of a colonial pirate crew (Underwater Archaeology Branch, 2004). This just goes to show how heavily affected pirates of the day were by the American colonists.