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From the Editor

Blackbeard's revenge

By Judi McLeod
Thursday, May 26, 2005

Edward Teach was wilier than most. As Blackbeard, the pirate, he and his mateys plundered the shipping lanes off North America and the Caribbean in the early 18th century.

The ship on which the marauding Blackbeard plied the seas was called intriguingly enough, the Queen Anne's Revenge. Historians believe the Queen Anne's Revenge was the French slave ship. La Concorde that was seized by Blackbeard and his roving rogues' gallery near the island of Martinique in 1717,

For all of his bravado, fate finally caught up with Edward Teach when he ran aground with Queen Anne's Revenge and its sister sloop Adventure near what is now Beaufort Inlet. Abandoning his ships, Blackbeard eventually met an ignominious end at Ocracoke Inlet. After all was said and done, the pirate of a thousand and one legends was killed by volunteers from the Royal Navy, in a November 22, 1718 battle.

For treasure seeker down through the centuries and imaginative lads, like John Silver, Blackbeard lives on forever.

A Florida-based research team believes they have located the wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge in beautiful Beaufort, South Carolina.

Project director Mark Wilde-Ramsing said his team has found strong clues that the Queen's Anne Revenge sank at the site at Beaufort Inlet in 1718. He acknowledges, however, that his researchers haven't confirmed that the wreckage they're working on is that of the legendary Blackbeard's ship.

"We feel very, very comfortable that this is Queen Anne's Revenge. Until such time as we find that absolute one artifact that has initials on it, we'll continue to leave the door open, but I can tell you that door's just about closed," Wilde-Ramsing said,

Thus far, the team has recovered more than 20 cannons from the site and more than 16,000 artifacts have been retrieved from the wreck.

Blackbeard, the extrovert would be happy knowing that tourists keep falling in love with the town where the watery grave of his ship may be located.

Tourists to Beaufort Tuesday included Canada Free Press. On our way to Savannah to meet with former Greenpeace founder, Patrick Moore at the Vinyl Institute Inc. conference, we stopped in Beaufort. With its abundance of trailing Spanish moss trees, gazebos and wishing wells, Beaufort is straight out of a book.

Passing through, we came upon a gem of a bistro at 1001 Boundry Street. The place is called A Matter of Taste. Complete with a splashing fountain on a tiny patio, the café must rank at the top of restaurants in the seaport town.

The fishing boats and yachts anchored side by side at the dock were a far cry from the Queen' Anne Revenge.

The bold Blackbeard undoubtedly would have liked to have his name bandied about centuries after his death.

A discovered wreckage is always better than any of the phantom ships of folklore.

If it is Beauford Inlet where the Queen Anne's Revenge found its final resting-place, Blackbeard found immortality in the best place that Davey Jones' capacious locker had to offer.