Shipwreck Yields Possible Blackbeard Blade
Archaeologists working on a shipwreck off the North Carolina coast announced in January that they may have discovered a truly iconic relic of pirate lore: the sword of Blackbeard.
The sword—or rather, its fragmented remains, including a gilded hilt and pommel and parts of the broken, encrusted blade—comes from a wreck site presumed to be that of the Queen Anne’s Revenge, Blackbeard’s flagship, which ran aground in 1718 and was found in 1996. A North Carolina Office of State Archaeology team has been researching the wreckage for more than a decade.
Arguably the most notorious pirate in history, Edward “Blackbeard” Teach (or Thatch) captured the 104-foot, 300-ton French slaver La Concorde off Martinique in November 1717. Releasing the enslaved Africans and the French crew on the Grenadine island of Bequia (after liberating the Frenchmen from the gold they carried), Blackbeard and company made La Concorde their own. With her armament beefed up to 40 guns and her decks now trod by a pirate crew of 150, the redubbed Queen Anne’s Revenge set forth on an eventful seven-month piracy rampage with the swaggering, fearsome-looking Blackbeard in command.
The pirates plundered ships from St. Vincent to Antigua, and in April 1718 they appeared off Honduras, where they captured the Jamaican sloop Adventure and added her to their motley flotilla. In May 1718, Blackbeard pulled off his most audacious piratical ploy ever, blockading the entire port of Charleston, South Carolina, and in a week’s time picking off eight or nine prizes sailing in and out of the harbor. A few days later, both the Queen Anne’s Revenge and Adventure ran aground off Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina—evidently a deliberate move by Blackbeard to strand the bulk of his crew and make off with a select few (and the loot). Before the year was out, Blackbeard himself would be dead, felled by five musketball wounds and more than 20 sword cuts in a battle off Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina, on 22 November 1718.
The private firm Intersal discovered what is believed to be the wreck of the Queen Anne’s Revenge in 1996. State-coordinated research efforts subsequently got under way. To date, tens of thousands of artifacts have been recovered from the site, including the recently announced sword find.
According to researchers, the weapon appears to be of French or English origin and may have been an ornamental addition to a well-to-do gentleman’s outfit. The sword’s ornateness has led some to make a stab of a guess that it was just the sort of prize item that a larger-than-life pirate captain such as Blackbeard, who characteristically bedecked himself with multiple pistols and blades at any one time, would claim for his own.
Olympia Update: Beleaguered Ship West Coast–Bound?
In a new development in the ongoing effort to stave off the demise of the historic U.S. warship Olympia, a San Francisco–area group announced in January that it was launching a campaign to relocate the vessel from its current Philadelphia berth to San Pablo Bay.
The world’s oldest floating steel warship and the sole surviving naval vessel of the Spanish-American War, the Olympia served as Commodore George Dewey’s flagship at the Battle of Manila Bay. Her last official naval mission was to carry the body of the Unknown Soldier from France to the United States in 1921. The Olympia is steeped in history—but her recent history has been all about the struggle to survive.
The aging cruiser, a National Historic Landmark, is in need of substantial and costly hull repairs to prevent her from sinking. Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, the Olympia’s home since 1995, has spent in excess of $5.3 million on maintenance, repair, preservation, and restoration over the years. But another $10 million is required to restore the hull and deck, and possibly as much as $20 million is required for a complete restoration.
Unfortunately, the museum announced in February 2010 that it is not able to raise the money needed to dredge the Penn’s Landing Marina, transport the Olympia to dry dock, and finance the repairs necessary to ensure she will remain afloat. Her fate grew more uncertain with talk last spring of sinking her and turning her into an artifical reef in the waters off Cape May, New Jersey.
While various concerned groups endeavored to raise funds to save the ship, Independence Seaport was slated to close the Olympia to visitors for good last November. But the organization gave the ship a six-month “stay of execution,” with limited visitation hours during the time extension.
Still, the Olympia remains in limbo and needs to find a new home—or maybe she needs to return to her original home. Enter the San Francisco contingent: the Navy Yard Association of Mare Island. The former naval-shipyard workers at the heart of the effort seek to bring the troubled ship back to her place of origin. She was built at San Francisco’s Union Iron Works, launched in 1892, and then docked at Mare Island for outfitting. She returned to the same yard a number of times for repairs, and it was from there that, on 25 August 1895, she set a course for the Far East and her eventual rendezvous with history at the 1 May 1898 Battle of Manila Bay.
The Mare Island group now joins others seeking raise the requisite funds to save the Olympia. At press time, Independence Seaport was slated to issue a bid request in February to organizations seeking to acquire the ship.
Seeking the Revenge of Perry
New England divers announced in January that they have discovered what they believe is the shipwreck of the U.S. Navy schooner Revenge, which sank off the Rhode Island coast in 1811. Her skipper? A young lieutenant named Oliver Hazard Perry, who soon moved on to bigger and better things.
While en route from Newport, Rhode Island, to New London, Connecticut, the Revenge hit a reef in a storm, ran aground, and was abandoned. Perry was absolved of responsibility in the ensuing court of inquiry (the pilot took the blame). After a leave of absence, Perry returned to service and assumed command of the U.S. naval force on Lake Erie in the War of 1812. On 10 September 1813, he earned his place in the pantheon of American naval heroes with his “Don’t give up the ship” victory at the Battle of Lake Erie.
As the divers who made the recent shipwreck discovery mused when making their announcement, the wreck of the Revenge in a sense altered the course of naval history by altering the career trajectory of Perry, indirectly setting the stage for his Lake Erie billet and his date with destiny.
One of the divers, Charles Buffum, said he had been fascinated with stories of the Revenge wreck since childhood. He and his fellow ship-hunters actually first knew they were onto something in 2005, when they located a cannon; since then they have found four more cannon, an anchor, and enough other artifacts that they are now “99 percent sure” that this is the Revenge site. A true “smoking gun” identifier, such as a ship’s bell, has yet to turn up, however. Meanwhile, the discoverers have notified Naval History & Heritage Command of the find.
Cradle of Naval Aviation Kicks off Centennial Year
Naval Air Station Pensacola on 20 January kicked off a year’s worth of celebrations in honor of the centennial of naval aviation. The event featured the fly-by of a vintage-painted T-39 Saberliner and speeches to mark the opening of 2011 festivities.
Rear Admiral Joseph Kilkenny, Commander, Naval Education and Training Command, addressed a crowd of more than 500 people: “In this year of 2011, we absolutely know how aviation positively impacts our maritime forces, and is essential to the defense of our republic.
“That was not always the case. In 1901 Rear Admiral George Melville wrote in the North American Review that neither the dirigible airship nor the powered flying machine would ever prove of any use commercially, let alone in warfare. Rear Admiral Melville called flight ‘wholly unwarranted if not absurd.’ Well, nobody ever said making admiral gives you wisdom.”
Other speakers at the event included Captain Christopher Plummer, commanding officer of NAS Pensacola, and Florida Governor Rick Scott.
The Navy officially dates the beginning of its aviation element to 8 May 1911, when the service’s first aircraft were requisitioned. Marine Corps aviation dates its birth to 22 May 1912, when First Lieutenant Alfred A. Cunningham reported for duty as the first Marine Corps aviator.
The 20 January date for Pensacola’s kickoff was selected to coincide with the arrival of the team who would develop the first training program and base. As Captain Plummer noted in his address to the crowd, “Today marks the exact day 97 years ago—20 January 1914—in the spot where Lieutenant John H. Towers and Lieutenant Commander Henry C. Mustin landed in Pensacola.”
Towers was the officer-in-charge of an aviation unit from the U.S. Naval Academy, consisting of nine officers and 23 Sailors who arrived on board the battleship Mississippi and cargo ship Orion to set up a Navy flying school at Pensacola.
“This cadre of naval officers and Sailors erected what became known as the cradle of naval aviation,” said Plummer. “The rest is history.”
A Call for Cold War Papers
The John A. Adams Center at the Virginia Military Institute has announced that, for the seventh year, it will award prizes for the best unpublished papers dealing with the U.S. military in the Cold War era (1945–91).
Any aspect of the Cold War military is eligible subject matter, with papers on war planning, operations, intelligence, logistics, and mobilization especially welcome. Essays that relate the Korean and Southeast Asian conflicts to the larger Cold War are also open for consideration.
The first-place prizes are a plaque and a cash award of $2,000; second place garners $1,000 and a plaque; third place will receive $500 and a plaque.
Entries should be tendered to the Adams Center at VMI by 31 July. Submissions should be in Microsoft Word and limited to a maximum of 25 pages of double-spaced text (exclusive of documentation and bibliography).
Over the summer, a panel of judges will examine all papers. The Adams Center will announce the winners in the fall. Award-winning entries will be considered for publication by the Journal of Military History. In addition, the Adams Center will post select papers on its Web site, pending authors’ permissions.
Submissions and questions should be directed to: Director, John A. Adams ’71 Center for Military History and Strategic Analysis, c/o Deneise P. Shafer, Department of History, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, VA 24450; [email protected]; 540/464-7447/7338; fax 540/464-7246.