Queen Anne's Revenge · Sailing the Black Flag: The Archives

French slave ship La Concorde, captured and renamed by Blackbeard in 1717, wrecked at Beaufort Inlet in 1718; the wreck (31CR314) was identified as Queen Anne's Revenge in 2011.

The wreck site and its finds are held by North Carolina, and no image of them is yet licensed for display here; the ship is exhibited through the paper record.

She began as a slave ship. La Concorde was a French vessel out of Nantes, and her origin is documented in French rather than English: the depositions her officers Pierre Dosset and Francois Ernaud swore on returning home, held at Nantes in Serie B 4578, with a research report by Jacques Ducoin working through them for the Queen Anne's Revenge project.

Thache's two sloops, of twelve and eight guns and about 250 men, took her near St Vincent on 28 November 1717. She was a hard prize made easy. Sixteen of her crew were already dead and many of the rest sick from the Middle Passage, and she still had 455 enslaved Africans aboard of the 516 shipped from the Guinea coast. The French dated the capture 28 November in their new-style calendar; the English colonial records kept old style, which puts the same day at about 17 November. One event under two dates, not two events.

He kept her, put more guns aboard and renamed her Queen Anne's Revenge. A slaver became a flagship, at least by reputation. Governor Johnson's report from Charleston credited her with forty guns and four hundred men, figures that ran well ahead of the reality but show what she was meant to project. Some of La Concorde's own men were forced to stay on, the pilot, the cook and the surgeon among them; a few volunteered.

She lasted about seven months under his flag. On or about 10 June 1718, "the 10th of June or thereabouts" in Captain Brand's phrase, she grounded on the bar at Beaufort Inlet, then called Topsail, and could not be worked off. Whether that was an accident of pilotage or Thache wrecking her deliberately to shed most of his crew is disputed in the period record itself, and the argument runs on the person page rather than here. The ship's own story ends on the bar.

The wreck outlasted the argument. On 21 November 1996 the salvage firm Intersal found a site off Beaufort, logged as 31CR314, in shallow water. North Carolina placed it on the National Register in 2004 and formally identified it as Queen Anne's Revenge on 29 August 2011. That identification is a reasoned determination, not a signed proof: a bronze bell dated 1705, a blunderbuss barrel, cannon and anchors of the right period and scale, and no single artefact carrying her name. The Archives treats the wreck as its own class of evidence, graded on its own terms, and does not fold it into the paper record. The discovery is Confirmed; the identification is Highly Probable.

Connections

Edward Thache (Blackbeard) commanded Queen Anne's Revenge

Evidence behind this record

The French slave ship La Concorde was captured near St Vincent on 28 November 1717 by Thache's two sloops of twelve and eight guns and about 250 men. French archival depositions (research report): Depositions of Capt. Pierre Dosset and Lt Francois Ernaud, Nantes Serie B 4578, worked through in Jacques Ducoin's research report for the QAR project; 28 November new style equals about 17 November old style, one event
At capture La Concorde carried 455 enslaved Africans of the 516 embarked on the Guinea coast, with sixteen of her crew already dead and many sick from the Middle Passage. Highly Probable French archival depositions (research report): Ducoin research report and QAR narrative from the Dosset and Ernaud depositions
Thache renamed the prize Queen Anne's Revenge; some of the French crew were forced to stay, including the pilot, cook and surgeon, and a few volunteered. Highly Probable French archival depositions (research report): QAR narrative from the French depositions
Queen Anne's Revenge grounded on the bar at Beaufort (then Topsail) Inlet about 10 June 1718 and was lost. Highly Probable Naval report and secondary: Capt. Ellis Brand of HMS Lyme, 'the 10th of June or thereabouts'
Thache marooned about fifteen of his own men on a shoal at the grounding; whether he grounded the ship deliberately to do so is disputed in the period record. Highly Probable Depositions and naval report: Marooning Highly Probable on the depositions of David Herriot and Ignatius Pell (preserved via the 1719 Bonnet-trials print); the deliberate-intent reading is Probable and disputed, Herriot alleging intent and Brand implying an accident of pilotage
The wreck 31CR314 at Beaufort Inlet was identified by North Carolina as Queen Anne's Revenge in 2011 on cumulative rather than single-artefact evidence. Highly Probable Archaeology (site): Discovered 21 November 1996 by Intersal (discovery Confirmed), listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004, formally identified 29 August 2011; a reasoned determination supported by a 1705 bell, a blunderbuss barrel, cannon and anchors, not a signed proof

Open research

Origin documented in the French depositions of Dosset and Ernaud (Nantes, Serie B 4578; Ducoin research report for the QAR project), known here only through the QAR project's citations; the originals are not yet in evidence. Capture 28 November 1717 new style equals about 17 November old style, one event. Grounding about 10 June 1718; deliberate versus accidental is disputed in the period record itself (Herriot's deposition alleges intent, Brand's letter implies accident). Wreck discovered 21 November 1996, identified 29 August 2011; discovery Confirmed, identification Highly Probable and expressly a cumulative deduction, not a single-artefact proof. Archaeology is held as a separate evidence class from the documentary record.