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Queen Anne's Revenge

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.

Launchedc. 1710 (built as La Concorde)To10 June 1718 (wrecked, Beaufort Inlet)Also writtenLa Concorde (as a French Nantes slave ship)

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 officers Pierre Dosset and Francois Ernaud swore depositions on their return home describing what became of her.

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.1,2

He kept her, put more guns aboard and renamed her Queen Anne's Revenge. A slaver became a flagship, at least by reputation. She is usually credited with some forty guns, a figure that goes back to Philip Gosse's compilation of 1924 rather than to any period count, and the excavated wreck reads as at minimum a twenty-gun ship, which leaves the gun count open. Some of La Concorde's own men were forced to stay on, the pilot, the cook and the surgeon among them; a few volunteered.3

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. About fifteen of his own men were marooned on a shoal at the grounding, a figure carried as fifteen or seventeen; whether he grounded her deliberately in order to do it was disputed in the period record itself. The ship's own story ends on the bar.4,5

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. The identification rests on the whole assemblage rather than on any one object: a bronze bell dated 1705, a blunderbuss barrel, cannon and anchors of the right period and scale, and no single artefact carrying her name.6

What the evidence does not settle

Origin documents

  • Origin depositions are survives in project citation, not examined directly

Grounding: intent

  • Herriot's deposition alleges the grounding was deliberate

Wreck identification

  • Wreck identification rests on cumulative evidence, not one artefactVery likely

Each line is one question with its own grade, taken from the register where a claim carries it. Nothing here is graded as a whole.

Sources for this record

Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.

  1. 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. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. 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
  2. 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. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. French archival depositions (research report): Ducoin research report and QAR narrative from the Dosset and Ernaud depositions
  3. 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. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. French archival depositions (research report): QAR narrative from the French depositions
  4. Queen Anne's Revenge grounded on the bar at Beaufort (then Topsail) Inlet about 10 June 1718 and was lost. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Naval report and secondary: Capt. Ellis Brand of HMS Lyme, 'the 10th of June or thereabouts'
  5. Thache marooned about fifteen of his own men on a shoal at the grounding, a figure carried as a range of fifteen or seventeen on the grounding record; whether he grounded the ship deliberately to do so is disputed in the period record. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. 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
  6. 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. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. 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