2023-04-18 19:13:00
Pure coincidence:
Robert Klatt
Model of Queen Anne’s Revenge
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- In the wreck of the Queen Anne’s Revenge, the Flagship of the famous pirate Blackbeard were for a sailing ship discovered an unusually large number of pieces of coal
- Researchers have now discovered that the coal does not come from the ship at allbut through the Ocean current washed to the wreck
The wreck of the famous pirate Blackbeard’s flagship contains an unusually large amount of coal for a sailing ship. Archaeologists have now solved the mystery of their origin.
Lexington (U.S.A.). In 1718, the flagship of the notorious pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, ran aground off the coast of North Carolina and eventually sank at sea. Almost three centuries later, in 1996, researchers stumbled upon the sunken wreck near the coastal town of Beaufort. When examining the ship, divers found cannons and various equipment as well as gold particles, glass beads and, surprisingly, several hundred pieces of coal.
But what was the significance of this coal on board? As the Queen Anne’s Revenge was a sailing ship, she was not used for propulsion. James Hower from the University of Kentucky (UK), however, explains that there were reasons why sailing ships of the time carried coal on board. For example, it was used to prepare food or heat. Nevertheless, the amount of coal found in the wreck was unusual for a sailing ship of this type.
Chemical analysis of the coal pieces
“So we wanted to know where the coal in the wreck might have come from, because there was hardly any large-scale coal mining in America at that time. We therefore had to find out whether the coal actually came from the ship.”
According to their publication in International Journal of Nautical Archaeology the researchers therefore chemically analyzed the pieces of coal from the wreck. The analyzes show clear differences between the pieces of coal. Some samples consisted of bituminous coal with a carbon content of 87 to 90 percent and small amounts of volatile substances. Other samples, however, were the harder, more compact anthracite coal, which contains more than 90 percent carbon, the scientists report. This suggests that the coal particles in the shipwreck came from different sources.
Source of the coal from Blackbeard’s ship
The scientists therefore examined in detail the sources of the different pieces of coal.
“Coal with few volatile components can be found in Virginia, among other places. This charcoal was good for cooking and was later used on steamships because it emits little smoke when burned.”
Anthracite coal, on the other hand, was rarer. In the USA it occurs exclusively in the Appalachian region (Pennsylvania).
“In the 19th and 20th centuries, the simplest explanation for both types of lumps of coal would be coal mining in the Appalachian Mountains. But in Blackbeard’s time these mining areas did not exist.”
The European settlers did not encounter deposits of anthracite coal until the late 1760s, well following Blackbeard’s ship sank. During the time of the famous pirate, anthracite coal was primarily mined in Europe.
Coal was never on the Queen Anne’s Revenge
According to Hower, the solution to the questions regarding the origin of coal and its heterogeneous chemical composition is surprisingly simple. The coal was actually never on the pirate’s ship, but the find is merely a coincidence that came regarding as it was found near the port of Beaufort. During the American Civil War, coal-fired steamships were supplied at this port.
“So the coal on the wreck probably came from Civil War-era ships.”
During the period from 1862 to 1864 over 450 coal-fired steamships were loaded in the port of Beaufort. Pieces of coal kept falling into the high-current sea areas. These then collected at obstacles on the seabed, including the wreck of the Queen Anne’s Revenge.
International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, doi: 10.1080/10572414.2022.2101775
1681846944
#Coal #mystery #solved #Blackbeards #ship
