MiembroQueenAnnesRevenge

Fragments from a single book (cataloged here) were discovered inside a cannon recovered from the wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge. Of course, there is no way to know whether this was a book read by the ship's crew, or if its pages were simply used as waste paper. But given the opportunity to have a pirate ship's "library" ...

The Queen Anne's Revenge was the flagship of Edward Teach (Blackbeard) ran aground in 1718 off the coast of North Carolina. The wreck was discovered in 1996 and much archaeological investigation and recovery has been carried out since that time.

Before its time as QAR, the ship was known as La Concorde, and researchers have determined that it was used as a slave ship for at least three voyages out of Nantes, France. It was captured by Blackbeard's crew in the late fall of 1717 off Martinique and used on raids around the Caribbean and the Atlantic coast (Blackbeard even blockaded the port of Charleston, SC for nearly a week in May 1718). Shortly thereafter, around 10 June, the ship was grounded and abandoned by the pirates.