Message in a Breech Block: A Fragmentary Printed Text Recovered from Queen Anne’s Revenge
Author(s): Erik R Farrell; Kimberly P Kenyon; Sarah Watkins-Kenney; Kay D. Smith; Ruth R. Brown
Year: 2018
Summary
The collection of artefacts recovered from the 1718 wreck of Queen Anne’s Revenge (QAR) contains a broad array of items typical of shipboard life on a pirate vessel, as well as tantalizing, unique finds. While unloading and conserving the breech chamber for a breechloading swivel gun, conservators recovered 16 small fragments of paper, some bearing legible printed text. These fragments of text have been uncovered after nearly 300 years inside a cannon chamber on the sea floor, and conservators and researchers have now begun the long task of stabilizing, analyzing, and identifying these artifacts. This paper will discuss the historical context and importance of this extraordinarily rare archaeological find, as well as the ongoing efforts to identify a source text.
Cite this Record
Message in a Breech Block: A Fragmentary Printed Text Recovered from Queen Anne’s Revenge. Erik R Farrell, Kimberly P Kenyon, Sarah Watkins-Kenney, Kay D. Smith, Ruth R. Brown. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, New Orleans, Louisiana. 2018 ( tDAR id: 441235)
This Resource is Part of the Following Collections
Keywords
General
Buccaneers
•
Maritime
•
Pirates
Geographic Keywords
North America
•
United States of America
Temporal Keywords
Historic
Spatial Coverage
min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;
Individual & Institutional Roles
Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology
Record Identifiers
PaperId(s): 303