Jacks (Other Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Arianna M. DiMucci.

The in-progress conservation of two mechanical jacks recovered from the early 18th-century shipwreck Queen Anne’s Revenge (31CR314), flagship of the notorious pirate Blackbeard, is presented here. Designed to lift or pry apart heavy objects, the jacks were likely part of the ship carpenter’s tool kit. These devices worked much like their modern hydraulic counterparts and consisted of a tapering, slotted rack with one end used for lifting; the other passed through the center of a gearbox...