Blackbeard discovery

[Marian Gra]

Incredible Blackbeard discovery: Stunning find on buccaneer's ship reveals pirate reading habits:

''What books did pirates read? Experts have made a remarkable discovery about their reading habits after deciphering paper fragments recovered from the wreck of Blackbeard’s ship.

The find offers a fascinating glimpse into life on board the famous 18th-century pirate’s flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, which ran aground off North Carolina in 1718.

The 16 tiny paper fragments were found in “a mass of wet sludge” that was removed from the chamber of a breech-loading cannon found on the wreck, according to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. The largest of the fragments was only the size of a quarter, officials explained in a statement.

Archaeologists have removed a host of artifacts from the wreck since its discovery at Beaufort Inlet in 1996, including jewelry, tools, and a number of cannons. A spokeswoman for NCDNCR told Fox News that 24 out of 30 cannons known to be at the site have been recovered. However, no breech-loading cannon has been found, despite the discovery of the chamber containing the paper fragments.

LiveScience reports that the paper fragments found in the cannon were used as “wadding” that would have sealed gas behind a projectile.

Conservators from the NCDNCR’s Queen Anne’s Revenge Lab worked with specialist paper conservators and scientists from the department’s Division of Archives and Records, as well as the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, to conserve the fragile paper fragments. “As the work progressed another discovery was made — that there was still legible printed text on some of the fragments, although only a few words were visible,” explained NCDNCR, in its statement. “The challenge then became not just to conserve the paper fragments, but also to identify where they were from.”

Months of research revealed that the fragments were from a 1712 first edition of the book “A Voyage to the South Sea, and Round the World, Perform’d in the Years 1708, 1709, 1710 and 1711,” by Captain Edward Cooke.

The book is a “voyage narrative,” a genre popular in late 17th and early 18th-century literature. Cooke’s work describes his adventures on an expedition made by two ships, Duke and Dutchess, which sailed from Bristol, England, in 1708. The expedition’s leader, Captain Woodes Rogers, also published an account of the journey.

Both Cooke and Rogers describe the rescue of Alexander Selkirk from an island where he had been marooned for four years, which inspired Daniel Defoe’s famous 1719 novel “Robinson Crusoe.”

'Although books like these voyage narratives would have been relatively common on ships of the early 18th century, archaeological evidence for them is exceedingly rare, and this find represents a glimpse into the reading habits of a pirate crew,” explained NCDNCR in its statement. “The historical record has several references to books aboard vessels in Blackbeard’s fleet, but provides no specific titles; this find is the first archaeological evidence for their presence on QAR [Queen Anne's Revenge].'

The vessel was a French slave ship when it was captured by Blackbeard in 1717 and renamed Queen Anne’s Revenge. The pirate, whose real name was Edward Teach, was killed by Royal Navy forces in November 1718, five months after the Queen Anne’s Revenge sank.

Experts are still working to conserve, record and document the paper fragments. A display about the discovery is planned as part of NCDNCR’s Blackbeard 300th anniversary events this year.''

[Doc Vernon]

Very interesting Marian
Thank You
Cheers

[j.sabourn]

#1... Marian surprised that anyone could of been able to read in those days, only the gentry receiving an education. There again think Blackbeard himself was of the hierarchy. Maybe a chance for Gulliver to get in here and claim Johnathen Swift was his Great Great Grandad and he himself was of noble birth and king of the Lilliputians. Davey could maybe join the Lecture circuit and make a few bob on the side without the tax man taking it off him. Could maybe do what our Lord Mayor of Perth has been accused of doing and taking expensive gifts. JS

[j.sabourn]

Thanks Davy for your updated C.V. ( curriculum Vitae ) for those of the pirate class who can’t read or write. our mistress Lord Mayor went back to work yesterday proving that the female of the species can have tough skins just like their male counterparts. Even Doddie would have wilted with shame and fled the scene. Someone bought me a pair of black socks for Xmas to wear with my dinner jacket , printed on them in white is John A Noble Man, Harmonious, Handsome, and Refined. Do you think it would be acceptable to wear my trousers ( that is when have on) at half mast so people can see and acclaim. Maybe a good idea to get some with I am a sock puppet 3 times over , to dish out for presents next year for certain types. Maybe they think they are invisible. Theall seeing eye sees all. Come the floods when we all try to get in Cappys Ark, there will be no place for smelly socks. 5 x G is a great force and most test pilots pass out long before the reach that pressure. All the best... Coracle. Jws

[thomas michael]

Incredible Blackbeard discovery: Stunning find on buccaneer's ship reveals pirate reading habits:

Experts are still working to conserve, record and document the paper fragments. A display about the discovery is planned as part of NCDNCR’s Blackbeard 300th anniversary events this year.''

hi marian
I have been following on and of this story of captain black beards ship on the discovery channel and very interesting it is, BUT I cannot believe the experts conclusion on the captains reading matter, which was based on minute bits of paper from a cannon and reduced to a sludge, as a matter of fact there are prisoners being released month in month out in America whom where once found guilty due to the scientific evidence produced by so called experts, using the be all of scientific evidence and that being DNA which is infallible, or so the experts state.
nice article though
tom

[thomas michael]

[QUOTE=Gulliver;292056]

#1... Marian surprised that anyone could of been able to read in those days,

Long Live Wikipedia!


Gulliver

hi guliver
just a small correction, due to your site preparing for gender neutral and lesbian, queer and any other embarrassing illnesses which may or may not arise from the said members with out or possibly with surnames,
you cannot use the term Blackboard no longer as it may offend other members, the term used has to be chalkboard
tom

[j.sabourn]

Tom how about the black chalk one uses on a whiteboard then.?? JWS.

[thomas michael]

Tom how about the black chalk one uses on a whiteboard then.?? JWS.

hi j sabourn
no no no. you cannot refer to the obvious, it has to be called chalk of colour,
at the same time I know somebody whom recently had to report to his local police station, his Lakeland terrier missing,
when asked for description of the said dog, he described it as black as the ace of spades and the name is ******.
well due to the fact that there was a Pakistani or other nationality of colour also at the desk, my friend was asked to repeat the dogs name,and in a loud voice he repeated my dogs name is ******,very embarrissing for the sargent on the desk, But how will the powers above make him or anybody change that name
tom

[thomas michael]

Dearest Coracle







------------
Thomas I believe we might have to use the classifications IC1 and IC2 for white and black.So a blackboard would be an IC2 board. Gone would be the days when nobody could ever get mixed up with them.I mean it's black and white isn't it ? A lot better than saying it's IC1 and 2.
Strange world we live in !

hi guliver
referring to your classification of the said white or black problem. I can only say that both myself and my wife will use the term ( THATS NICE ) when confronted by situations where colour , gender creed or race raises its ugly head.
obviously you being well educated, erudite and articulated and you will be fully au fait with that popular person of the stage screen and theatre together with the tv, Mrs brown,whom uses the term ( that's nice ) when confronted with all she dislikes. well I like to think that both myself and my wife are as gentrified as the comman man can be
tom

[Marian Gra]

- - - Updated - - -

Once again I am forced to look in and reply as my name was mentioned by that venerable (C)oracle JWS.

John,I have never been on any 'lecher 'circuit let alone made a few bob on the side,from it although I believe there are quite a few nasty men doing such things on the t'internet,though their games may soon be ended ,for as well as trying to 'out ' as many sockpuppets as possible on this site I endeavour to one day try and rid the WWW of all such abominations,(I'm currently working on an Uxbridge/Wirral/French Northern Irish/Hong Kong /Welsh Navy connection,so you see it takes me all over the world,although it's a bit of a poor substitute for the actual voyaging I did all those years ago.)I have an idea with the idea one day of turning it into a novel; perhaps Sockpuppet Sleuthing is a good working title for now.)that in addition to my day job of correcting all those Wikipedia entries that are beloved by many as being taken as the absolute truth.

Why ,just taking your post above as an example,individually googling the various names mentioned comes up with such false information as Edward Teach was a Pilot,was nicknamed Blackboard(although I can see the teacher/blackboard connection there)was a member of the famous Teacher's Whisky clan, and commanded a ship called Montezuma's Revenge in which no doubt the poor pirate spent an awful lot of time perched in a thunder box over the stern assiduously trying to avoid any blow backs......
As for your Lord Mayor of Mirth,I wasn't aware ,as Wikipedia states ,that Ken Dodd actually lived in WA,although no doubt he was a Freemason from Fremantle as well as being born a Lilliputian in a suburb called Knotty Ash and whose chosen theatrical prop was a French tickler attached to a stick.....

Anyway just thought I'd set you straight.Lemuel Gulliver was my GGGGG Grandad ,quite a few more G's than you mentioned.just what I suppose your Lord Mayor of Perth would approve of. Oh well,back to sorting out my 'sock ' drawer.

I bear you no ill will for drawing me into conversation again,when all I really want to do is sit and dream of adventures in hazy climes and foreign spicy ports east of Suez.....

Long Live Wikipedia!


Gulliver[/QUOTE]

Ahh Gulliver my Lovely, you spoil us