PhotoBlog - blackbeard

Oct

2011

6:46pm, EDT

Chuck Beckley / The Jacksonville Daily News via AP

Researchers led by the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources' Underwater Archaeology Branch recover a 2,000-pound cannon from the wreck of the pirate Blackbeard's ship, which has been on the ocean floor off the North Carolina coast for nearly 300 years, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011 in Beaufort, N.C. (AP Photo/The Jacksonville Daily News, Chuck Beckley)

Blackbeard's cannon salvaged from shipwreck off North Carolina

AP reports:

BEAUFORT, N.C. — A 2,000-pound cannon pulled from the waters near Beaufort Wednesday will give archeologists and historians more ammunition for separating fact from legend surrounding the infamous pirate Blackbeard.

The Queen Anne's Revenge Project brought the massive gun ashore and displayed it to the public before taking to a laboratory at East Carolina University. Onlookers cheered as the 8-foot-long gun was raised above the water's surface.