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Post subject: Cannons at shipwreck will have to wait
 Posted: Nov 01, 2006 - 10:52 PM
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Puffer
Joined: Dec 31, 1969
Posts: 73
Status: Offline
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Cannons at shipwreck will have to wait
October 30,2006
PATRICIA SMITH
FREEDOM ENC
The New Bern Sun Journal, New Bern, NC
Availability of boat to lift objects in question
ATLANTIC BEACH ; Divers with the Queen Anne's Revenge Project will likely wait until spring to retrieve cannons from a shipwreck believed to be Blackbeard's flagship.
The delay comes for a couple of reasons, QAR Project Archaeologist Chris Southerly. 'Right now it looks like we're not sure we'll be able to get a lifting vessel within the timeframe of the project,' Southerly said.
Additionally, divers have determined that the ship sternpost needs to come up at the same time, and the archaeology lab is not quite ready for it yet, Southerly said. 'We're actually in the process of getting a tank ready for the sternpost,' Southerly said.
In the past, QAR divers have used Cape Fear Community College's research vessel Martech or the Division of Marine Fisheries landing craft West Bay to pull up some of the smaller cannons, weighing between 800 and 1,000 pounds, Southerly said.
Cape Fear Community College research vessel Dan Moore is generally needed for the larger cannons, he said. 'The ones we're looking at here at this south side are bigger guns, the six-pounders,' Southerly said. Depending on the concretion, they can weigh anywhere from 2,000 to 2,500 pounds, he said.
QAR Project Director Mark Wilde-Ramsing said the sternpost measures 7-by-5 feet and has an estimated weight of 2,600 pounds. The divers need a boat that not only has that lifting capacity but has stability at sea, Southerly said. Too much rocking back-and-forth creates a gravity force that adds to the weight, he said.
At the onset of the six-week dive that began Oct. 2, the QAR project announced plans to recover as many as four cannons this fall. |
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