Quick hits: It really was Blackbeard's boat, and Uwharrie going natural

They're sure now ... it's the Queen Anne's Revenge
"The Raleigh News and Observer is reporting that the State has decided that the remains of a shipwreck off Beaufort, N. C. are in fact those of Blackbeard's flagship the Queen Anne's Revenge a.k.a QAE," writes the Beaufort Observer.

"Now we should say up front that we have no clue whether or not they are correct that this wreck is indeed Blackbeard's ship. What we do have a clue to is why they have declared it to be what they have thought all along it was. Money. ..."



Forest Service wants to return Uwharrie back to native condition

"The U.S. Forest Service wants to restore Uwharrie National Forest to its more natural condition by planting different trees and carrying out selective burning to encourage the growth of rare sun-loving plants," says the Winston-Salem Journal.

"The Forest Service last week released the draft management plan and environmental impact statement for the forest, which covers 51,000 acres in Davidson, Montgomery and Randolph counties. ...

"Plan highlights include reducing the number of loblolly pine plantations in favor of longleaf pine and oak-hickory forests.

"Currently, about 20,000 acres in the national forest are occupied by loblolly and shortleaf pines, mostly the result of past plantings for timber harvesting. ..."

Ed Teach and the slave trade

An article in the Jacksonville Daily News mentions that the Queen Anne's Revenge, the boat of Edward Teach (North Carolina's most famous pirate "Blackbeard"), was formerly used in the colonial slave trade to the New World from Africa.

"In a display case at the N.C. Maritime Museum," the article says, "beside a model of the Queen Anne's Revenge, sits a detached cross section of the replica representing the half deck. ...

"It is not the most notorious part of the ship's history - most people associate the QAR with the infamous pirate Blackbeard and his blockade on Charleston Harbor.

"Yet the QAR holds just as many links to African-American history as it does to pre-revolutionary piracy.

"For some years prior to its capture by pirates in November 1717, the QAR was the Concorde, a French slave ship that traveled the seas back-and-forth from Europe to Africa to the Caribbean."

What is intriguing is that history tells us that five of the QAR's nine crew members who survived at Ocracoke were black. (Blackbeard didn't make it out of the battle alive.)

"Researchers do not know if Blackbeard kept these five aboard from the Concorde or if they came from another slave ship captured by the pirates just prior to the battle, Moore said.

"What researchers do know is that the QAR is not the only pirate ship with ties to the colonial slave trade."