In 1717, the notorious pirate Blackbeard captured a French slaving vessel off the coast of Martinique and made it his flagship, renaming it Queen Anne\'s Revenge .
But in June 1718, with British authorities closing in, Blackbeard reportedly ran Queen Anne\'s Revenge aground just off the coast of what is now North Carolina\'s Fort Macon.
Over the next six months, the heavily armed ship and its crew captured all manner of riches from merchant ships sailing the Caribbean to the Carolinas.
In 1717, the notorious pirate Blackbeard captured a French slaving vessel off the coast of Martinique and made it his flagship, renaming it Queen Anne\'s Revenge