TOOLS OF THE TRADE: A MATERIAL CULTURE STUDY OF HAND TOOLS FROM QUEEN ANNE’S REVENGE

Abstract

Blackbeard was one of the most notorious pirates during the 1700s and today maintains a high profile in popular culture. The remains of his flagship Queen Anne’s Revenge were discovered by researchers off the coast of North Carolina nearly 300 years after the vessel wrecked. The excavation and conservation of this site continues to offer new insights into the work, lives, and shipboard activities of pirates, crew, and slaves aboard La Concorde. The hand tools, which include hammers, files, pry bars, jacks, and other instruments for shaping wood represent a growing category of artifacts recovered from the wreck and over a dozen are currently undergoing conservation in Greenville, North Carolina. This thesis examines these artifacts through material culture and object biography lenses and provides insight into vessel maintenance and repair activities that sailors and craftspeople performed aboard vessels in the eighteenth-century. Specific crafts and trades represented by these tools include carpentry, painting, and possible weapon repair.