Nautical Research Journal 203
1. Advice Prize. From David Lyon, Sailing Navy List, London, 1993 Building Queen Anne’s Revenge:
A museum display model. Part 1 By Dan Pariser
In 1996 the remains of the fl agship of the notorious pirate, Edward Teach (or T atch), known to the world as Blackbeard, were discovered underwater in Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina. T e history of Queen Anne’s Revenge (QAR), the ship’s origins, cruises, capture and use by Blackbeard were fully covered in the excellent article by David Moore in an earlier issue of this Journal (NRJ 63:1, 43-58). T e many artifacts recovered are being conserved and displayed at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort and can be viewed on the ship’s website sponsored by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources at
http://www.qaronline.org.
As part of the project I was asked to build two display models of QAR for the museum. T ey were to be at the scale of 1:36, resulting in a large model that would be about 48 inches long from the tip of the jib boom to the ensign staff at the stern, with a height of 44 inches from the keel to the main truck, and with a main yard some 22 inches long. T e hull was to be solid, or semi-solid, below the gun deck but open and fully detailed above. T ey each were to have a full suit of sails with all sail handling lines, although several sails would be furled so the deck could be more easily viewed. To the extent known, the details found in the wreck and the various recovered artifacts
would be incorporated into the model. T is article is an overview of that process. A more complete recital of the journey can be found on the Nautical Research Guild’s
ModelShipWorld.com site in the Scratch- Built forum.
T e fi rst issue was to decide what plans to use for construction. As the historic research discovered, the ship was privately built in 1710 along the lines of a small French frigate. A similar ship was captured by HMS Advice, and was taken into Royal Navy service as Advice Prize (AP) when the lines were taken off . (Figure 1) It was decided to use this as the basis for the primary hull shape and layout. However, there were several problems with the draught. Most signifi cantly, AP was pierced for only nine cannon in each broadside, while it is defi nitively known that QAR had ten. As with many such draughts, there are few small details shown and no ornamentation.
To supplement the draught I relied on several illustrations of small French frigates and the monograph by Jean Boudriot on Le Mercure, an armed merchantman of the period. As with all his work, the paper is liberally illustrated with detailed drawings of all of the details of the ship done in the French style of the early eighteenth century. Based on these various sources and others, the profi le was modifi ed to add an additional gunport, a lion fi gurehead, and to change the quarter badge for a larger one in the French style. A boarding ladder, several loading skids, and some rigging fi ttings were
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