Shiver me timbers! Blackbeard's ship be found

Experts hope to prove a ship found in 1996 off the coast of North Carolina belonged to the dread pirate Blackbeard. From The Associated Press:

"Everybody's got an emotional attachment to Blackbeard," said Bradley Rodgers, an East Carolina University archaeologist and co-author of the article. "He is a very colorful part of our heritage. It doesn't surprise me at all that people are jumping on the bandwagon." Project director Mark Wilde-Ramsing said his team has found strong clues the Queen Anne's Revenge sank at the site in 1718 — though the team hasn't been able to confirm it. "Until such time as we find that absolute one artifact that has initials in it, we'll continue to keep the door open, but I can tell you that door's just about closed," Wilde-Ramsing said. Blackbeard, whose real name was believed to be Edward Teach or Thatch, led a band of sea robbers who plagued the shipping lanes off North America and the Caribbean in the early 18th century. Historians believe the Queen Anne's Revenge was the French slave ship La Concorde seized by Blackbeard and his men near the island of Martinique in 1717. The story goes that Blackbeard ran aground with Queen Anne's Revenge and its sister sloop Adventure near what is now Beaufort Inlet. After abandoning the ships, Blackbeard was eventually tracked down at Ocracoke Inlet by volunteers from the Royal Navy and killed in a battle Nov. 22, 1718.

Arrr. The Haunted Vampire be fond now lads of all things piratey. And if ye ever find ye'selves in Ocracoke, the Haunted Vampire recommends Blackbeard's Lodge to swing ye hammock. Aye.