A TREASURE hunt at the wreck of Blackbeard’s ship has provoked speculation that the swashbuckling pirate captain might have been suffering from venereal disease.

A urethral syringe is among the objects recovered from the presumed wreck of Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge, which ran aground off North Carolina in June 1718.

Divers are making their first full-scale attempt to recover artefacts from the wrecked pirate vessel after it was first discovered 1¼ miles off the beach town of Beaufort in 1996.

Previous expeditions have found cannon, grenades, platters, flecks of gold, wine bottles and hundreds of ballast stones that give new clues into the lifestyle of 18th century pirates.

But perhaps the most intriguing discovery to date has been a 6¼ in pewter syringe used to administer mercury into the penis for the treatment of venereal disease. The syringe, with a curved funnel tip, contained traces of mercury, suggesting that it had been used on someone aboard.

“This expedition is really the first one where the goal has been to completely document and recover the artefacts,” Chris Southerly, the director of field operations, said yesterday from a diving vessel on the scene. “What is driving us is the environmental danger of the site, the storms and hurricanes. We have observed sand loss over ten years now. One good storm could really have a detrimental impact .”

Blackbeard won a notoriety that has endured for almost three centuries despite the fact that he appears in recorded history for only two years.

He fought as a privateer for the British, attacking Spanish and French ships in the War of Spanish Succession in the early 18th century before turning to piracy at the end of the war.

His troop captured a French slaver called La Concorde near the Caribbean island of St Vincent in November 1717 and renamed it Queen Anne’s Revenge. It became his flagship, sailing alongside three smaller sloops. In May 1718, Blackbeard’s pirates mounted an audacious blockade of Charleston, South Carolina. The ransom they demanded, and received, was a chest of medicine worth £400.

The next month, Blackbeard lost his flagship when it ran aground and he was granted a royal pardon to go and live on Ocracoke island. But the governor of Virginia sent troops to track him down and the two sides fought a final battle on November 21, 1718. Blackbeard’s head was cut off and stuck on a stake and his body tossed overboard. According to local legend, his headless body swam around his ship five times before he finally died.

Angus Konstam, author of Blackbeard: America’s Most Notorious Pirate and a former curator of weapons at the Tower of London, said that, after studying artefacts already brought ashore, he believes the wreck is that of Blackbeard’s flagship. “It’s a very, very good chance that it’s the Queen Anne’s Revenge,” he said.

CRIME WAVE

He captured more than 40 ships during his piratical career

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