- “I be right honored to welcome you aboard our world-renowned vessel of infamy, Queen Anne's Revenge.”
- ―Scrum to Jack Sparrow[src]
The Queen Anne's Revenge is a legendary pirate ship from real-world history. It was most famously used as a flagship by Edward Teach, better known by his nickname Blackbeard.
As a famous historical ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge has appeared in different incarnations in several Disney-related products. It first appeared in the 1968 film Blackbeard's Ghost, where the ship was turned into an Inn after it was wrecked. The Queen Anne's Revenge had a notable appearance in the 2011 film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, as Blackbeard's ship manned by zombies, festooned with the bones of his victims and spits Greek fire from its bow to incinerate enemy ships or the occasional crew member fallen out of favor. Near the end of On Stranger Tides, Hector Barbossa killed Blackbeard and claimed his ship and crew for himself until the ship was abandoned in Dead Men Tell No Tales.
History[]
Development History[]
The Queen Anne's Revenge was an 18th-century sailing-ship which is believed to have been constructed around 1710, originally known as The Concord or La Concorde. It was used as a slaving ship until its capture on November 28, 1717 at the hands of the pirate Edward "Blackbeard" Teach off the coast of St. Vincent.
Blackbeard renamed the vessel to The Queen Anne's Revenge, likely as a reference to the War of the Spanish Succession AKA Queen Anne's War which many pirates at the time were veterans of. The ship reportedly had 40 cannons and a crew of about 300 pirates with Blackbeard using it as the flagship of his fleet. In the May of 1718, the Queen Anne's Revenge was used to form a blockade outside of Charleston harbour in South Carolina, holding the port hostage. Blackbeard's demands from the port included many top of the time medical equipment which he decked the Queen Anne's Revenge with to assist his crew.
On June 10 of 1718, the Queen Anne's Revenge was run aground on Beaufort Isle in North Carolina. Resources were transferred to Blackbeard's other ship The Adventure and the Queen Anne's Revenge was abandoned with much of its crew marooned by Blackbeard. Some historians propose that Blackbeard might have intentionally wrecked the Queen Anne's Revenge as a means of dispersing much of his crew.
Appearances[]
Blackbeard's Ghost[]
In this film, the beached wreckage of the Queen Anne's Revenge was transformed into an estate called Blackbeard's Inn in Godolphin, North Carolina. The inn was owned by the descendants of the Revenge's crew and came to be haunted by Blackbeard's Ghost. At the end of the film, it appears as a ghost ship which Blackbeard departs on with a ghost crew aboard waiting for him.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides[]
Bristling with cannons and spiked with human bones, the Queen Anne's Revenge was the flagship of the notorious pirate Blackbeard. Under his command, this fearsome vessel was manned by the undead, whether it was a soulless crew of jumbees or zombies, await with deadly determination to repel all boarders. The Revenge also came to life as long as its captain wielded the Sword of Triton, then the vessel would do his indomitable will and spread terror in its bloody wake. According to legend, the Queen Anne's Revenge was festooned with the skeletons of Blackbeard's victims, and spat fire from its bow to incinerate enemy ships, or the occasional crew member fallen out of favor.
During the quest the Fountain of Youth, Blackbeard held no ordinary crew, but one consisting of a mixture of humans and zombies, led by his daughter Angelica. Several days after being shanghaied aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge, Jack Sparrow used his lowly position as mere crewman to lead a mutiny against the zombie officers. However, the revolt was foiled when Blackbeard himself appeared and used the Sword of Triton to spring the sinister ship to life, in which Jack's crew of mutineers got caught in its rigging. Throughout the quest, Jack and Angelica danced on deck, the Revenge partook in the mermaid hunt at Whitecap Bay, and was docked in a cove of a mysterious island for the remainder of the journey to the Fountain. After the death of Blackbeard, the Queen Anne's Revenge and its crew would be led by Hector Barbossa.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales[]
About one year after the events of On Stranger Tides the Queen Anne's Revenge was heavily renovated because of the earnings of Hector Barbossa's fleet. The Queen Anne's Revenge docked when Barbossa heard about how his ships were being attacked and sunk by Captain Salazar's ghostly crew of the Silent Mary. Captain Barbossa met with Salazar on the Revenge and promised to locate Jack Sparrow in exchange for his life. Salazar accepted, but forced Barbossa to travel with the ghosts to exact their revenge. The Queen Anne's Revenge was thus left abandoned.
Differences from history[]
Blackbeard's Ghost[]
- In this film, the Queen Anne's Revenge was turned into an Inn after it was wrecked. In real-life the wreckage of the ship was only found in 1996 and was underwater.
Pirates of the Caribbean[]
- The ship first appears in the films during the 1730s, over twenty years after the Queen Anne's Revenge was wrecked in North Carolina.
- The ship is given a bone motif of which there is no historic basis and which cannot be observed from the ship's wreckage. This includes a gibbet with a skeleton within being suspended from the bow, a skeleton figurehead and bones decorating the hull.
- The ship is shown to be capable of projecting Greek Fire from its stern. In history, Greek Fire was an incendiary weapon used by the Byzantine empire around the 7th century. Greek Fire's recipe remains a mystery and absolutely would not have been known by 18th century colonial pirates in the Americas.
- The Jolly Roger flown by the Queen Anne's Revenge is a fanged skull surrounded by fire with blood dripping from its mouth. This Jolly Roger is completely fictitious and not resembling any of the historically documented or proposed flags Blackbeard used.
Trivia[]
- In the films the figurehead of the ship is a skeleton holding a goblet and a spear. This comes from the Jolly Roger attributed to have been flown by Blackbeard which showed a skeleton in a crown holding a goblet and stabbing a bleeding heart with a spear. However it is believed that Blackbeard probably would have never used this Jolly Roger in real life.
- In Disneyland Paris, ship which was formerly explicitly the Wicked Wench has a different colour-scheme which is near-identical to that of the Queen Anne's Revenge from Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. As this is the only remaining version of the attraction which has Blackbeard leading the raid of Isla Tesoro, this might indicate the ship represents the Queen Anne's Revenge rather than the typical Wicked Wench.
- The historic Queen Anne's Revenge flew the same Jolly Roger as the Wicked Wench in the original Pirates of the Caribbean ride.
Gallery[]
External links[]
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