Billy Ray Morris News

A shipwreck discovered off the coast of North Carolina is likely one of three Confederate blockade runners known to have been lost in the area, archaeologists said on Monday. The remains of the iron-hulled steamer were located on Feb. 27 near Oak Island. It would be the first Civil War-era vessel found in the area in decades, said the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology. Billy Ray Morris, director of the state's underwater archaeology branch, said he expected to be able to positively identify the 225-foot-long (68-metre) vessel when he leads a dive team to examine it on Wednesday. "To turn up a new wreck is a pretty big deal," he said in a telephone interview, adding sonar images showed the vessel to be largely intact.

Many unknown treasures and concretion-encased surprises await researchers on the wreck of Blackbeard’s flagship, Queen Anne’s Revenge (QAR), near Beaufort. Part two of this year’s dive season resumed this week, and the plan is to recover artifacts from 60 five-foot by five-foot units by October 31. After nearly 300 years on the sea floor, the artifacts often are locked in a concrete-like crust of sand, shells and marine life that is removed during the conservation process. This summer’s earlier dive ended in mid-June with the recovery of two eight-foot cannons.