Coast Guard Saves Blackbeard’s Cannons
“PORTSMOUTH, Va. — The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Smilax worked with personnel from the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources to recover five cannons and multiple barrel hoops from the Queen Anne’s Revenge in Beaufort Inlet, N.C., Monday.
The Queen Anne’s Revenge was the ship of the pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, for more than a year before the ship ran aground on the shoals in the inlet. The crew of the Smilax, a 100-foot inland construction tender, worked with NCDCR divers to lift the approximately one-ton cannons aboard the Smilax using a combination of flotation bags and the ship’s crane.”
Not bad for the grand old Cosmos-class inland construction tender USCGC Smilax (WLIC-315). She is the Coast Guard’s “Queen of the Fleet”.
Smilax was built by Dubuque Boat & Boiler Works in Dubuque, Iowa. Her keel was laid on 26 November 1943, she was launched on 18 August 1944, and commissioned 1 November 1944. Her first mission included watching out for German U-boats while stationed at Fort Pierce, Florida. Since 2011 she has been the oldest ship in the US Coast Guard and is possibly the last active US military vessel left from World War Two. As an honor, she is the only US military ship with her hull numbers painted in gold and her motto was changed to Natu Maximus Mandatum Traba (Oldest Commissioned Ship).
Homeported in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, she is responsible for maintaining 1,226 fixed aids to navigation such as lights and range markers.
…And salvaging the occasional pirate cannon.