Have you seen the Pirates of the Caribbean movies? If so, you probably remember Blackbeard’s pirate ship. Recently, a Secret that had been in the air for over 300 years has finally been solved by a team of researchers.
The ship that inspired the pirate ship called Quenn Anne’s Revenge sank off the coast of North Carolina in the United States in 1718. When the ship was found, something unusual was discovered on board for the time the ship sank.
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In this sense, there was a mineral on the ship, coal, which was used for heating and preparing food. However, this mineral only appears on a larger scale in the USA from 1870, i.e. 152 years after the shipwreck.
secret revealed
The mystery was solved by a researcher from the UK Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER). James Hower and a team of scientists discovered the origin of coal from this specific time.
In connection with this, the specialist received samples of coal that were found on the ship and analyzed in the laboratory. According to the scientists, some differences were essential to understand the origin of the mineral.
“Low volatility bituminous coal is typically found in Virginia. It is good for cooking and was also used in steamboats because it does not emit smoke when burned. Anthracite is not usually found anywhere. Everyone here (in the US) is from Pennsylvania,” James Hower said.
In addition, another important aspect was to find out when coal resources were first exploited on North American soil. Apparently, European settlers began mining coal in Pennsylvania in the late 1760s.
In the end, scientists observed a curious fact. O shipwreck took place near a port used to fuel ships with coal during the American Civil War in 1862.
From this, the scientists concluded that the coal found on the ship was actually carried to the pirate ship by the tide. “Someone used this charcoal. It wasn’t Blackbeard, it was the Navy,” Hower added.