Expanded Blackbeard exhibit opens at museum in N. Carolina

BEAUFORT, N.C. (AP) - A newly expanded exhibit about Blackbeard and his ship is opening at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort.

The exhibit includes new artifacts from the ship, Queen Anne's Revenge, and a new conservation laboratory. It opens Saturday. Staff members from the lab in Greenville will conduct demonstrations about how to conserve artifacts from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The new exhibit also includes a laboratory where visitors can view and interact with conservators as they prepare artifacts. Students, museum staff and professional conservators will work in the lab.

The expanded exhibit includes modern-day piracy materials and information about how the modern world views Blackbeard and other pirates of his era.

Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground in 1718 in Beaufort. A private company discovered the shipwreck in 1996.