Blackbeard’s ship still a source of wrangling

But roughly 300 years later, a battle over the 300-tonne Queen Anne’s Revenge (built 1710) continues to rage, although now the loot in question is intellectual property.

Intersal, the Florida company that discovered the ship, is preparing a federal lawsuit against the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources (DCR), according to company chairman John Masters. The potential lawsuit comes after Intersal withdrew its $14m administrative complaint over rights to photos and videos of the historic wreck published by DCR.

Masters tells TradeWinds that his father, Intersal founder Philip Masters, knew that he would not find much treasure on the Queen Anne’s Revenge. After conducting historical research, he believed that Blackbeard had taken treasure off the ship before abandoning it.

So Intersal signed a memorandum of agreement with the state agency in 1998 that allowed it to share rights over another asset.

“Our permit called for us to get three-quarters of any treasure found on the Queen Anne’s Revenge,” said John Masters. “So what we did was we traded those rights... in return for media and replica rights to the ship.”

The deal was to last 15 years, with a 10-year renewal option. After a dispute at renewal time, Intersal and the department struck a settlement in 2013 that set the terms for posting photos and videos on websites, other than the state agency’s own site.

“Some time after the agreement, we discovered that DCR had still had up on many different websites, Queen Anne’s Revenge digital media,” he said.

In fact, Masters alleges, the agency had posted even more to websites like Flickr, without the required watermark.

“We believe that we followed the law. We believe that we have been a good partner. We believe that we have done this right and that we have tried to do everything correctly,” Masters said. “And I really can’t understand why where we are right now.”

A DCR spokeswoman declined to comment for this story, citing the threat of federal litigation.

Masters says his company is reviewing a proposal by the agency to convene a joint “business panel”, a structure set up in the disputed agreement, but he says lawsuit preparations are still underway.