During the blockade Blackbeard captured several merchant ships, absconding with gold, slaves, and other valuables. Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground on a sandbar the following month while trying to enter Beaufort Inlet. Blackbeard and his crew escaped, but, after a spell of drunkenness and debauchery on Okracoke Island near Cape Hatteras, he was killed and then beheaded by British forces on November 22, 1718. The search for the ship was conducted by Michael Daniel and Philip Masters of Intersal, a private salvage firm based in Boca Raton, Florida, under a permit from North Carolina's Office of State Archaeology. The state has not disclosed its precise location, fearing looting of the vessel.
Steps are under way to designate the site a protected state archaeological preserve.