There's still ongoing debate about the identity of the ship claimed to be the Queen Anne's Revenge. In fact, some researchers have called into question the ent

There's still ongoing debate about the identity of the ship claimed to be the Queen Anne's Revenge. In fact, some researchers have called into question the entire methodology used to identify the majority of wrecks, indicating it falls under the idea of "Ruling Theory".[0] As regards the Queen Anne's Revenge: [1] Ruling theory is when a hypothesis is so aRrac&ve that researches may consciously or unconsciously record data in favor of the hypothesis. “Ruling Theory can be applied in many fields, including archaeology” (Railsback, 1990). An example of an archaeological site applying the Ruling Theory is the Beaufort Inlet Shipwreck. On November 21, 1996 a team of inves&gators from Intersal Inc. discovered an 18th century shipwreck about a mile and a half off of the coast of Beaufort Inlet. Shortly aMer discovering this ship the ques&on of this ship being the Queen Anne’s Revenge, Blackbeard’s flagship, started to arise. Today many communi&es on the Outer Banks, like Ocracoke Island, use the Queen Anne’s Revenge to aRract tourist. Is the Beaufort Inlet Shipwreck really the Queen’s Anne’s Revenge? Or have researches been too hasty when gathering their informa&on about the Beaufort Inlet Shipwreck? [0] Harpster, Matthew. "Shipwreck Identity, Methodology, and Nautical Archaeology." Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 20.4 (2013): 588-622. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10816-012-9131-x#page-1 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10816-012-9131-x#p... [1] Collier, Carson. "Ruling Theory Applied at the Beaufort Inlet Shipwreck." (2014). http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1040&context=uresposters http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1...