Sixteen paper fragments - inside a cannon barrel - survived 278 years underwater

Emergencies and World Disasters · Sep 8, 2026 · 22m

Sixteen paper fragments - inside a cannon barrel - survived 278 years underwater

A conservation specialist reached into a water‑logged cannon in January 2018 and pulled out sixteen printed paper fragments that had been used as wadding and remained inside the barrel for 278 years. The cannon belonged to the Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard's flagship, and the torn book pages raise a single haunting question: who tore pages from a published book and loaded them into a gun in 1718?

In this episode, you will hear the ship's layered history from its build around 1710 through service under…