Chapel Hill couple bankrolls Blackbeard excavation

It’s a pirate’s life for Eric and Rita Bigham.

After attending a news conference in Beaufort on Friday at the North Carolina Maritime Museum, the Chapel Hill couple donated more than $30,000 to an unusual cause — a shipwreck.

Since the Queen Anne’s Revenge shipwreck site was discovered in 1996, Eric Bigham has been waiting for the right time to get involved.

“I had always wanted to help out with this effort,” he said. “So when we went to the program on Friday and heard about the financial problems, we decided to jump in.”

The recovery site houses the remains of Blackbeard’s ship, Queen Anne’s Revenge, said Fay Mitchell, public affairs specialist for The North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.

As a pirate, Blackbeard gained notoriety by violently robbing unsuspecting ships off the North Carolina coast during the early 18th century.

The N.C. Department of Cultural Resources began raising money for the project in January, and the Bighams’ contribution brought them to the department’s year-end goal of $450,000.

The Bighams’ donation will help fund artifact recovery efforts through 2014, said Jennifer Woodward, the assistant secretary of the department.

Woodward said the couple’s donation came at an opportune time.

“We had to get all these artifacts up before 2014 so we can begin the process of conserving them,” she said.

“Because of the generous donation, we are right on schedule and moving forward.”

She said nearly 280,000 artifacts have been recovered from the site, and the crew is more than halfway finished with the project.

The prospect of unearthing the pirate’s lost relics excited Eric Bigham, who found time to rekindle his fascination with maritime history after retiring from his career as a research scientist at Research Triangle Park.

Eric Bigham said Rita — a retired Carrboro Elementary School teacher — also supports the project, but not with the same level of intensity.

“She is excited by virtue of my being (excited,) but not quite as enthusiastic,” he joked.

Eric Bigham said his interest in the project began when he started giving tours of historic sights in Beaufort, where the couple has a home.

And he said he is excited to be a part of the project’s future.

“History has always been a pastime of mine. To be able to be a part of something that will uncover history is pretty great,” he said.

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