The Plank
Day 1: Caribbean
Day 2: Charleston
Day 3: Carolina Coast
Day 4: Beaufort
Day 5: Bath
Day 6: Ocracoke

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What clues will reveal the identity of the shipwreck?

They'll be looking at several factors:

One, the size of the ship. Originally called the Concorde, the Queen Anne's Revenge was a huge ship. She had a carrying capacity of 300 tons and measured about 100 feet in length. Anything smaller will mean the divers have discovered another ship, perhaps the Adventure, a 10-gun sloop which went down on the same day as the QAR.

Two, the age of the artifacts. If the items retrieved from the wreck predate 1718, the year the QAR went down, then the likelihood grows that the divers have hit the jackpot.

Three, the number of cannon. They'll hope to find at least 20, the number the ship carried when Blackbeard took her over. Reportedly, the pirate increased his armament to 40 guns.

Four, a stockpile of navigational instruments. Blackbeard loved to collect these tools of the sea and a trove of these would add to the evidence that the ship was his.

Five, a collection of medicine bottles. When Blackbeard blockaded the Charleston harbor in May of 1718, his QAR and three other ships captured several vessels. The pirates ransomed their hostages for a chest of medicine.

Six, a collection of slave shackles. Some experts believe the ship once carried slaves from Africa to Martinique.

Seven, a ship's bell with the name Concorde on it. That would be the clincher.

"That's the best thing that could happen," says Phil Masters, the president of Intersal, the organization which found the wreck. "Every artifact that we bring up and that falls into the Blackbeard story adds credence to our belief that this is the QAR. (But) short of finding the ship's bell you can never be 100 percent."