August 10, 2015 – John Masters, Chairman of the Board for Intersal, Inc. and son of its late founder Philip Masters, spent years helping his father research and hunt for shipwrecks at Beaufort Inlet, NC, which resulted in the 1996 discovery of Queen Anne`s Revenge (QAR), 1718 Flagship of Blackbeard the Pirate.
in 1988 Intersal traded QAR salvage rights to the state of North Carolina in return for media & replica rights to QAR, as well as other rights connected to the search for El Salvador, and for years helped the NC Underwater Archeology Branch recover the wreck. Mr. Masters has given several talks on Intersal’s work, with his presentation focused on the current excavation and Intersal`s hunt for QAR, the lives of real pirates in the 18h Century, and the visits of Blackbeard and other pirates to the Treasure Coast.
In 2013, Intersal signed a new agreement connected to its QAR rights; Intersal is currently engaged in legal action over breach of that contract by the State of North Carolina. For more on this subject, check out this National Public Radio story and and interview: