After 295 years, two more cannons from the Queen Anne's Revenge broke the surface of the water and saw the light of day on Thursday.

The two cannons were lifted to the surface by the crew of the R/V Dan Moore using large inflatable lift bags a few miles off-shore from North Carolina. The dive expedition had hoped to bring up eight of the cannon by Thursday, but foul weather and heavy seas hampered their efforts all month.

The researchers have found 27 cannons aboard the vessel and 15 of them have been retrieved thus far.

An extensive dive expedition costing $450,000 is scheduled this fall with plans to bring up all the artifacts from the ill-fated pirate ship.

The sailing ship was built in England in 1710 and captured by the French a year later. It was converted, renamed the La Concorde and used mainly as a slave ship by the French.

Captain Benjamin Hornigold captured the vessel on November 28th, 1717. He renamed it the Queen Anne’s Revenge and turned the ship over to Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard one year just before it grounded off of Beaufort on the southern coast of North Carolina. It was never determined if Blackbeard grounded the vessel intentionally or if the grounding was accidental.

In its brief service under Blackbeard, the vessel was used to plunder shipping all along the southern eastern seaboard. The ship was also used to hold the city of Charleston, South Carolina hostage for ransom.

Blackbeard did not long survive his ship. It was in November of 1718, five months after the grounding that Blackbeard was killed in a battle with the British Navy off of Okracoke Island.

The shipwreck was discovered by Intersal Inc, a private research firm, in 1996. By 2007 one-third of the vessel was excavated. Then in 2011, the ship’s 1.4 ton anchor was raised along with various weaponry. Later that year, in August, the vessel was positively identified by the National Geographic Society as the Queen Anne’s Revenge.