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Huffpost Science

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Ahoy! Archaeologists excavating pirate Blackbeard’s sunken ship, named Queen Anne’s Revenge, recently unearthed from the wreckage various medical devices–and some of them look pretty darn terrifying.

Among the grisly finds were a urethral syringe that would have been used to treat syphilis, two pumps, and a porringer that would have been used in bloodletting, Live Science reported.

“We just have to understand that these people were suffering,” Dr. Linda Carnes-McNaughton, an archaeologist with the U.S. Department of Defense who volunteered on the excavation, told CNN. “They were seeking relief for any kind of ailment, and certainly if there was warfare on the water, there were wounds among other ailments that needed treatment. It wasn’t always a formally trained person in desperate times. That’s probably more common than we know.”

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BLACKBEARD

A urethral syringe used to treat syphilis found aboard Blackbeard’s ship Queen Anne’s Revenge, which wrecked off the coast of North Carolina in 1718. | North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources

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Click link below for story and slideshow:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/31/blackbeard-pirate-ship-medical-supplies_n_6582112.html?cps=gravity_1787_1892953707780659463

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