BEAUFORT, N.C. -- The nonprofit group that raised money to help preserve the wreckage of Blackbeard's flagship off the North Carolina coast has disbanded amid lawsuits alleging copyright infringement by the state.
Multiple media outlets report that Friends of the Queen Anne's Revenge filed dissolution papers in March. A spokesman says the lawsuits preclude the group from raising more money.
One lawsuit was filed by Intersal, a Florida company that discovered the shipwreck in the Beaufort Inlet in 1996. It seeks more than $129 million in damages.
The second lawsuit was filed in federal court by Nautilus Productions, which has not assigned an amount for damages yet.
A spokeswoman for the state Department of Cultural and Natural Resources says it has no planned dives on the wreckage and it will concentrate on conservation.
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