The Whydah may therefore be the only glimpse the world will ever have into the material culture of an extraordinarily secretive group of men—the pirates of the 17th and 18th century Atlantic world.
Artifacts recovered from the site confirm many points made about pirates by contemporary observers, including such important features of their society as their egalitarianism, internationalism, racial tolerance, and their unique brand of democracy.
More importantly, however, previously unknown aspects of the subculture of piracy have been brought to light. Their adaptation and use of weaponry, for example, has provided new insights into not only their operations and tactics but even their apparel as well. When divers began to bring up pieces of eight and gold from the right time period, he was convinced they came from the legendary ship. But only when the words "The Whydah Gally " appeared beneath the encrusted surface of a bell did Barry Clifford know for sure that he had indeed found the Whydah.
Growing up on Cape Cod, Barry Clifford loved to hear his uncle's tales of pirate ships and lost treasure. His favorite was the story of the Whydah , a foot English merchant ship captured by the infamous New England pirate "Black" Sam Bellamy in After commandeering the Whydah , Bellamy filled the galley, which had carried enslaved people on its voyage from Africa to the West Indies, with treasure collected from months of piracy.
It was an astonishing fortune: 30, pounds of silver, 10, pounds of gold, 20 tons of ivory and "enough precious jewels to ransom a Princess," according to one of the men aboard. Bellamy was sailing his own ship, the Marianne, and the captured Whydah home to Cape Cod in April of when he encountered one of the worst Atlantic storms of the eighteenth century.
In the grip of the powerful nor'easter, the Whydah slammed into a sandbar off Wellfleet and sank. Only two crewmen survived. Over the next few days, the bodies of over pirates washed ashore, along with bits and pieces of the treasure.
The shattered ship and most of the booty quickly disappeared under shifting sands. For the next years, it remained out of reach of treasure hunters and salvagers. Barry Clifford was determined to find the Whydah and her treasure. Beginning in , he dedicated all his energies to the hunt. For the next four years, his business and marriage suffered as he single-mindedly studied old records, consulted with experienced treasure hunters, mapped the area with special metal detecting equipment, and recovered pieces of iron that he believed might have been from the ship.
Clifford secured permits from the state to conduct underwater archeology, and crisscrossed the country raising money for an underwater dig. In November of , he "staked his claim" to the site in U. In the three decades since the discovery, Clifford and his team have recovered more than , artifacts from the ship, including coins, canons, handmade weapons, and even a leg bone. Together, they tell a fascinating story about what the average early 18th-century pirate wore and how he fought.
In the summer of , the explorer opened the Whydah Pirate Museum in West Yarmouth, Massachusetts — the only museum in the world to feature authenticated pirate ship treasure. A 12,square-foot memorial to the old ship, it also includes a life-size replica of the original Whydah Gally. Whydah Pirate Museum. Just received a coin the Whydah Gally to add to my pirate collection.
What a fantastic story to be told. Click here to cancel reply. Experts at the Whydah Pirate Museum in West Yarmouth, Massachusetts, now plan to examine the skeletons in further detail. According to Marie Szaniszlo of the Boston Herald , the team unearthed one complete skeleton and portions of five other sets of remains. Some of the bones had been broken, likely when the ship capsized, crushing its passengers.
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