The story of a slave ship named Whydah, commandeered in February 1717 by pirates near Cuba in the
Caribbean is the basis of a National Geographic Society exhibition called
“Pirates” at the Natural History Museum located in Balboa Park, San Diego. After its capture the pirates subsequently
sailed their new flagship up along the Atlantic coast with its crew plundering
a dozen more ships and collecting 4.5 short tons of gold and silver along the
way before running aground and capsizing off the coast of Cape Cod in a gale
force storm from the northeast.
The captain of these pirates, Sam Bellamy, was seeking his
fortune in order to marry the lady of his desire, Maria Hallett. During the course of merely a year from
the Caribbean to Cape Cod, he achieved great infamy as “Black Sam” and acquired
his fortune. Alas, his dreams of
wedding his sweetheart was not destined to come true as his ship sank beneath
the waves taking down its entire cargo and all but two of the crew with it near the place where they would reunite.
In 1984 in just fourteen feet of water and five feet of sand
the wreck was discovered and ultimately excavated by Barry Clifford-the first
ever pirate ship found and retrieved.
Shoes, belt buckles, rings, cuff links, the ship’s galley bell, birdshot
and musket balls along with cannons have been recovered. Exotic African Akan gold jewelry and
coins are included in the displays that were also retrieved from the site along
with pewter plates, forks, spoons and knives used by the pirates. Currently, the recovery continues
on an annual basis adding more artifacts to the over 200,000 pieces already recovered
to date.
More of this interesting tale can be found in Wikipedia along with a few photos of the artifacts which we were not allowed to photograph at the exhibit.
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