The Sinking and Recovery of the Whydah
The Atlantic Relinquishes Relics From Sam Bellamy's Pirate Ship
Oct 31, 2008
The surf of the Atlantic Ocean, along the coast of New England, has proven to be friend and foe to ships and sailors. For the Whydah and her captain and crew, a relationship with the Atlantic proved to be fatal.
Nor'easter of 1717
Winds and seas blew afoul for several days. No matter, Bellamy was not deterred from ransacking several ships and snatching their cargo as his ship sailed north along the colonial coastline. The Whydah, a galley, previously engaged with slave trading, was severely leaking. In time the ship's carpenter was able to find and mend the leaks. The tired crew caught a break from pumping out the flow of seawater.
One of the captured ships was transporting a cargo of Madeira wine. Bellamy's crew enjoyed a night of alcoholic imbibing. Though no one knows the state of intoxication of the crew, this may have played a role in the disaster--some day history may reveal it.
Bellamy ordered the ship to head for New England in the hopes of docking near Rhode Island perhaps for further repairs. However, as they neared the coast of New England they ran into another severe weather blast. Hoping to run clear of the storm the ship headed out to sea and dropped anchor.
Raging waves and wind broke the anchor line and drove the ship inland. The vessel wrecked about two miles from Wellfleet. Bellamy and the crew, 143 sailors, including an 11 year-old boy, were lost save for two.
The morning after the shipwreck, battered, drowned seamen and scattered articles of loot began washing onto the beaches of the mainland. The dangerous sea where the Whydah capsized is a graveyard of ships. Ever shifting sand bars and surf create a deathtrap for passing vessels. Because of the number of shipwrecked craft, it has been difficult to discern what artifacts belonged to the Whydah as opposed to the other shipwrecks.
Barry Clifford and the New Treasure Escapade
According to U.S. Federal Admiralty Law, "finders keepers", once a claim has been staked on a sunken vessel. In 1984, Barry Clifford declared he had found the site of the infamous pirate ship. However, the state of Massachusetts forced Clifford to jump through a number of legal hurdles before his salvage work could be considered legal.
According to today's market the treasure of the Whydah is estimated to be about: "... $400 million. A 1975 National Geographic book, Undersea Treasures, listed the Whydah as one of the world's ten greatest lost treasures." [1]
The Whydah was alleged to carry a huge stash of treasures, including: silver bars, gold, jewelry, indigo, ivory, rum and sugar. Sometimes the changing sands upon which the Whydah lay would expose the ends of the galley at the lowest of low tides.
Historical Significance
"The Whydah was the first pirate shipwreck to be positively identified, and, nearly a quarter of a century later, remains the only pirate shipwreck whose identity is unquestionably authenticated. This therefore may 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." [2]
Artifacts recovered from the excavation site are not for sale. They are assessed, evaluated and examined per strict archeological standards then placed on exhibit, at the Expedition Whydah Sea-Lab & Learning Center Museum in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Sources
[1] Barry Clifford
[2] Whydah
whydah.com., written for a website, no date or author
Edward Rowe Snow, True Tales of Buried Treasure, Dodd Mead and Company, New York, NY 1967, pgs. 38-60.
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