piratediver
Sr. Member
Here is a positive article about the WHYDAH from the Wall Street Journal. Note the mention of the 1715 fleet.
The Who, What, Where of the Whydah:
From Slave Ship to Pirate Vessel
By STUART FERGUSON
September 12, 2007; Page D9
Cincinnati
Samuel Bellamy didn't set out to be a pirate. Keep that in mind as you tour the exhibit galleries in "Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah From Slave Ship to Pirate Ship." The pistols and pikes, cannons, African gold and, yes, silver pieces-of-eight displayed here at the Cincinnati Museum Center (through Jan. 2, 2008, then traveling to Philadelphia, Phoenix and other cities) were the result of Plan B. When Bellamy sailed from Cape Cod in the fall of 1715, he was after treasure from the Spanish plate (silver) fleet wrecked in a July hurricane along the Florida coast, just north of today's Vero Beach. Alas, by the time Bellamy got there, not only had the easy pickings been removed by Indian divers drafted by a Spanish relief expedition sent from Havana, but the English pirate Henry Jennings had also dropped by and collected a tidy amount. Though Jennings had arrived after most of the treasure had been sent back to Havana, he was able to take the rest, thoughtfully brought to dry land by the Spaniards and awaiting shipment in a lightly guarded fort on the beach.
Cannons and treasure are some of the items from the Whydah on display in an exhibit both children and adults will find entertaining.
Rather than return broke and humiliated, Bellamy, his business partner Palgrave Williams (whose father had been the attorney general of Rhode Island) and their crew decided to "go on the account" -- nautical slang for turning pirate. During the next year and a half they had a remarkable run, sailing with Edward Teach (the soon-to-be-notorious "Blackbeard"), Henry Jennings (whom they double-crossed) and other buccaneers during this "golden age of piracy," capturing more than 50 vessels. One of the last of these prizes taken (in February 1717) was the Whydah, a slave ship built in London in 1715. The Whydah was a galley, a fast-sailing, well-armed vessel that didn't draw much water, allowing her to get in close to the West Africa coast to pick up her human chattel without fear of running aground. When Bellamy, now known as "Black Sam Bellamy," boarded her, she had already offloaded her slaves and was carrying a cargo of sugar and indigo -- and chests of silver and gold. The pirates not only kept the specie, they kept the ship. It had taken their sloop the Sultana three days to overtake the larger Whydah, which proved she was a good sailor, plus there was more room for their loot.
But two months later, just after capturing the Mary Anne, a small boat loaded with Madeira wine (which may have had something to do with what happened next) the Whydah itself sank in a storm on April 26, 1717, just off Wellfleet on Cape Cod -- Bellamy's home. He and 143 others died as the breakers tore the ship apart and crashed down on those who tried to make it to land. Only two men on the Whydah survived the ordeal, but the seven pirates onboard the captured wine ship were able to run her on to the shore and make their escape from the sea before they and the Whydah's tiny remnant were captured and tried for piracy. Six of the nine were hanged in Boston.
It wasn't piratical bloodshed that frightened the authorities (there is no record of Bellamy having killed anyone after a ship surrendered to him). Rather, it was the pirates' challenge to property and hierarchy. In "The History of the Pirates" (long thought to be by Daniel Defoe writing under a pseudonym, though that attribution is now disputed), the author has Bellamy declare, "I am a free Prince, and I have as much Authority to make War on the whole World, as he who has a hundred Sail of Ships at Sea, and an Army of 100,000 Men in the Field; and this my Conscience tells me." While the speech was likely dreamed up by the author of "The History," Bellamy was known to refer to himself as the Robin Hood of the Sea, and at the trial of his fellow pirates, the prosecutor noted that Spartacus had been a greater threat to Rome than Hannibal.
Finding the remains of the Whydah was always Barry Clifford's Plan A. He had grown up on the Cape hearing stories and legends about the ship from his uncle Bill. While many scoffed, and scholars assumed that any treasure had either been found by beachcombers soon after the storm or was never there in the first place, Mr. Clifford persevered and found his first Whydah artifacts in 1984. But it was only when the ship's bell was found -- after years of diving -- that skeptics admitted that Mr. Clifford's wreck and the Whydah were one and the same; he had found the first ever documented pirate shipwreck.
Inscribed "THE WHYDAH GALLEY 1716" around its top and submerged at eye level in a large tank of water (to preserve it from the elements), the bell is the first object encountered as visitors enter the show. Mr. Clifford's team is still diving on the site today and has brought up thousands of items, more than 200 of which are on view here. The long and complicated recovery saga is best told in Mr. Clifford's book "Expedition Whydah," written with Paul Perry. But the story of the Whydah herself, Bellamy and his crew, is given concrete form in "Real Pirates."
It was obvious from his prepared remarks at the press briefing, and subsequent interviews at the exhibition itself, that neither time nor controversy lessened Mr. Clifford's enthusiasm for the project. He seemed as eager in person as in his book to give the slave ship Whydah as much attention as the pirate ship Whydah. Early attempts to construct a Whydah museum in Boston and Tampa, Fla., were scuttled by accusations that the ship's African history had been played down. To make sure that slavery's role was properly explained, the organizers of the exhibition, National Geographic and Arts and Exhibitions International, and the Cincinnati Museum Center, formed an advisory panel of academics and scholars to review the content of the show.
Happily, the panel seems to have provided more than just political insulation, and emphasizing the ties between Africa and America, both profitable and cruel, has lifted "Real Pirates" from easy popularity and made it revelatory, providing connections that link the Aztecs of Mexico and ivory from African elephants to puritan divine Cotton Mather (who preached to the condemned pirates) and John F. Kennedy Jr. (who made the first dive on the Whydah when it was found in 1984).
Indeed, the vessel was named after the largest slaving port in Africa, now known as Ouidah, on the coast of Benin. An illustration of "William's Fort at Whydah 1727" in the first gallery -- a sort of puff piece promising talented but tractable workers -- talks of "the natives who are accounted the best husband-men and worst Warriours in Guinea." Displayed nearby is a silver branding needle used to mark slaves with the name of the ship that took them to the New World. Next to it are shackles -- cast from the void left when the original object eventually rusted away underwater -- and an iron bar, seven of which bought one person. A short but fascinating video of Ouidah shows the actual beach where the enslaved people were loaded onto boats and rowed out through the surf to the ship. But fortunes could change. In fact, almost 30% of all pirate crews were of African descent, and there were blacks among Bellamy's crew that captured the slaver, as well as at least one Indian, and whites from many nations -- including Holland, Sweden, France, England, Scotland and the New England colonies.
Pewter spoons and plates, buckles and cufflinks, scissors, candlesticks, a teapot, clay pipes and gaming tokens, navigational instruments and carpenter's tools brought up from the wreck give a hint of everyday life on board the Whydah. There are some "Pirates of the Carribean"-esque tableaux of a tavern and Bellamy's cabin in a life-size reproduction of the Whydah's stern, complete with mannequins in period dress. But there's nothing wrong with this, as they are bracketed by plenty of actual artifacts and will help to hold children's interest. And the large and dramatic murals painted by Greg Manchess illustrating incidents from Bellamy's cruise, including the pirates swarming aboard a French merchantman off Cuba, provide just the right sort of Boys-Own-Adventure atmosphere à la Howard Pyle or N.C. Wyeth. But what will really get the kids -- and adults, too -- are the rooms full of weapons, coins and ingots, with chests seemingly full of silver reals (some of which you can actually touch!) and Akan gold from Ghana worked into beads and ornaments.
There's a wonderful pistol of wood and brass, found with a silk ribbon and hemp holster. Its escutcheon is decorated with the face of the Oak/Holly king, a Celtic deity also meant to represent William III of England. (Though the pirates themselves seemed to have had Jacobite sympathies with the exiled Stuarts. When Thomas Davis, a ship's carpenter captured on the St. Michael, was reluctant to join Bellamy's crew, one pirate said: "Damn him, He is a Presbyterian Dog, and should fight for King James." In the end, Davis was forced on board; he was one of the two men who escaped both the shipwreck and the hangman's noose. The other, John Julian, was a Moskito Indian probably sold into slavery without trial. Not so lucky was young John King, almost 11 years old when he drowned that stormy April night. King had threatened to kill both himself and his mother if she did not let him join the pirates when the ship they were passengers on was captured by Bellamy. One of his silk stockings and small leather shoes are on display, mute testimony of what could happen to a real-life Jim Hawkins (hero of Stevenson's "Treasure Island") gone bad.
Mr. Ferguson is a writer in Highlands, N.C.
Pirate Diver
The Who, What, Where of the Whydah:
From Slave Ship to Pirate Vessel
By STUART FERGUSON
September 12, 2007; Page D9
Cincinnati
Samuel Bellamy didn't set out to be a pirate. Keep that in mind as you tour the exhibit galleries in "Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah From Slave Ship to Pirate Ship." The pistols and pikes, cannons, African gold and, yes, silver pieces-of-eight displayed here at the Cincinnati Museum Center (through Jan. 2, 2008, then traveling to Philadelphia, Phoenix and other cities) were the result of Plan B. When Bellamy sailed from Cape Cod in the fall of 1715, he was after treasure from the Spanish plate (silver) fleet wrecked in a July hurricane along the Florida coast, just north of today's Vero Beach. Alas, by the time Bellamy got there, not only had the easy pickings been removed by Indian divers drafted by a Spanish relief expedition sent from Havana, but the English pirate Henry Jennings had also dropped by and collected a tidy amount. Though Jennings had arrived after most of the treasure had been sent back to Havana, he was able to take the rest, thoughtfully brought to dry land by the Spaniards and awaiting shipment in a lightly guarded fort on the beach.
Cannons and treasure are some of the items from the Whydah on display in an exhibit both children and adults will find entertaining.
Rather than return broke and humiliated, Bellamy, his business partner Palgrave Williams (whose father had been the attorney general of Rhode Island) and their crew decided to "go on the account" -- nautical slang for turning pirate. During the next year and a half they had a remarkable run, sailing with Edward Teach (the soon-to-be-notorious "Blackbeard"), Henry Jennings (whom they double-crossed) and other buccaneers during this "golden age of piracy," capturing more than 50 vessels. One of the last of these prizes taken (in February 1717) was the Whydah, a slave ship built in London in 1715. The Whydah was a galley, a fast-sailing, well-armed vessel that didn't draw much water, allowing her to get in close to the West Africa coast to pick up her human chattel without fear of running aground. When Bellamy, now known as "Black Sam Bellamy," boarded her, she had already offloaded her slaves and was carrying a cargo of sugar and indigo -- and chests of silver and gold. The pirates not only kept the specie, they kept the ship. It had taken their sloop the Sultana three days to overtake the larger Whydah, which proved she was a good sailor, plus there was more room for their loot.
But two months later, just after capturing the Mary Anne, a small boat loaded with Madeira wine (which may have had something to do with what happened next) the Whydah itself sank in a storm on April 26, 1717, just off Wellfleet on Cape Cod -- Bellamy's home. He and 143 others died as the breakers tore the ship apart and crashed down on those who tried to make it to land. Only two men on the Whydah survived the ordeal, but the seven pirates onboard the captured wine ship were able to run her on to the shore and make their escape from the sea before they and the Whydah's tiny remnant were captured and tried for piracy. Six of the nine were hanged in Boston.
It wasn't piratical bloodshed that frightened the authorities (there is no record of Bellamy having killed anyone after a ship surrendered to him). Rather, it was the pirates' challenge to property and hierarchy. In "The History of the Pirates" (long thought to be by Daniel Defoe writing under a pseudonym, though that attribution is now disputed), the author has Bellamy declare, "I am a free Prince, and I have as much Authority to make War on the whole World, as he who has a hundred Sail of Ships at Sea, and an Army of 100,000 Men in the Field; and this my Conscience tells me." While the speech was likely dreamed up by the author of "The History," Bellamy was known to refer to himself as the Robin Hood of the Sea, and at the trial of his fellow pirates, the prosecutor noted that Spartacus had been a greater threat to Rome than Hannibal.
Finding the remains of the Whydah was always Barry Clifford's Plan A. He had grown up on the Cape hearing stories and legends about the ship from his uncle Bill. While many scoffed, and scholars assumed that any treasure had either been found by beachcombers soon after the storm or was never there in the first place, Mr. Clifford persevered and found his first Whydah artifacts in 1984. But it was only when the ship's bell was found -- after years of diving -- that skeptics admitted that Mr. Clifford's wreck and the Whydah were one and the same; he had found the first ever documented pirate shipwreck.
Inscribed "THE WHYDAH GALLEY 1716" around its top and submerged at eye level in a large tank of water (to preserve it from the elements), the bell is the first object encountered as visitors enter the show. Mr. Clifford's team is still diving on the site today and has brought up thousands of items, more than 200 of which are on view here. The long and complicated recovery saga is best told in Mr. Clifford's book "Expedition Whydah," written with Paul Perry. But the story of the Whydah herself, Bellamy and his crew, is given concrete form in "Real Pirates."
It was obvious from his prepared remarks at the press briefing, and subsequent interviews at the exhibition itself, that neither time nor controversy lessened Mr. Clifford's enthusiasm for the project. He seemed as eager in person as in his book to give the slave ship Whydah as much attention as the pirate ship Whydah. Early attempts to construct a Whydah museum in Boston and Tampa, Fla., were scuttled by accusations that the ship's African history had been played down. To make sure that slavery's role was properly explained, the organizers of the exhibition, National Geographic and Arts and Exhibitions International, and the Cincinnati Museum Center, formed an advisory panel of academics and scholars to review the content of the show.
Happily, the panel seems to have provided more than just political insulation, and emphasizing the ties between Africa and America, both profitable and cruel, has lifted "Real Pirates" from easy popularity and made it revelatory, providing connections that link the Aztecs of Mexico and ivory from African elephants to puritan divine Cotton Mather (who preached to the condemned pirates) and John F. Kennedy Jr. (who made the first dive on the Whydah when it was found in 1984).
Indeed, the vessel was named after the largest slaving port in Africa, now known as Ouidah, on the coast of Benin. An illustration of "William's Fort at Whydah 1727" in the first gallery -- a sort of puff piece promising talented but tractable workers -- talks of "the natives who are accounted the best husband-men and worst Warriours in Guinea." Displayed nearby is a silver branding needle used to mark slaves with the name of the ship that took them to the New World. Next to it are shackles -- cast from the void left when the original object eventually rusted away underwater -- and an iron bar, seven of which bought one person. A short but fascinating video of Ouidah shows the actual beach where the enslaved people were loaded onto boats and rowed out through the surf to the ship. But fortunes could change. In fact, almost 30% of all pirate crews were of African descent, and there were blacks among Bellamy's crew that captured the slaver, as well as at least one Indian, and whites from many nations -- including Holland, Sweden, France, England, Scotland and the New England colonies.
Pewter spoons and plates, buckles and cufflinks, scissors, candlesticks, a teapot, clay pipes and gaming tokens, navigational instruments and carpenter's tools brought up from the wreck give a hint of everyday life on board the Whydah. There are some "Pirates of the Carribean"-esque tableaux of a tavern and Bellamy's cabin in a life-size reproduction of the Whydah's stern, complete with mannequins in period dress. But there's nothing wrong with this, as they are bracketed by plenty of actual artifacts and will help to hold children's interest. And the large and dramatic murals painted by Greg Manchess illustrating incidents from Bellamy's cruise, including the pirates swarming aboard a French merchantman off Cuba, provide just the right sort of Boys-Own-Adventure atmosphere à la Howard Pyle or N.C. Wyeth. But what will really get the kids -- and adults, too -- are the rooms full of weapons, coins and ingots, with chests seemingly full of silver reals (some of which you can actually touch!) and Akan gold from Ghana worked into beads and ornaments.
There's a wonderful pistol of wood and brass, found with a silk ribbon and hemp holster. Its escutcheon is decorated with the face of the Oak/Holly king, a Celtic deity also meant to represent William III of England. (Though the pirates themselves seemed to have had Jacobite sympathies with the exiled Stuarts. When Thomas Davis, a ship's carpenter captured on the St. Michael, was reluctant to join Bellamy's crew, one pirate said: "Damn him, He is a Presbyterian Dog, and should fight for King James." In the end, Davis was forced on board; he was one of the two men who escaped both the shipwreck and the hangman's noose. The other, John Julian, was a Moskito Indian probably sold into slavery without trial. Not so lucky was young John King, almost 11 years old when he drowned that stormy April night. King had threatened to kill both himself and his mother if she did not let him join the pirates when the ship they were passengers on was captured by Bellamy. One of his silk stockings and small leather shoes are on display, mute testimony of what could happen to a real-life Jim Hawkins (hero of Stevenson's "Treasure Island") gone bad.
Mr. Ferguson is a writer in Highlands, N.C.
Pirate Diver
