Whydah Gally

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model of the Whydah
Career (Kingdom of Great Britain)
Name: Whydah Gally
Namesake: The African slave port Ouidah
Owner: Independent merchants
Operator: licensed by the Royal African Company
Laid down: 1715, London
Launched: 1716, London
Homeport: London
Commanded by: Captain Lawrence Prince
Chased by pirates: late Feb, 1717
Windward Passage
Surrendered /
Captured:		 three days later, near the Bahamas
Career (Pirate)
Name: Whydah Gally
Owner: "Black Sam" Bellamy
Acquired: late February, 1717
Homeport: Blanco Islet, B.V.I. (later re-named Bellamy Cay) Caribbean Sea
Fate: ran aground, capsized
Commanded by: "Black Sam" Bellamy
Wrecked: April 26, 1717, Wellfleet, Massachusetts Coordinates: 41°53′31″N 69°57′34″W / 41.892°N 69.9594°W
Rediscovered: 1984, by Barry Clifford
General characteristics
Type:Galley
Tons burthen:300 tons BM
Length:31 m (102 ft)
Propulsion:Sail & oar
Sail plan:fully rigged, 3 masts
Speed:13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Complement:150 men
Armament:Twenty-eight 6 lb (2.7 kg) cannons (30 more cannons below deck)

The Whydah Gally (commonly known simply as the Whydah or Whidah, and rarely, written as Whidaw,[1] or Whido[2]) was a fully rigged galley ship that was originally built as a Trade-Triangle passenger, cargo, and slave ship. On the return leg of its maiden voyage of the triangle trade, it began a new role in the Golden Age of Piracy, when it was captured by the pirate Captain "Black Sam" Bellamy, and was refitted as his flagship. Two months later, on April 26, 1717, the ship ran aground and capsized during a strong gale force storm off of Cape Cod, taking over 4.5 short tons (4.1 tonnes) of gold and silver with it, leaving only two known survivors to tell its tale. Whydah and her treasure eluded discovery for over 260 years until 1984, when the wreck was found – under just 16 feet (4.9 m) of water and 5 feet (1.5 m) of sand – becoming the first authenticated pirate shipwreck ever to be discovered.[3]

Slave ship

Whydah was commissioned in 1715 in London, England by Sir Humphrey Morice, a member of the British Parliament, known as the foremost London Slave Trader of his day. A square-rigged three-masted galley ship, it measured 31 metres (102 ft) in length, with a tonnage rating at 300 tuns burthen, and could travel at speeds up to 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph).[4]

Christened Whydah after the West African slave trading kingdom of Ouidah (pronounced WIH-dah), the vessel was configured as a heavily armed trading and transport ship which included the Atlantic slave trade. It set out for its maiden voyage in early 1716, carrying goods from England to exchange for sugar, pimento, logwood, ginger, gold, and slaves in West Africa and the Caribbean. After traveling down West Africa through modern-day Gambia and Senegal to Nigeria and Benin, where its namesake port was located,[5] it left Africa with 367 captives, gold, including Akan jewellry, and ivory aboard. It traveled to the Caribbean, where it traded the 312 survivors for precious metals, sugar, indigo, rum, and medicinal ingredients, which were to then be transported back to England.[6] Fitted with a standard complement of 18 six-pound cannon, which could be increased to a total of 28 in time of war, Whydah represented one of the most advanced weapons systems of the time.[4]

Pirate ship

In late February 1717, Whydah, under the command of Captain Lawrence Prince, a former Buccaneer under Sir Henry Morgan, was navigating the Windward Passage between Cuba and Hispaniola when it was attacked by pirates led by "Black Sam" Bellamy. At the time of Whydah‍ '​s capture, Bellamy was in possession of two vessels, the 26-gun galley Sultana and the converted 10-gun sloop Mary Anne.[4] After a three-day chase, Prince surrendered his ship near the Bahamas with only a desultory exchange of cannon fire.

Bellamy decided to take Whydah as his new flagship; several of its crew remained with their ship and joined the pirate gang. Pirate recruitment was most effective among the unemployed, escaped bondsmen, and transported criminals, as the high seas made for an instant leveling of class distinctions.

In a gesture of goodwill toward Captain Prince who had surrendered without a struggle—and who in any case may have been favorably known by reputation to the pirate crew—Bellamy gave Sultana to Prince, along with £20 in silver and gold.[4][7]

black flag with traditional skull and crossbones
"...they spread a large black flag, with a Death's Head and Bones across, and gave chase to Cap't. Prince under the same colors." – Thomas Baker (Bellamy's crew) on Whydah pursuit[8]

Whydah was then fitted with 10 additional cannons by its new captain, and 150 members of Bellamy's crew were detailed to man the vessel.[1] They cleared the top deck of the pilot's cabin, removed the slave barricade, and got rid of other features that made her top heavy.[9]

Bellamy and his crew then sailed on to the Carolinas and headed north along the eastern coastline of the American colonies, aiming for the central coast of Maine, looting or capturing additional vessels on the way. At some point during his possession of Whydah, Bellamy added another 30+ cannons below decks, possibly as ballast.[10] Two cannons recovered by underwater explorer Barry Clifford in August 2009 weighed 800 and 1,500 pounds (360 and 680 kg), respectively.

They could not wipe out the North-East gales
Nor what those gales set free —
The pirate ships with their close-reefed sails,
Leaping from sea to sea.

—Rudyard Kipling, "The Pirates of England"[11]

Accounts differ as to Whydah‍ '​s destination in her last few days. Some evidence exists to support local Cape Cod legend: Whydah was headed for what is now Provincetown Harbor at the tip of Cape Cod, so that Bellamy could visit his love, Maria Hallett – the "Witch of Wellfleet".[12] Others blame Whydah's route on navigator error. In any case, on April 26, 1717, near Chatham, Massachusetts, Whydah approached a thick, gray fog bank rolling across the water – signaling inclement weather ahead.[13]

The location of the wrecked Whydah Gally in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod

Shipwreck

That weather turned into a violent nor'easter, a storm with gale force winds out of the east and northeast, which forced the vessel dangerously close to the breaking waves along the shoals of Cape Cod. The ship was eventually driven aground at Wellfleet, Massachusetts. At midnight she hit a sandbar in 16 feet (5 m) of water about 500 feet (152 m) from the coast of what is now Marconi Beach. Pummeled by 70 mph (110 km/h) winds and 30-to-40 ft (9-to-12 m) waves, the main mast snapped, pulling the ship into about 30 ft (9 m) of water, where she violently capsized.[14] The 60+ cannon on board ripped through the overturned decks of the ship and quickly broke it apart, scattering parts of the ship over a 4-mile (6.4 km) length of coast. One of the two surviving members of Bellamy's crew, Thomas Davis, testified in his subsequent trial that "In a quarter of an hour after the ship struck, the Mainmast was carried by the board, and in the Morning she was beat to pieces."

By morning, hundreds of Cape Cod's notorious wreckers (locally known as "moon-cussers") were already plundering the remains. Hearing of the shipwreck, then-governor Samuel Shute dispatched Captain Cyprian Southack, a local salvager and cartographer, to recover "Money, Bullion, Treasure, Goods and Merchandizes taken out of the said Ship." When Southack reached the wreck on May 3, he found that part of the ship was still visible breaching the water's surface, but that much of the ship's wreckage was scattered along more than 4 miles (6.4 km) of shoreline. On a map that he made of the wreck site, Southack reported that he had buried 102 of the 144 Whydah crew and captives lost in the sinking (though technically they were buried by the town coroner, who surprised Southack by handing him the bill and demanding payment).[2]

According to surviving members of the crew – two from Whydah and seven from Mary Anne, another of Bellamy's fleet that ran aground in the storm – at the time of its sinking, the ship carried from four and a half to five tons of silver, gold, gold dust, and jewelry, which had been divided equally into 180 50-pound (23 kg) sacks and stored in-between the ship's decks. Though Southack did salvage some nearly worthless items from the ship, little of the massive treasure hoard was recovered. Southack wrote in his account of his findings, that, "The riches, with the guns, would be buried in the sand."[15] With that, the exact location of the ship, its riches and its guns were lost, and came to be thought of as nothing more than legend.

Survivors

Including the seven men aboard Mary Anne, nine of Bellamy's crew survived the wrecking of the two ships. They were all captured quickly, however, and on October 18, 1717, six were tried in Boston for piracy and robbery. The following were found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging: John Brown of Jamaica, Thomas Baker and Hendrick Quintor of the Netherlands; Peter Cornelius Hoof of Sweden; John Shaun of France; and Simon van der Vorst of New York.[16]

Carpenters Thomas South and Thomas Davis, who were tried separately, had been conscripted by Bellamy – forced to choose between a life of piracy or death. Therefore, they were acquitted of all charges and spared the gallows. The last survivor was a 16-year-old Miskito Indian named John Julian – who was a skilled navigator, and also Whydah's pilot.[17] He was not tried, but instead was sold into slavery after his capture.[16]

On November 15, 1717, the famous Puritan minister Cotton Mather accompanied the six condemned men as they were rowed across Boston Harbor to Charlestown. All six men confessed and repented in the presence of Mather, but they still hanged.[16][18]

Gold from the pirate ship Whydah. "The riches, with the guns, would be buried in the sand."

Recovery

Clifford found Whydah‍ '​s wreck in 1984, relying heavily on Southack's 1717 map of the wreck site – a modern-day, true-to-life "pirate treasure map" leading to what was at that time a discovery of unprecedented proportions. That Whydah had eluded discovery for over 260 years became even more surprising when the wreck was found under just 14 feet (4.3 m) of water and 5 feet (1.5 m) of sand.[3]

The ship's location has been the site of extensive underwater archaeology, and more than 200,000 individual pieces have since been retrieved. One major find in the fall of 1985 was the ship's bell, inscribed with the words "THE WHYDAH GALLY 1716". With that, Whydah became the first ever pirate shipwreck with its identity having been established and authenticated beyond doubt.

Work on the site by Clifford's dive team continues on an annual basis. Selected artifacts from the wreck are displayed at Expedition Whydah Sea-Lab & Learning Center (The Whydah Pirate Museum) in Provincetown, Massachusetts. A selection of the artifacts are also on a tour across the United States under the sponsorship of the National Geographic Society.

Archaeological evidence

As bits and pieces of the pirates' weapons, clothing, gear, and other possessions have been plucked from the wreck, researchers have logged the locations where they were found, then gently stowed them in water-filled vats to prevent drying. The artifacts have revealed a picture of the pirates quite unlike their popular image as thuggish men with sabers. The abundance of metal buttons, cuff links, collar stays, rings, neck chains, and square belt buckles scattered on the sea floor shows that the pirates were far more sophisticated—even dandyish—in their dress than was previously thought. In an age of austere Puritanism and rigid class hierarchy, this too was an act of defiance—similar in spirit, perhaps, to today's rock stars.

The bell, inscribed, "THE WHYDAH GALLY 1716"

The most common items found in the wreck were bits of bird shot and musket balls, designed to clear decks of defenders but not to damage ships. The pirates, it seems, preferred close-quarters fighting with antipersonnel weapons over destructive cannon battles. Among the custom-made weapons that have been recovered are dozens of homemade hand grenades: hollow, baseball-size iron spheres, which were filled with gunpowder and plugged shut. A gunpowder fuse was run through the plug's center, to be lit moments before the grenade was tossed onto the deck of a victim ship. Pirates didn't want to sink a ship; they wanted to capture and rob it.

Famously, the youngest known member of Whydah‍ '​s crew was a boy approximately 11 years old, named John King. Young John actually chose to join the crew on his own initiative the previous November, when Bellamy captured the ship on which he and his mother were passengers. He was reported to have been so insistent that he threatened to hurt his mother if he wasn't allowed to join Bellamy. Among Whydah‍ '​s artifacts recovered by Clifford were a small, black, leather shoe, together with a silk stocking and fibula bone, later determined to be that of a child between 8 and 11 years old – confirming yet another "pirate tale" as fact.

Reaction

A museum exhibition called "Real Pirates: The Untold Story of The Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship" toured the United States from 2007 to 2014. Venues included: Cincinnati Museum Center, Cincinnati, OH; The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA; The Field Museum, Chicago, IL; Nauticus, Norfolk, VA; St. Louis, MO; Houston, TX; the Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN; and Union Station, Kansas City, MO. The venue includes videos, artifacts, educational live personal narrations to include supplementary audio programs, interactive activities, a 3/4 scale mock-up of the rear of the vessel and is supported by costumed actors portraying real-life historical pirates from the ship. A walking tour takes between 1-4 hours depending upon level of interest. The display/show is currently transitioning in preparation for exhibition in CA. In one instance Whydah's brief participation in the Atlantic slave trade was a source of controversy. The Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, Florida announced the exhibit and linked it to the 2007 release of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. After being criticized for trivializing the ship's role in slavery while glorifying its role in piracy, the museum canceled the exhibit.[19]

On 27 May 2007 a UK documentary/reality show titled Pirate Ship ... Live! followed a team of divers, including comedian Vic Reeves, in live coverage of a dive at the Whydah site.[20]

On January 7, 2008 the National Geographic Channel aired a 2-hour documentary about the ongoing excavation of the wreck. It included detailed interviews with Clifford, and is currently available on DVD.[21]

Sources

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Strong, Ezra (1836). The Lives and Bloody Exploits of the Most Noted Pirates, Their Trials and Executions, Including Correct Accounts of the Late Piracies, Committed in the West Indias, and the Expedition of Commodore Porter. Courier Dover Publications. p. 298. They immediately mounted this galley with 28 guns, and put on board 150 hands, of different nations...Bellamy was declared captain, and the vessel had her old name continued, which was Whidaw... (p.127)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Untitled Map (Map). Cartography by Cyprian Southack. 1717. Retrieved 8 October 2012. The Place where I came through with a Whale Boat being ordered by ye Governmt. to look after ye Pirate Ship Whido Bellame Commandr. cast away ye 26 of April 1717 where I buried One Hundred & Two Men Drowned.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Maritime Underwater Surveys, Inc., 403 Mass. 501 (Mass. Supreme Court 1988).
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Woodard, Colin. The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought The Men Who Brought Them Down.
  5. ↑ "The Slave Ship Whydah: Born a Slave Ship". "Real Pirates" museum exhibit website. Chicago, Illinois: The Field Museum. 2009. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
  6. ↑ "The Slave Ship Whydah: A Slave-Based Economy". "Real Pirates" museum exhibit website. Chicago, Illinois: The Field Museum. 2009. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
  7. ↑ Dow, George Francis. The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730. p. 121. ISBN 0-486-29064-6.
  8. ↑ "The Pirate Ship Whydah: Pirate strategy". "Real Pirates" museum exhibit website. Chicago, Illinois: The Field Museum. 2009. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
  9. ↑ "The Pirate Ship Whydah: The Whyda's capture". "Real Pirates" museum exhibit website. Chicago, Illinois: The Field Museum. 2009. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
  10. ↑ Haggerty, Ryan (2007-07-18). "Yet more booty turns up at pirate wreck". The Boston Globe. Still, the discovery of the cannons -- all of which were taken from ships captured by the Whydah -- surprised (underwater explorer Barry) Clifford, who had already recovered most of the Whydah's 22 to 28 original cannons. "We had no idea that there were 30 extra cannons on board this ship," Clifford said. "Every time we go down there, we find another tip of another iceberg."
  11. ↑ Kipling, Rudyard; Kipling Collection (Library of Congress) (1911). Three Poems. London: Clarendon Press. Retrieved 22 November 2012..
  12. ↑ "The Whydah Museum". The Whydah Museum Official Site. Historic Shipwrecks, Inc. Retrieved 8 October 2012.
  13. ↑ Clifford, Barry; Perry, Paul (3 May 2000) [1999]. Expedition Whydah: The Story of the World's First Excavation of a Pirate Treasure Ship and the Man Who Found Her. HarperCollins. p. 261. ISBN 978-0-06-092971-8. Retrieved 22 November 2012. Quartermaster Nolan, who was now in charge of Mary Anne, came under the stern of Whydah to report that land had been sighted under the growing mist. Bellamy immediately ordered a northerly course to skirt the land rather than a northeastern course to get away from it, another sign that he intended to stop in Provincetown and was underestimating the potential force of what now appeared to be a gathering storm.
  14. ↑ Webster, Donovan (May 1999). "Pirates of the Whydah". National Geographic Magazine. Bellamy signaled his fleet to deeper water, but it was too late for the treasure-laden Whydah. Trapped in the surf zone within sight of the beach, the boat slammed stern first into a sandbar and began to break apart. When a giant wave rolled her, her cannon fell from their mounts, smashing through overturned decks along with cannonballs and barrels of iron and nails. Finally, as the ship's back broke, she split into bow and stern, and her contents spilled across the ocean floor.
  15. ↑ "Pirate Treasure Hunters". National Geographic Special Presentation. January 7, 2008. 93:45 minutes in. National Geographic Channel.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Mather, Cotton (1717). Instructions to the Living, from the Condition of the Dead: A Brief Relation of Remarkables in the Shipwreck of Above One Hundred Pirates, who Were Cast Away in the Ship Whido, on the Coast of New-England, April 26. 1717. And in the Death of Six, who After a Fair Trial at Boston, Were Convicted & Condemned, Octob. 22. And Executed, Novemb. 15. 1717. With Some Account of the Discourse Had with Them on the Way to Their Execution. And a Sermon Preached on Their Occasion. American Imprint Collection (Library of Congress). Retrieved 22 January 2013.
  17. ↑ "Life aboard the Whydah: A Motley Crew". "Real Pirates" museum exhibit website. Chicago, Illinois: The Field Museum. 2009. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
  18. ↑ "The Whydah's Loss: The Pirate's Trial". "Real Pirates" museum exhibit website. Chicago, Illinois: The Field Museum. 2009. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
  19. ↑ Allen, Greg (18 December 2006). "Museum Cancels Pirate Exhibit Over Slavery Issues". National Public Radio News. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
  20. ↑ Robson, Ian (27 May 2007). "Yo ho, ho, Vic does live". The Sunday Sun. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
  21. ↑ "Pirate Treasure Hunters". natgeotv.com/uk. National Geographic Channel UK. 7 January 2008. Retrieved 18 January 2013.

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