Whydah Gally
Encyclopedia
The Whydah Gally was the flagship
of the pirate "Black Sam" Bellamy
. The ship sank in a storm off Cape Cod
on April 26, 1717, taking Bellamy and the majority of his crew with it.
The Whydah was first launched in 1715 from London
, England
. A three-mast
ed ship of galley-style design, it measured 31 meters in length (about 105 feet), rated at 300 ton
s burden
, and could travel at speeds up to 13 knots (14.95 mph). Christened Whydah after the West Africa
n slave trading kingdom of Ouidah
, the vessel was configured as a heavily-armed trading and transport ship for use in the Atlantic slave trade
, carrying goods from England to exchange for slaves in West Africa
. It would then travel to the Caribbean
to trade the slaves for precious metals, sugar, indigo, and medicinal ingredients, which would then be transported back to England. Fitted with a standard complement of eighteen six-pound cannon
, which could be increased to a total of twenty-eight in time of war, the Whydah represented one of the most advanced weapons systems of the time.
In late February of 1717, the Whydah, under the command of Captain Lawrence Prince, was navigating the Windward Passage
between Cuba
and Hispaniola
when it was attacked by pirates led by "Black Sam" Bellamy
. At the time of the Whydahs capture, Bellamy was in possession of two vessels, the 26-gun galley Sultana and the converted 10-gun sloop
Marianne. After a three-day chase, Prince surrendered his ship near the Bahamas with only a desultory exchange of cannon fire. Bellamy decided to take the Whydah as his new flagship; several of its crew remained with their ship and joined the pirate gang. 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 the Sultana to Prince, along with £20 in silver and gold. The 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. 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 the Whydah, Bellamy loaded an additional 30+ cannons below decks, possibly as ballast. Two cannons recovered by underwater explorer Barry Clifford
in August 2009, weighed 800 pounds and 1,500 pounds respectively.
Accounts differ as to the destination of the Whydah during its last weeks. Some legends recount that Bellamy wanted to visit his mistress, Maria Hallett, who lived near the tip of Cape Cod
, while others blame the Whydahs route on navigator error. In any case, the Whydah, on April 26, 1717, sailed into a violent storm dangerously close to Cape Cod. The ship was driven onto the shoals at Wellfleet, Massachusetts
. At midnight she hit a sandbar in 16 feet (4.9 m) of water some 500 feet (152.4 m) from the coast of what is now Marconi Beach
, 41.892°N 69.962°W. Pummelled by 70 miles (112.7 km)-an-hour winds and 30 to 40 feet (12.2 m) waves, the main mast snapped, pulling the ship into some 30 feet (9.1 m) of water where she violently capsized. The 60+ cannon on board ripped through the overturned decks of the ship and quickly broke it apart, scattering its contents over a 4 miles (6.4 km) length. 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, 102 pirate corpses were washed up on the shoreline, and 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." By May 3, when Southack reached the location of the wreck, he found that a part of the ship was still visible breaching the water's surface and much of the ship's wreckage were scattered along more than four miles (6 km) of shoreline. On a map 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).
According to surviving members of the crew - two from the Whydah and seven from Bellamy's other fleet ship destroyed by the storm, the Marianne - at the time of its sinking, the ship carried nearly four and a half to five ton
s of silver, gold, gold dust, and jewelry, which had been divided equally into 180 fifty-pound bags and stored in chests below the ship's deck. Though Southack did recover some of the all but worthless items salvaged from the ship, little of this massive treasure hoard was recovered until the wreck's rediscovery in 1984 - nearly three hundred years later - by Barry Clifford.
Nine members of Bellamy's crew survived the storm and wrecking of the two ships. In October of 1717, six were tried as pirates and hanged
in Boston
three weeks before King George's official pardon of all pirates, which had been issued in September, had reached Boston. Two of the survivors from the Whydah - a carpenter named Thomas Davis, and another man also named Thomas, who had been pressed into service when their ships were captured by Bellamy - was captured by authorities and brought to trial; however, possibly in part due to the intervention of the famous Puritan
minister Cotton Mather
, they were acquitted of all charges and spared the gallows. The other survivor of the Whydah, a Miskito
Indian named John Julian, was not tried but rather is believed to have been sold into slavery after his capture. Included among the dead were Bellamy himself, as well as a boy, aged approximately 11 years of age, 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. Among the Whydah artifacts recovered by Barry Clifford were a shoe, silk stocking and fibula bone determined to be from to a child between 8 and 11 years old, most likely belonging to John King.
(relying heavily on the 1717 map that Southack drew of the wreck's location) and has been the site of extensive underwater archaeology
. More than 200,000 individual pieces have since been retrieved, including the ship's bell whose inscription THE WHYDAH GALLY 1716 positively identified the wreck. It is the only pirate shipwreck site to date whose identification has been established beyond a shadow of a 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
.
The most common items found in the wreck haven't been eye patches and rum bottles but 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 to destructive cannon battles. Among the custom-made weapons recovered have been 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. Finally, among the coins and weapons there remains one truly impressive find: a leg bone with a small, black, leather shoe, complete with its silk stocking. Later it was found out that the bone, stocking and the shoe belonged to an 11 year old boy who was part of the crew.
was considering using history and relics from the ship for a display on the Golden Age of Piracy
set to coincide with the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End in 2007, but was criticized for using a ship with a previous history of participation in the Atlantic slave trade
as though the intent was to trivialize that aspect of its past. http://www.tbt.com/tampabay/news/article31388.ece
An exhibition entitled "Real Pirates: The Untold Story of 'The Whydah' (from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship)" is touring the U.S. Venues include Cincinnati Museum Center, Cincinnati, OH; The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA; The Field Museum, Chicago, IL; Nauticus, Norfolk, VA; St. Louis, MO and Houston, TX. The exhibit is currently at the Arizona Science Center.
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.http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/0300entertainment/onthebox/tm_headline=yo-ho-ho--vic-dives-live&method=full&objectid=19206928&siteid=50081-name_page.html
On January 7, 2008 the National Geographic Channel aired a 2-hour documentary, Pirate Treasure Hunters, about the ongoing excavation of the wreck of the Whydah Gally, which includes detailed interviews with Barry Clifford
. It is currently available on DVD.
Flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...
of the pirate "Black Sam" Bellamy
Samuel Bellamy
Samuel Bellamy , aka "Black Sam" Bellamy, was an English pirate who operated in the early 18th century....
. The ship sank in a storm off Cape Cod
Cape Cod
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...
on April 26, 1717, taking Bellamy and the majority of his crew with it.
History
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. A three-mast
Mast (sailing)
The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall, vertical, or near vertical, spar, or arrangement of spars, which supports the sails. Large ships have several masts, with the size and configuration depending on the style of ship...
ed ship of galley-style design, it measured 31 meters in length (about 105 feet), rated at 300 ton
Ton
The ton is a unit of measure. It has a long history and has acquired a number of meanings and uses over the years. It is used principally as a unit of weight, and as a unit of volume. It can also be used as a measure of energy, for truck classification, or as a colloquial term.It is derived from...
s burden
Burden
-As a surname:*Arthur Scott Burden , American equestrian*Chris Burden, American avant-garde artist*Doug Burden , American rower.*Henry Burden, 19th century industrialist*Jane Morris née Jane Burden , English artists' model...
, and could travel at speeds up to 13 knots (14.95 mph). Christened Whydah after the West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
n slave trading kingdom of Ouidah
Ouidah
Ouidah , also Whydah or Juda, is a city on the Atlantic coast of Benin.The commune covers an area of 364 square kilometres and as of 2002 had a population of 76,555 people.-History:...
, the vessel was configured as a heavily-armed trading and transport ship for use in the Atlantic slave trade
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the trans-atlantic slave trade, refers to the trade in slaves that took place across the Atlantic ocean from the sixteenth through to the nineteenth centuries...
, carrying goods from England to exchange for slaves in West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
. It would then travel to the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
to trade the slaves for precious metals, sugar, indigo, and medicinal ingredients, which would then be transported back to England. Fitted with a standard complement of eighteen six-pound cannon
Cannon
A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
, which could be increased to a total of twenty-eight in time of war, the Whydah represented one of the most advanced weapons systems of the time.
In late February of 1717, the Whydah, under the command of Captain Lawrence Prince, was navigating the Windward Passage
Windward Passage
The Windward Passage is a strait in the Caribbean Sea, between the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. The strait specifically lies between the easternmost region of Cuba and the northwest of Haiti.80km wide, the Windward Passage has a threshold depth of 1,700m...
between Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
and Hispaniola
Hispaniola
Hispaniola is a major island in the Caribbean, containing the two sovereign states of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The island is located between the islands of Cuba to the west and Puerto Rico to the east, within the hurricane belt...
when it was attacked by pirates led by "Black Sam" Bellamy
Samuel Bellamy
Samuel Bellamy , aka "Black Sam" Bellamy, was an English pirate who operated in the early 18th century....
. At the time of the Whydahs capture, Bellamy was in possession of two vessels, the 26-gun galley Sultana and the converted 10-gun sloop
Sloop-of-war
In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...
Marianne. After a three-day chase, Prince surrendered his ship near the Bahamas with only a desultory exchange of cannon fire. Bellamy decided to take the Whydah as his new flagship; several of its crew remained with their ship and joined the pirate gang. 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 the Sultana to Prince, along with £20 in silver and gold. The 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. 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
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
, looting or capturing additional vessels on the way. At some point during his possession of the Whydah, Bellamy loaded an additional 30+ cannons below decks, possibly as ballast. Two cannons recovered by underwater explorer Barry Clifford
Barry Clifford
Barry Clifford is an underwater archaeological explorer best known for discovering the remains of the wrecked ship Whydah in 1984. The Whydah is the only fully verified pirate shipwreck ever discovered, and, as such, artifacts from the wreck provide unique insights into the material culture of 18th...
in August 2009, weighed 800 pounds and 1,500 pounds respectively.
Accounts differ as to the destination of the Whydah during its last weeks. Some legends recount that Bellamy wanted to visit his mistress, Maria Hallett, who lived near the tip of Cape Cod
Cape Cod
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...
, while others blame the Whydahs route on navigator error. In any case, the Whydah, on April 26, 1717, sailed into a violent storm dangerously close to Cape Cod. The ship was driven onto the shoals at Wellfleet, Massachusetts
Wellfleet, Massachusetts
Wellfleet is a New England town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. Located halfway between the "tip" and "elbow" of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the town had a population of 2,749 at the 2000 census, which swells nearly sixfold during the summer...
. At midnight she hit a sandbar in 16 feet (4.9 m) of water some 500 feet (152.4 m) from the coast of what is now Marconi Beach
Marconi beach
Marconi Beach is part of the Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts. The beach is named for Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi. In 1903, the first transatlantic wireless communication originating in the United States was successfully transmitted from nearby Marconi Station, a message from U.S...
, 41.892°N 69.962°W. Pummelled by 70 miles (112.7 km)-an-hour winds and 30 to 40 feet (12.2 m) waves, the main mast snapped, pulling the ship into some 30 feet (9.1 m) of water where she violently capsized. The 60+ cannon on board ripped through the overturned decks of the ship and quickly broke it apart, scattering its contents over a 4 miles (6.4 km) length. 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, 102 pirate corpses were washed up on the shoreline, and hundreds of Cape Cod's notorious wreckers
Wrecking (shipwreck)
Wrecking is the practice of taking valuables from a shipwreck which has foundered near or close to shore. Often an unregulated activity of opportunity in coastal communities, wrecking has been subjected to increasing regulation and evolved into what is now known as marine salvage...
(locally known as "moon-cussers") were already plundering the remains. Hearing of the shipwreck, then-governor Samuel Shute
Samuel Shute
Samuel Shute was a military officer and royal governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. After serving in the Nine Years' War and the War of the Spanish Succession, he was appointed by King George I as governor of Massachusetts in 1716...
dispatched Captain Cyprian Southack
Cyprian Southack
Cyprian Southack was an English cartographer and colonial naval commander. Born in London to a British Navy captain, he came to New England in the 1680s, where he established a reputation for his seamanship and his chart-making skills. The charts he made of the coast of northeastern North...
, a local salvager and cartographer, to recover "Money, Bullion, Treasure, Goods and Merchandizes taken out of the said Ship." By May 3, when Southack reached the location of the wreck, he found that a part of the ship was still visible breaching the water's surface and much of the ship's wreckage were scattered along more than four miles (6 km) of shoreline. On a map 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).
According to surviving members of the crew - two from the Whydah and seven from Bellamy's other fleet ship destroyed by the storm, the Marianne - at the time of its sinking, the ship carried nearly four and a half to five ton
Ton
The ton is a unit of measure. It has a long history and has acquired a number of meanings and uses over the years. It is used principally as a unit of weight, and as a unit of volume. It can also be used as a measure of energy, for truck classification, or as a colloquial term.It is derived from...
s of silver, gold, gold dust, and jewelry, which had been divided equally into 180 fifty-pound bags and stored in chests below the ship's deck. Though Southack did recover some of the all but worthless items salvaged from the ship, little of this massive treasure hoard was recovered until the wreck's rediscovery in 1984 - nearly three hundred years later - by Barry Clifford.
Nine members of Bellamy's crew survived the storm and wrecking of the two ships. In October of 1717, six were tried as pirates and hanged
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
three weeks before King George's official pardon of all pirates, which had been issued in September, had reached Boston. Two of the survivors from the Whydah - a carpenter named Thomas Davis, and another man also named Thomas, who had been pressed into service when their ships were captured by Bellamy - was captured by authorities and brought to trial; however, possibly in part due to the intervention of the famous Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
minister Cotton Mather
Cotton Mather
Cotton Mather, FRS was a socially and politically influential New England Puritan minister, prolific author and pamphleteer; he is often remembered for his role in the Salem witch trials...
, they were acquitted of all charges and spared the gallows. The other survivor of the Whydah, a Miskito
Miskito
The Miskitos are a Native American ethnic group in Central America. A substantial number of them are mixed race, especially those in the northern end of their territory, where an African-Indigenous mixture was predominant. Their territory extends from Cape Camarón, Honduras, to Rio Grande,...
Indian named John Julian, was not tried but rather is believed to have been sold into slavery after his capture. Included among the dead were Bellamy himself, as well as a boy, aged approximately 11 years of age, named John King
John King (pirate)
John King was an 18th century pirate. He joined the crew of Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy while still a juvenile, and is the youngest known pirate on record....
. 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. Among the Whydah artifacts recovered by Barry Clifford were a shoe, silk stocking and fibula bone determined to be from to a child between 8 and 11 years old, most likely belonging to John King.
Recovery
The wreck of the Whydah was rediscovered in 1984 by underwater explorer Barry CliffordBarry Clifford
Barry Clifford is an underwater archaeological explorer best known for discovering the remains of the wrecked ship Whydah in 1984. The Whydah is the only fully verified pirate shipwreck ever discovered, and, as such, artifacts from the wreck provide unique insights into the material culture of 18th...
(relying heavily on the 1717 map that Southack drew of the wreck's location) and has been the site of extensive underwater archaeology
Underwater archaeology
Underwater archaeology is archaeology practised underwater. As with all other branches of archaeology it evolved from its roots in pre-history and in the classical era to include sites from the historical and industrial eras...
. More than 200,000 individual pieces have since been retrieved, including the ship's bell whose inscription THE WHYDAH GALLY 1716 positively identified the wreck. It is the only pirate shipwreck site to date whose identification has been established beyond a shadow of a 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
Provincetown, Massachusetts
Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,431 at the 2000 census, with an estimated 2007 population of 3,174...
. A selection of the artifacts are also on a tour across the United States under the sponsorship of the National Geographic Society
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...
.
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 white men with sabers. The abundance of metal buttons, cuff links, collar stays, rings, neck chains, and square belt buckles scattered on the seafloor 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 most common items found in the wreck haven't been eye patches and rum bottles but 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 to destructive cannon battles. Among the custom-made weapons recovered have been 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. Finally, among the coins and weapons there remains one truly impressive find: a leg bone with a small, black, leather shoe, complete with its silk stocking. Later it was found out that the bone, stocking and the shoe belonged to an 11 year old boy who was part of the crew.
Reaction
In 2006 the possible choice of the Whydah to represent a museum exhibit on pirates caused a controversy. The Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, FloridaTampa, Florida
Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....
was considering using history and relics from the ship for a display on the Golden Age of Piracy
Golden Age of Piracy
The Golden Age of Piracy is a common designation given to one or more outbursts of piracy in maritime history of the early modern period. In its broadest accepted definition, the Golden Age of Piracy spans from the 1650s to the 1730s and covers three separate outbursts of piracy:the buccaneering...
set to coincide with the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End in 2007, but was criticized for using a ship with a previous history of participation in the Atlantic slave trade
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the trans-atlantic slave trade, refers to the trade in slaves that took place across the Atlantic ocean from the sixteenth through to the nineteenth centuries...
as though the intent was to trivialize that aspect of its past. http://www.tbt.com/tampabay/news/article31388.ece
An exhibition entitled "Real Pirates: The Untold Story of 'The Whydah' (from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship)" is touring the U.S. Venues include Cincinnati Museum Center, Cincinnati, OH; The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA; The Field Museum, Chicago, IL; Nauticus, Norfolk, VA; St. Louis, MO and Houston, TX. The exhibit is currently at the Arizona Science Center.
On 27 May 2007 a UK documentary/reality show titled Pirate Ship ... Live! followed a team of divers, including comedian Vic Reeves
Vic Reeves
James Roderick Moir , better known by the stage name Vic Reeves, is an English comedian, best known for his double act with Bob Mortimer . He is known for his surreal and non sequitur sense of humour....
, in live coverage of a dive at the Whydah site.http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/0300entertainment/onthebox/tm_headline=yo-ho-ho--vic-dives-live&method=full&objectid=19206928&siteid=50081-name_page.html
On January 7, 2008 the National Geographic Channel aired a 2-hour documentary, Pirate Treasure Hunters, about the ongoing excavation of the wreck of the Whydah Gally, which includes detailed interviews with Barry Clifford
Barry Clifford
Barry Clifford is an underwater archaeological explorer best known for discovering the remains of the wrecked ship Whydah in 1984. The Whydah is the only fully verified pirate shipwreck ever discovered, and, as such, artifacts from the wreck provide unique insights into the material culture of 18th...
. It is currently available on DVD.