Whydah - The Pirate Ship

The Whydah Gally - Whydah (pronounced Widda or Ouidah) was Captained by Capt. "Black Sam" Bellamy when the ship sank in April 26, 1717 during a viscious storm off the coast of Massachusetts losing by some accounts 144 pirates and in other reports 180 pirates with her saying that only 8 pirates survived and in another report it said that only 2 survived. The Whydah was originally designed with a 26gun/cannon ship built in 1716 as a slave ship. It was the 50th ship captured by Capt. Sam Bellamy. On board was millions of dollars in gold bullion which was now to be lost off the coast of Cape Cod. The Whydah is recorded as being the first authenticated pirate ship in this part of the world. There was a brass engraving that said Whydah 1713, but it was later determined that this was from a previous ship that had probably been brought on this ship by Capt. Bellamy as a souvenir from the previous Whydah.

By some reports, It seems that Brandon and Barry Clifford started looking for The Whydah in the mid to late 70's and in other reports, it's stated that it was in 1981, Barry took on the challenge of finding the remains of Whydah and her lost treasure. Barry searched for nearly 3 years and found nothing and began thinking that his search for this treasure was doomed. Then while searching only 1000'-1500' from shoreline when it went down Barry finds the ships bell.

The equipment used to move the sand around or to dig in the sand in search of artifacts was called a mailbox. This mailbox blew the sand away to a depth of 30' deep where some of the cannons were later found. There were eventually over 200,000 artifacts documented during this dive. One article found was a size 6 male shoe which was later discovered to have belonged to a boy named John King.

During this discovery, it was noted that 1/3 of the pirates were from Africa and had received assignments as Captains and high ranking officers.

It is reported and was later found in 1984 by Capt. Berry Clifford by using a chart originally drawn by Cyprian Selpack. It was also reported that JFK Jr. was one of the ships deck hand on the search for The Whydah treasure.

A symbol used by Fremasonry was found at the site which led the discoverers to believe that the Fremasons began around May-June 1717. This ship sank around April of 1717

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkauWCW1xzI&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZw4M1yHta8&list=PLwMMVfs3WxmC3_DEi4F1XyiWijxn99m-E