The Whydah Galley ship first travelled from London in 1715, it had three masts, was 31 metres tall and could reach 13 knots. It was named after a West African barter town, Ouidah. The ship is best known as Whydah and was built for transport and trading. The vessel was used in the Atlantic slave trade where goods were transported from England and exchanged for West African slaves. These slaves were taken to the Caribbean on the ship and exchanged for prestigious items such as sugar, indigo metals and medicinal ingredients.
In 1717 the Whydah was attacked by pirates associated with Samuel Bellamy - known as Black Sam. At the time of attack the ship was under the authority of Captain Lawrence Prince. After a three day chase and a haphazard exchange of canon fire Prince gave up his ship. The Whydah was then used by Bellamy as a flagship with some existing crew members becoming pirates. Bellamy gave another of his seized ships to Prince as a gesture of goodwill since Prince surrendered with no fight and held a strong pirate reputation.
After this, Bellamy sailed to the Carolinas and the eastern coastline of the American colonies where his pirate gang looted and captured more ships. The ships whereabouts during its last weeks are not proven but it is suggested he intended to head to Cape Cod to visit his mistress; but on April 26 1717 the Whydah came head to head with a bad storm.
By morning the ship was ripped to pieces and numerous corpses of the unfortunate pirates were washed up on the shoreline. As a result dozens of Cape Cod's evil wreckers came to steal any valuables. A local cartographer and salvage, Cyprian Southack, was asked by the governor to retrieve money, treasure and bullion taken from the ship. When Southack reached the shipwreck on may 3 he found the ships remnants spread across the shoreline. He recounts burying 102 of the 144 Whydah ship crew and captives.
Surviving members of the Whydah crew revealed later that the ship carried a substantial amount of gold. This included four and a half tons of gold, gold dust, jewellery and silver. Little of this said gold was recovered by Southack.
The shipwreck was found again in 1984 by Barry Clifford and since more than 100,000 single pieces have been recovered. Some artefacts are exhibited at Exhibition Whydah Sea-Lab and learning Centre in Massachusetts.
Why not look for your own hidden treasure and sell your gold? There are lots of gold buyers who accept a range of scrap gold items that make selling gold easier than ever.
Postgoldforcash.com has over 20 years experience in the gold industry. Send off your unwanted scrap gold; it's easy to sell gold with us!
No comments:
Post a Comment