The Whydah
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Depictions engraved on coins, including those recovered from the Whydah, tell us much about the men and women who ruled at the time the coins were made — what these rulers looked like, how they dressed, and even, on some coins, their favorite possessions. A significant number of the Spanish coins recovered from the Whydah depict the powerful Spanish monarch Charles V, who ruled over an empire so huge that he proudly and correctly declared that the sun never set upon it.
Other excavated coins tell us about the heroes of their day. For example, a 1691 French coin found in the wreckage of the Whydah, minted during the reign of Louis XIV, depicts the achievements of William Dampier, an English buccaneer and explorer who, in the very year that the coin was made, became the first person to circumnavigate the globe twice. Dampier would go on to achieve a third circumnavigation in 1710.
A small portion of the gold doubloons, silver reals, and gold and silver ingots that have been brought up from the Whydah. Hundreds of millions of dollars of loot, particularly more coins, remain to be found.
One of the most important ways that coins contribute to our knowledge of the past is through the engravings of buildings and landmarks that often appear on them. For archaeologists and historians, these images are among the most important sources of information about architectural styles and the development of architecture over time.
The words engraved on coins teach us about the languages spoken at the time and place they were created. A comparison of coins from a particular country over the years can provide evidence of conquests or upheavals in government through changes in the official language used on the coins. Similarly, the numbers imprinted on ancient coins give us valuable information about the numbering system of the country issuing the coins and how much the coins were worth at the time they were minted.
In addition, the quality of the coin itself tells us a lot about the technological prowess of the nation or society that made it, as evidenced by its ability to produce coinage at all and the types of metal it could smelt. Finally, the date on a coin tells us unequivocally not only when the civilization that made it was in power but also exactly when the rulers, heroes, buildings, and languages depicted on the coins were deemed important to that civilization.
Of all the Whydah artifacts recovered thus far, none has captured more attention than a leg bone with a small black leather shoe and a silk stocking still attached to it. When these objects were found, Clifford was convinced that they had belonged to a very small adult pirate. “I had been looking at this shoe and thinking, ‘My God, these people were really small back then,’” Clifford recalled. Ken Kinkor, however, had a different idea and persuaded Clifford to have the items tested.
After analyzing the leg bone, shoe, and stocking, John de Bry, director of the Center for Historical Archaeology, and the Smithsonian Institution anthropologist David R. Hunt came to the conclusion that they had belonged not to a small man but to a boy between eight and eleven years old. To both Clifford and Kinkor, their finding made perfect sense. The leg bone, shoe, and stocking most likely belonged to John King, the rebellious youth who had defied his mother by joining the pirates.
There is no question that Barry Clifford and his team’s achievements in the face of hostile seas and shifting sands have been major. And they have had to deal with another significant obstacle as well. From the time that the excavation of the Whydah began, Clifford has been the subject of criticism from members of the scientific community who accuse him of being a treasure hunter primarily interested in acquiring riches rather than a serious marine archaeologist concerned with recovering artifacts to add to our knowledge of what took place in the past.
Clifford has attempted to counter this criticism by pointing out that from the beginning his team has included several respected marine archaeologists who have served as advisers to the project, and that rather than sell the treasure he has recovered, he has placed it in a museum to be shared with the public. “I [am] not a treasure hunter,” Clifford has stated, “although I [am] obviously hunting for treasure. I [am] a history hunter, an undersea salvor with a driving interest in bringing a great historic period back to life in a responsible way that a working man could appreciate as well as a historian.”
Statements like these, however, have not stopped the criticism, particularly from those who decry some of Clifford’s methods, including the practice of blasting pits with his propeller wash, which critics claim is not only environmentally harmful but seriously disturbs the integrity of an archaeological site.
Still, Clifford remains confident that what he is doing is highly beneficial in the search for the past. And, in addition to the ongoing excavation of the Whydah, he continues to search for treasure and history around the world.
In May 2014, Clifford caused a worldwide sensation by announcing that he had found off the coast of Haiti the wreck of the Santa Maria, the vessel that had served as Christopher Columbus’s flagship during his epochal voyage to the New World. It was subsequently proven, however, that the sunken ship was actually a Spanish galleon from a later period.
Barry Clifford is only one of thousands of treasure hunters and marine archaeologists who, aided by ever more sophisticated deep-sea discovery and excavation equipment, are recovering artifacts from shipwrecks that took place as long ago as 1330 BCE. The science of marine archaeology was born in 1960 when a team off the coast of Cape Gelidonya in Turkey demonstrated that they could excavate a shipwreck underwater with the same scientific integrity and effectiveness as their counterparts working on land. Archaeologists and divers are still probing that site, where artifacts from an ancient sunken merchant vessel from either Greece or Syria continue to enhance our understanding of ships’ construction and commerce in the late Bronze Age.
Marine archaeologists carry out their work even in the frozen Arctic, where a team of Canadian archaeologists, scientists, and surveyors recently made two vital discoveries. In 2010 they found the British HMS Investigator, the ship that in 1850 discovered the long-sought-after Northwest Passage. Then, in 2014, they found the wreck of the HMS Erebus, one of the two ships that carried John Franklin and his 129-man crew on an earlier search for the Passage, a doomed expedition that resulted in the disappearance of the entire party. Artifacts from that wreck have provided important clues to solving the mystery of Franklin and his men.
The hundreds of excavations taking place continually beneath the world’s seas challenge our imaginations and our spirits. They represent some of humankind’s boldest achievements. They offer us dramatic proof that the vast ocean floor is, without question, the world’s greatest museum.
A diver uses a state-of-the-art underwater video camera to record such vital information as the location of a shipwreck, items that have been discovered, and sites of possible future finds.
Introduction
• “the pyramids of the deep”: quoted in Daniel Golden, “Raiders of the Lost Ark Salvage Firms Are Cleaning Out Davy Jones’ Locker,” Boston Globe, August 2, 1987.
• “I think there’s more history . . . the world combined”: quoted in “Mysteries of the Deep,” Scientific American Frontiers, Chedd Angier/PBS, November 26, 2002.
Chapter One: The Slave Ship Whydah
• “made havoc . . . pesos in ransom”: quoted in Earle, p. 87.
• records from the Royal African Company: Clifford and Kinkor, p. 23.
• “It would be needless . . . horror and slavery”: Cugoano, p. 12.
Chapter Two: A New Pirate King
• “The truth about . . . in speculation”: Clifford and Perry, p. 6.
• “I would not . . . dreams of Spanish gold”: Vanderbilt, p. x.
• “This flag . . . new men”: quoted in Clifford and Perry, p. 7.
• “I. Every man shall . . . by favour only”: quoted in Vanderbilt, pp. 18–19.
• “a period . . . on the high seas”: Candice Mallard, “Pirates of the Caribbean,” New York Times, June 3, 2007.
• “put a Rope . .
. almost dead”: quoted in Botting, p. 60.
• “maniac and a brute”: quoted in Pirate Biography, New England Pirate Museum, www.piratemuseum.com/edbiogra.htm.
Chapter Three: Bigger Ships, Bigger Prizes
• “The Money taken . . . Men on Board”: quoted in Vanderbilt, p. 86.
• “‘would first shoot . . . at the Mast’”: ibid., p. 26.
Chapter Four: The Pirate Ship Whydah
• “Many would have seen . . . against social grievances”: quoted in Jose Martinez, “Controversial Ship Used in Slave Trade, Carried Black Pirates,” Telegraph (Nashua, NH), November 22, 1993.
• “a subculture . . . spirit of revolt”: quoted in Donovan Webster, “Pirates of the Whydah,” National Geographic, May 1999.
• “War is . . . with pirates”: quoted in Vanderbilt, p. 21.
• “an Indian born at Cape Codd”: ibid., p. 41.
• “It’s the story . . . were treated equally”: quoted in Lisa Cornwell, “Pirates, the Reality: Loot from the Whydah,” Washington Post, July 3, 2007.
• “many a peg leg . . . culinary arts”: Botting, p. 51.
• “In an honest . . . be my motto”: quoted in Vanderbilt, p. 15.
Chapter Five: The Whydah Rules the Waves
• “away for the Capes . . . in company”: quoted in Vanderbilt, p. 31.
• The storm . . . the winds: Defoe, pp. 585–586.
• “with Rum . . . European Goods” and “the greatest part . . . on board their Ship”: quoted in Vanderbilt, p. 35.
• “cut away . . . destroyed her”: quoted in Vanderbilt, p. 35.
• “You dog! . . . that inch too!”: quoted in Botting, p. 57.
• “I’m sorry . . . sink her”: quoted in Clifford and Turchi, p. 25.
• “Surely you . . . fellow thieves”: ibid.
• “Damn you . . . for employment?”: ibid.
• “I cannot break . . . hand of God”: ibid.
• “You are a devilish rascal . . . conscience tells me”: ibid.
Chapter Six: The Wreck of the Whydah
• “laden with Tobacco, hides and other things”: quoted in Vanderbilt, p. 41.
• “very well”: ibid.
• “the inhabitants hear . . . round their hearths”: Henry David Thoreau, “The Highland Light,” Atlantic Monthly, December 1864, p. 144.
• “Blasphemies, oaths, and horrid imprecations”: Defoe, p. 586.
• “Ship ashore! All hands perishing!”: Burbank, p. 1.
• “We pray Thee . . . the inhabitants”: quoted in Lawrence, p. 193.
Chapter Seven: The Survivors
• “damn’d the Vessel . . . never seen her”: quoted in Vanderbilt, p. 40.
• “So it is . . . Piracy and Robbery”: quoted in Vanderbilt, p. 89.
• “That such Persons . . . put to Death”: ibid.
• “Treason, Oppression . . . Theft,” “in remote . . . nor Relief,” and “the Prisoners are all . . . Guilty”: ibid., p. 90.
• “all Armed . . . taken Command”: ibid., p. 91.
• “some Cloaths . . . Ship’s Company”: ibid.
• “if he would not find Liquor”: ibid.
• “almost every hour . . . the condemned”: Gosse, p. 209.
• “The struggle . . . display of his corpse”: Hall, p. 14.
• “Thus we see . . . for the Future”: Defoe, p. x.
• “forced no Body to go with them,” “would take no Body against their Wills,” “declared himself to be now a Pirate,” and “went up and . . . pyrates”: ibid., p. 92
• “what they had to say for themselves”: quoted in Vanderbilt, p. 92.
• “he attempted to . . . Spanish Town” and “the Governour . . . destroy the Town”: ibid., p. 93.
• “threatened to . . . nothing to support him”: ibid.
• “they would kill him . . . Unlawful Designs”: ibid.
• “unavoidably forced to . . . among the Pyrates”: ibid.
• “Their pretence . . . liberty of Sinning” and “That [the accused] . . . plain and obvious”: ibid., p. 94.
• “The Court . . . on your Souls”: ibid., pp. 95–96.
• “compelled . . . join with the Pirates”: ibid, p. 95.
• “the Execution of these Miserables”: ibid., p. 105.
• “Behold, the End of Piracy”: ibid., p. 112.
Chapter Eight: The Adventures of Cyprian Southack
• “The Pyrate Ship . . . cast away”: quoted in Vanderbilt, p. 58.
• “Money, Bullion . . . the said Ship”: Boston News-Letter, May 4, 1717.
• “Pirritt Rack”: quoted in Vanderbilt, p. 63.
• “there had been . . . came ashoar”: ibid., p. 64.
• “go into any . . . door, chests, trunks”: quoted in Snow, True Tales, p. 52.
• “Whereas there is . . . utmost peril”: quoted in Vanderbilt, p. 70.
• “I am in . . . fish for [it]”: ibid., p. 73.
• “a great sea” and “do nothing as yet”: quoted in Barry and Turchi, p. 64.
• “Monday, May 6 . . . on the Wreck”: Vanderbilt, p. 73.
Chapter Nine: Legends
• “For many years . . . constantly wore”: Thoreau, pp. 68–69.
• “Diver Jack Poole . . . to pieces”: Snow, True Tales, p. 59.
• “Why make victims . . . thrown them overboard.”: Minster.
• “It will be . . . of Wellfleet”: quoted in Vanderbilt, p. 124.
Chapter Ten: The Search for the Whydah
• “When I was . . . about my feet”: Vanderbilt, p. ix.
• “He told us . . . get to it”: quoted in ibid., p. 127.
• “At 5 . . . from the wreck”: ibid., p. 130.
• “3 miles . . . to Billingsgate”: ibid.
• “That optimism . . . dive a shipwreck?”: ibid., p. 136.
• “When I told . . . with a Kennedy?’”: Clifford and Perry, p. 124.
• “our ability . . . our imaginations”: “Technology: Observing Systems and Sensors,” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Ocean Explorer website, http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/technology/tools/tools.html.
• “The suite of tools . . . of yesteryear”: “Modern Expeditions,” NOAA Photo Library, http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/nurp/mod_expeditions.html.
• “very fine barrel . . . glass”: Aristotle’s Problemata quoted in Michael Lahanas, “Alexander the Great and the Bathysphere,” http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/UnderWater.htm.
• “I think it’s a small cannon”: quoted in Clifford and Perry, p. 127.
• “Throw it back! That’s a bomb!”: ibid.
• “that first, terribly dry season . . . right place”: Clifford and Perry, p. 126.
Chapter Eleven: Victory at Last
• “was young . . . this hole, too”: Clifford and Perry, p. 143.
• “Hey, you guys! . . . cannons down there!”: quoted in ibid.
• “toe prints still in the leather”: quoted in Vanderbilt, p. 144.
• “At first . . . a date: 1684”: ibid., p. 143.
• “This artifact . . . of the Whydah”: Clifford and Perry, p. 146.
• “Imagine the sound . . . counted them”: quoted in Vanderbilt, p. 147.
• “If we dug seven . . . scratched the surface”: ibid., p. 148.
• “It’s an early . . . wrecks out there”: quoted in Clifford and Perry, p. 107.
• “There’s something . . . tell what it is,” “Maybe it’s . . . don’t recognize it,” and “I don’t think . . . a bell”: ibid., p. 186.
• “My heart began . . . ship it was from”: ibid., p. 187.
• “It looks like . . . from the Whydah”: ibid., p. 188.
• “I tried not . . . damaging an artifact”: ibid.
• “I don’t think you could hope for more”: quoted in Matthew Wald, “Bell Confirms that Salvors Found Pirate Ship of Legend,” New York Ti
mes, November 1, 1985.
• “I guess I’ll . . . stationery,” “Not to mention . . . caps,” and “Forget . . . change my tattoo”: quoted in Clifford and Perry, p. 188.
• “Look at these . . . human lives”: quoted in Donovan Webster, “Pirates of the Whydah,” National Geographic, May 1999.
• “On July 19 . . . pirates to exist”: Clifford and Perry, p. 295.
• “To think . . . how can we stop?”: ibid., p, 307.
Chapter Twelve: What the Artifacts Tell Us
• “Each shipwreck is . . . April 26, 1717”: Clifford and Kinkor, p. 10.
• “thuggish white men with sabers”: Donovan Webster, “Pirates of the Whydah,” National Geographic, May 1999.
• “In twenty minutes . . . tell me”: Clifford and Perry, p. 149.
• “I had been looking . . . back then”: quoted in Michael Levenson, “Remains Are Identified As a Boy Pirate,” Boston Globe, June 2, 2006, p. B1.
• “I [am] not . . . as a historian”: Clifford and Kinkor, p. 163.
• “newspapers in metal”: “Newspapers in Metal: What Ancient Coins Tell Us,” Simon Fraser University Continuing Education website, http://www.sfu.ca/continuing-studies/courses/ahcp/2014/09/ancient-coins/.
• “miniature libraries of history”: “Ancient Secrets: Civilizations Revealed Through Coins,” Simon Fraser University Continuing Education website, https://www.sfu.ca/continuing-studies/courses/scfc/2011/civilzations-revealed-through-coins/.
Bass, George F. Archaeology Beneath the Sea. New York: Walker, 1975.
Bolster, W. Jeffrey. Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998.
Botting, Douglas. The Pirates. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1978.
Burbank, Theodore Parker. Cape Cod Shipwrecks: Graveyard of the Atlantic. Millis, MA: Salty Pilgrim Press, 2013.