Cannon parts and common shipboard tools

The Whydah Pirates Speak, Volume 2 is now available!

OK, so it's not available in print yet, but that is coming! It's a lot harder to format a manuscript for print than for electronic publishing. I hope to have the print manuscript finished up soon. 

Meanwhile, if you prefer electronic reading, you can buy your copy now!

The Whydah Pirates Speak, Volume 2

Also available through these fine retailers:

27 May 2019

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28 May 2019

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PUBLISHING

28 May 2019

30 May 2019

27 May 2019

Photo of pirate currency

From the Whydah Pirate Museum, here is a photo of some of the currency pirates would have used that they have uncovered during the excavation of the wreck of the Whydah Galley. 

 

Sam Bellamy, From Penniless to the Richest Pirate of All - Part One

Now available online!

Read it here:

Sam Bellamy

Bones don't belong to Sam Bellamy after all

The DNA test results of the bone found amidst the wreckage of the Whydah Galley have been announced:



https://nypost.com/2018/05/25/bones-found-in-shipwreck-dont-belong-to-infamous-pirate/

In remembrance of the wreck of the Whydah Galley today

Remembering the pirates and prisoners who died in the shipwreck off Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

You can also check out this post from the Whydah Pirate Museum:

Whydah Pirate Museum

Just before midnight on April 26th, 1717, the pirate flagship Whydah wrecked on the Cape Cod coastline during a powerful nor’easter. The coveted treasure aboard sometimes upstages the 144 men who lost their lives that night. Although outlaws, their untimely death was no less tragic than any other sailor who braved the sea. As we show reverence for their passing, we at the Whydah Pirate Museum are equally grateful that the artifacts they left behind can teach future generations about the daring exploits and democratic ideals of ordinary men.
Join us at the museum and learn more.

Letter of Cyprian Southack to Governor Shute

Letter written by Cyprian Southack to Governor Shute on May 13, 1717. Courtesy of the Massachusetts Archives, 51:291.

In this letter Southack continues to describe the problems he is having dealing with the locals and trying to recover items after the shipwreck of the Whydah on April 26, 1717. 

He tells of how so many people got to the site first thing in the morning following the wreck that there essentally there was "nothing left of value" by the time anyone in authority was able to get there.

Contest winner photo!

Back in December Festival Des Pirates did a giveaway. The winner got a signed copy of The Whydah Pirates Speak. Today I was sent a photo of the winner and friends posing with the prize:

 

Richard and Jeremiah

Read my latest article about more of the pirates of the Whydah Galley!

Richard and Jeremiah: Two Pirates Who would be Pardoned 

 

New Facebook page!

Visit now at : https://www.facebook.com/TheWhydahPiratesSpeak/

Or: @TheWhydahPiratesSpeak

A new venue for you to interact with others concerning topics from my book.

Available on Amazon in print and kindle versions

Also see: @PeterCorneliusHoof

Tales of Piracy - How Six Pirates were Captured and Killed

My latest article about the pirates of the Whydah Galley was published today!

You may read it here:

Tales of Piracy - How Six Pirates Were Captured and Killed


http://www.historyisnowmagazine.com/blog/2016/5/30/tales-of-piracy-how-six-pirates-were-captured-and-killed#.V0yn2se9jHg

What happened after separating from Bellamy

Something interesting about the Whydah I found while surfing around Wkipedia:

Abenaki Indians called it Matinicus, meaning "far-out island." The French used it as an early fishing station.

In early May 1717, several pirates from their snow (a type of two masted vessel), the Anne, raided several vessels that were off the shore of Matinicus at the time. The Anne had originally been captured off the Virginia Capes in April by the pirate Samuel Bellamy in the Whydah, which wrecked in a storm on the night of April 26, 1717, off of Cape Cod. The Anne made it through the storm with another captured vessel, the Fisher (which was soon abandoned and the pirates aboard her transferred to the Anne). The pirates arrived at Monhegan Island, Maine, on April 29 and waited for the Whydah, for the pirates had not seen or heard about the Whydah wrecking in the storm of the night of April 26. The pirates eventually realized the Whydah was lost, and proceeded to attack vessels in the area. Several of the pirates set out in a launch from the Anne and proceeded to Matinicus:

"...where they took a sloop belonging to Colonel [Stephen] Minot, one shallop belonging to Capt. [John] Lane and three Schooners. They brought the Sloop and Shallop and (as we are informed) the sails and compasses of the 3 schooners to Menhagen [Monhegan], whereupon they manned the last mentioned Sloop with ten hands..."

The pirates soon departed the area on May 9, 1717, on the 25-ton sloop formerly belonging to Colonel Minot, with a pirate crew of 19.[6]

"Deposition of Ralph Merry and Samuel Roberts" Boston. May 11, May 16, 1717. in Jameson, John Franklin. "Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents." New York: Macmillan Company, 1923, pp. 301-302; "John Newman to Governor Shute" Gloucester. May 12, 1717. Massachusetts Archives 51:290

John King - The Boy Pirate

My latest article is now published! You may read it here:

http://www.cindyvallar.com/JohnKing.html

Today is the anniversary of the wreck of the Whydah Gally

April 26, 1717

So today I lit a candle for the sailors, pirates, and prisoners who perished in the storm.

May they all rest in peace.

The Perpetuation of Pirate Myths

                A friend came across this article in his new issue of Lost Treasure Magazine and was nice enough to scan it over to me. I found it interesting because of all of the incorrect information and perpetuation of pirate myths it contains.

                I should have known something was up when I saw that there was a part of the article above the title, and then the entire article below it. There are only some sources listed before the title and then some at the end of the second article. A second warning is the fact that both listings of sources show that whoever the author of the article is used two articles that previously appeared in earlier issues of this same magazine. A little online research showed me there apparently was also an issue that mentioned this same topic in 2012, but that issue apparently wasn’t used as a reference here.  

                The premise of the article is that in the “latter part of 1716, a small band of pirates led by the infamous pirate Samuel Bellamy, buried a small fortune in gold, silver and jewels somewhere along the Machias River in Washington County, Maine.” The location of this fortune is said to be a few miles north-west of modern day Machias, Maine. The of 180 bags of gold that we know the pirates had on board the Whydah at the time its demise are said to be buried here. (As opposed to having gone down with the ship, which is the version told by at least two of the pirates during their interrogation before trial for piracy in Boston, Massachusetts in 1717.)

                The full article has Bellamy and Paulsgrave Williams starting out as Cape Cod fishermen who decided that the hard labor of fishing was not for them and joined forces with Thornigold and Lebous. (Yes, they spell the name Thornigold!)

                They are said to have sought out a safe harbor to affect repairs after a damaging storm. They pulled in to the mouth of the Machias River on the southeast coast of Maine. Here the article says that to avoid mutiny because they weren’t at a port where the men could spend their loot on women and alcohol, Bellamy made them start building a log fort to use as a permanent base of operations. The fortifications included a large underground vault.

                Bellamy is said to have been the only crew member aboard his ship that knew the art of navigation and thus was the only one who could find his way back to the fort.

                After they finished building this fort and headed back out to sea, the article has them capturing a ship called the Mary Jane, which seems to be a miss-spelling of the ship Mary Anne. It also has the crew of the Mary Anne shipwrecking off the near the town of Orleans instead of Eastham, Massachusetts.

                The article does get right the fact that Thomas Davis and John Julian are the only two recorded survivors of the wreck of the Whydah, but then it has them tried and hung for piracy, when Thomas Davis was acquitted and John Julian sold into slavery. It also has Davis and Julian confirming the location of this fort during their interrogation before trial. I have a copy of those trial transcripts, and Thomas Davis never mentions such a thing in his testimony and John Julian was never interrogated before being sold.

                Supposedly some of the logs and earthen defenses were visible until the 1970’s. Maybe the author was confused with the fact that it was sometimes parts of the Whydah which were visible for many years after the wreck.

                One of the sources of this article is said to be the Machias Chamber of Commerce, which I haven’t had a chance yet to contact. It might prove interesting to get their point of view on this subject. Since there are next to no records (other than Captain Kidd, I believe) of any pirates burying their treasure, I thought it was interesting to see yet another article come out perpetuating this myth.

                Keep in mind that this magazine is directed at amateur treasure hunters who search for lost treasure using metal detectors, etc.

“Lost Pirate Treasure,” Lost Treasure Magazine, April 2015, pps.  53-54.

               

               

               

Some information about the Whydah Galley

"A detection of the shipwrights new tricks in combination with Captain Ely against lead-sheathing practised upon the Trumbal-Gally in Mr. Wells' Dock, Aug. 31 MDCXCIX. Also an account of the lead-sheathing upon the Weedaw together with a new Publication of the charge thereof, at 12d a foot, Sept. 27, 1699 (Mr. Hale?) London". National Maritime Museum Document #N3654. [Dethlefsen "London Report" 1983]

            The Weedaw Friggot having made her voyage in her Lead-sheathing, to Guinea, and the West-Indies, was brought into Mr. Fowler's Dock at Lime-house, the 19th Instant to be fitted out for the same Voyage again, where anyone may find her sheathing and seams under it, very good and sound...and no cause for stripping, save only...where the shipwright had mixt Elm Plank with the Oaks, which being dated and rotten, was shifted, about a tenth part, which was with little charges new sheath'd with lead: But where upon searching the Plank was sound; and found the seams sound also, and no need of stripping the whole sheathing...The Foe had visited her sheathing two nights before she came into the Dock, but finding themselves discovered by the Watch...after they had torn off about two Foot, they got off to the shoar...

 

[With the possible (phonetic) exception of Captain William Kidd's Quedagh Merchant [e.g. Nye 5.0], this is the earliest known mention of a vessel with some variation of "Whydah" as her name. The question of whether or not The Whydah Galley possessed lead sheathing has not yet been resolved, although wear-patterns of nails from the wreck site indicate the possible presence of some type of outer-hull sheathing]

Some significant dates in the history of the Whydah Galley

The Trial of Eight Pirates:

October 18, 1717

Arrival of King George's pardon in New York and Boston:

The HMS Phoenix brought the Pardon to New York no later than November 4, 1717. News of her arrival had reached Boston no later than November 11, 1717.

-         Boston Newsletter, 11/11/1717

Execution of the six pirates:

November 15, 1717

They were:

Simon Van Vorst

John Brown

Thomas Baker

Hendrick Quintor

Peter Cornelius Hoof

John Shuan

Judicial murder: the unjustified execution of the death penalty

The Hanging of Six Pirates

by Laura Nelson

On November 15^th, 1717, six men were hanged for piracy in Boston, Massachusetts. They were: Hendrik Quintor, Peter Cornelius Hoof, John Shuan, John Brown, Thomas Baker, and Simon Van Vorst.

On April 26, 1717 the above-named men (plus a man named Thomas South, who went aboard unarmed and later was acquitted at trial as a forced man,) were sent to take charge of the Mary Anne. This ship was a type of wooden sailing ship called a pink. The ship had just been taken by the pirate Captain Samuel Bellamy. Their orders were to take over operation of the ship and to send back her captain and several crew members with the ship's papers. Each one went aboard armed with pistols and cutlasses.

Sam Bellamy ordered them to follow the pirate flag ship the Whydah Galley to a location on Cape Cod. Once there, he intended to plunder the Mary Anne for the more than 7,000 gallons of Madeira wine that they had discovered was in her hold.

During the course of the afternoon, the pirates plundered the ship, helping themselves to some wine they found in one of the cabins and various items of the crew's clothing. Eventually, they were ab;e to remove a heavy cable that was blocking the hatch and that was when they discovered the barrels of Madeira.
 

As the day wore on, a storm rolled into Cape Cod. It would be one of the worst storms in the area's history. It was preceded by dense fog and thunder and lightning.

An Arctic gale from Canada was colliding with a warm front moving northward from the Caribbean. “According to eye witness accounts, gusts topped 70 miles [113 kilometers] an hour and the seas rose to 30 feet [9 meters.]¹

As they made their way North, Sam noticed that the Mary Anne was falling behind the Whydah. He hollered for them to keep up. One of the pirates responded that he would “make sail until she couldn't sail anymore.” A lamp was lit and hung from the stern of the Whydah to help them stay on course.

Yet the Mary Anne, with her increasingly drunken crew, eventually fell so far behind that they lost sight of the Whydah. They eventually went aground on a beach near the town of Wellfleet, MA. To prevent the Mary Anne from breaking up any further, Thomas South, who was a carpenter, cut down the mainmast.

The pirates and the remaining original crewmen of the Mary Anne went into the hold and spent the night there. One of the pirates, unnamed, asked one of the crewmen to read from the Common-Prayer Book, which he did for an hour.

In the morning, the pirates and crewmen found that they were far enough ashore that they could walk from the ship onto the beach. There they spent the morning eating some sweetmeats that they had found in someone's chest and washing them down with more wine. Eventually a local, Thomas Cole, happened upon them and came across in his canoe to rescue what he thought were ordinary mariners who had been shipwrecked. He took them to his house. There one of the crewmen of the Mary Anne finally blurted out that these men were pirates and members of Sam Bellamy's crew.

The pirates left, planning on making their way to Rhode Island, which at that time was a known pirate haunt.

On their way there, they stopped at a tavern in Eastham, MA for refreshment. There they were apprehended by the local law and held in Barnstable jail overnight. The next day they were put on horseback, along with 2 survivors of the wreck of the Whydah, Thomas Davis and John Julian. By this time they had of course learned of the demise of the Whydah, and were despondent over the loss of their friends and their treasure.

Once in Boston they languished in its foul, dark jail until their trial on October 18, 1717. But not all of them got to go to trial. Sometime between April and October John Julian disappeared from the jail. He is reported to have been sold under the name of Julian The Indian to John Quincy of Braintree, MA.² Just to make things interesting, John Quincy's grandson, President John Quincy Adams, became a staunch abolitionist.³

Thomas Davis was tried separately from the pirates who had been on the Mary Anne. The court believed his claim that he was forced to go along with the pirates because he was a carpenter and was acquitted. The remaining seven were charged with piracy and robbery. The potential penalty was death by hanging.

All of them pleaded not guilty and asserted their defense that they were forced men. Thomas South was the only one the court believed and was acquitted. The other six were found guilty and sentenced to death.

“Cotton Mather – minister of Boston's Old North Church – was in the courtroom to hear the testimony and verdicts. A fire-and-brimstone preacher and prolific writer, Mather had entered Harvard at the age of 12 and had preached his first sermon at the age of 16. He was personally committed to persuading the pirates to repent. Throughout their months in jail, Mather regularly met with Bellamy's men. On November 15, accompanied by Cotton Mather, the condemned men were rowed across the harbor to Charleston, where their gallows had been set up at the water's edge.”⁴

Hangings in 1717 were public entertainments. In the days before television and movies, and when a large segment of the population was illiterate, entire families (including children) would turn out to watch the spectacle.

In those days, pirate's bodies were not buried after they were hanged. They were instead covered in tar and placed inside a gibbet⁵, then hung out in public where sailors coming and going from the harbor could see them and be warned against becoming involved with pirates.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Clifford, Barry, and Kenneth J Kinkor with Sharon Simpson, Real Pirates, The Untold Story of the Whydah from slave ship to pirate ship, National Geographic, Washington, D.C.

Kinkor, Kenneth J, “Black Men Under the Black Flag,” in Bandits at Sea: A Pirate Reader, edited by C.R. Pennell, New York University, 2001.

“The Trials of Eight Persons Indited For Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H Baer (2:289-319) Pickering and Chatto, 2007.

ENDNOTES

1Donovan Webster, “Pirates of the Whydah” in National Geographic Magazine (May 1999.) http:www.nationalgeographic.com/whydah/story.html

2Kinkor, Kenneth J, “Black Men Under the Black Flag,” in Bandits at Sea: A Pirate Reader, edited by C.R. Pennell, New York University, 2001, p 203

3“John Julian – Only Free At Sea” at Pirates of the Whydah, National Geographic. In February 1839, John Quincy Adams successfully represented the slaves from the Amistad rebellion. More information can be read at the National Archives web site: http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/amistad/ http://www.nationalgeographic.com/whydah/ax/frame4.html

4Clifford, Barry, and Kenneth J Kinkor with Sharon Simpson, Real Pirates, The Untold Story of the Whydah from slave ship to pirate ship, National Geographic, Washington, D.C., p 136

5A gibbet is an iron cage that encases the body. The bodies would be left on display until they had completely decomposed.