Barry Clifford, a Cape Cod native and self-described professional adventurer, explorer and treasure hunter, decided as a child to make it his life’s mission to find Sam Bellamy’s lost ship Whydah. Eventually, in 1984, he did.
It would be quite a romantic story to say that he just happened on the wreck fortuitously one day while out scuba diving off Wellfleet. Instead, it took considerable determination and quite sophisticated equipment to eventually find it. You would also need to count all the hours Clifford spent haggling with bureaucrats for the right to salvage the ship.
Nearly 300 years of sediment and silt covered it. Over time, Clifford hauled up a collection of coins, artefacts and cannons. By far his most prized find was the ship’s bell. This is because once scrubbed up, it was emblazoned with the name of the ship: the proof Clifford needed to claim the Whydah as the first authenticated discovery of a pirate ship.
This did not silence the doubts of his critics. And there were many.
Clifford guards his story closely. He published it in 1993 in an autobiography called The Pirate Prince that is available on Amazon in hardback and at the Whydah Pirate Museum. I haven’t read it as it’s not easily available in Australia or in digital form.
According to a 1995 article in Outside Magazine, Clifford portrays himself in the book as a ‘can-do action man with a conscience, whose talent for finding watery loot borders on the mystical.’ Other critiques of him have not been nearly as favourable.
The article also discusses a book by Stephen Kiesling, who Clifford brought in to help with the autobiography but fired before its completion. Kiesling alleged Clifford lied habitually about his background and exploits.
Desperate to attract investors and secure permits, Kiesling claimed Clifford repeatedly announced that he “found” the Whydah before he really did, and deceived officials in Massachusetts by ignoring that state law requires that a professional archaeologist be on hand during every step of an underwater excavation.
Clifford hotly denies these allegations and claimed Kiesling was a ‘borderline psychotic’ and ‘drug addict’ who ‘made sexual advances on him and his girlfriend’.
He’s an interesting guy.
What was the true value of the Whydah’s recovered treasure?
‘Some people’ (it’s not entirely clear who they are) believed the Whydah held more than 4.5 tons of gold and silver worth US$120 million today when it went down. If true, this would have made the pirate Sam Bellamy the most profitable of all time, or at least, of that time.
Gold and silver is extremely heavy and ship technology of the early 18th century did not allow for boundless amounts of storage space like Doctor Who’s Tardis. However, it is true that treasure hunter Barry Clifford’s salvaging of it did reveal typical pirate ‘treasure’. To date, over 15,000 silver and gold coins have been uncovered. Although valuable, these are in no way worth even close to US$120 million.
Clifford has found other fascinating archaeological artefacts, including guns and the leg of a young boy. You can see much of what he uncovered at the Whydah Pirate Museum in Cape Cod.
Clifford is not a man who stands down from a fight. His salvaging efforts have placed him directly in the firing line of the American Institute of Archaeology.
They have accused him of tomb-raiding and unethical practices by not including archaeologists on his team. Clifford – true to form - responded by threatening to sue for slander. Although he has given some of his discoveries away as mementos he publicly remains committed to preserving them for historical purposes at the Whydah Pirate Museum.
The Whydah continues to slowly reveal its secrets today. Most of the artefacts are wrapped in a concrete-like substance that must be painstakingly eroded away. This is why there is still much to discover about it.
In 2013, the excavation team discovered a colonial-era document that indicated Bellamy raided two vessels bound for Jamaica that contained 400,000 pieces of eight. This led to much excitement about more treasure but so far, any further discoveries have not been made public.
Then in 2018, investigators hoped a bone fragment uncovered belonged to Sam Bellamy himself, potentially answering the age old question of whether Bellamy really did drown that terrible night. But tests revealed it belonged to a male of Eastern Mediterranean. However, a descendent of Bellamy provided DNA to help with any future identification.
In February 2021, six more skeletons were found in a 21 year old concretion. This made the news across the world. Once again hopes are up that one of these belonged to Bellamy.
There has been no word yet.
More secrets of Sam Bellamy may well emerge.
Up next: Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and John “Calico Jack” Ratham/Rackham