wydah wreck

[cpt scuba]

whats going on with the wydah wreck site just saw a TV show a bout it pretty lame ..they tried to lift a cannon by wraping a rope on it .. and they did not seem to have much to show for 20 years of digging .. ant one know the guys up there . maybe they need a bunch of Florida boys with a good boat and mail box

 

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[Bobadilla]

Maybe stupid question from me, sorry, but I am not too much familiar with this particular shipwreck, it is far away from my principal territory of interest.... Just curious, it has been positively proved that this wreck is really Bellamy's "Whydah"? I mean not only coins that are from that period and some iron cannons or pewter plates, but some piece like, for example, ship's bell.
Thanks....

Regards,
Bobadilla

 

[Mackaydon]

Bo:
More than 100, 000 single pieces have been recovered since discovery, including the vessel’s bell whose THE WHYDAH GALLY 1716 inscription absolutely identified the pirate shipwreck.
Source:http://pirateshipwrecks.com/whydah_galley_samuel_bellamy
Don.......

 

[piratediver]

Bobadilla: I was the archaeologist on this project for many years and as Don says, we have recovered many thousands of artifacts including the bell.The site is buried under 10-20 feet of sand and 20-40 feet of cold water.

Cpt. Scuba: I'm not sure what video you were watching but we have recovered many cannon and never use ropes, just lifting straps. If you'd like to try your hand at diving it, bring your dry suit.

There is a show traveling the US for 5 years displaying hundreds of artifacts, most worthwhile if you get the chance.


Pirate diver

 

[gus]

just saw the exhibit in houston. worth the time though wish they had a bit more on the recovery efforts.

 

[Bobadilla]

Thank you very much! I did not know about the ship bell! It is never too late to say CONGRATULATIONS! Real pirate shipwrecks have been my "secret" hobby for many years. I have been after sunken ship of the last pirate of the Caribbean, Roberto Cofresi, and I think I am very close to say "I have found her!".

Best regards to all,
Lobo (Bobadilla)

 

[Vox veritas]

Thank you very much! I did not know about the ship bell! It is never too late to say CONGRATULATIONS! Real pirate shipwrecks have been my "secret" hobby for many years. I have been after sunken ship of the last pirate of the Caribbean, Roberto Cofresi, and I think I am very close to say "I have found her!".

Best regards to all,
Lobo (Bobadilla)

Hi Lubos,
Cofresi's father was from my hometown, Trieste and his real name was Kuphferstein. Trieste was then part of Austro-Hungarian empire. He had to flee for murder charge and went to Puerto Rico.
In Trieste there are now descendants of this family.
Cheers VV

 

[Bobadilla]

Hola Claudio,

Thanks for the info. I have studied deeply the life of Roberto Cofresi for almost five years, it has become my obsession.... I have written almost 120 pages about his life and I have this study in my private archive, I have got the complete genealogy of his family, (by the way do you know that the first tracked member of the family, Cristoforo Kupffershein, was from Prague, now Czech Republic? It was in the 15th century, the king of Bohemia gave them even their coat of arms, then they moved to Trieste), all the changed names he got in Puerto Rico, and so on, so on. I plan to publish my studies about this character as a book one day as well.

Best reagrds,
Lobo

 

[frankie]

This is something i would do without funding. First of all,theirs a monument right where the ship went down. It was also in a treasure book in 1965 which said where it was and that it hadn't been found yet. That had to be one of the easiest wrecks to find. He looked up some stuff,but know where it was b4 he even started to look. I was scuba diving at the time and the talk was he was looking for divers who had gear. I called him up and gave him my last name,and he said are you related to so and so. I said no, and that was that. But who am i to dis him, he found it and got things together. Just think if that was you finding a pirate ship. What would you be thinking.I remember when i first started diving and had found some wooden ribs of a long ship sticking up out of the sand. My first thought ,was pirate ship. But then you get use to it when finding these ribs. But your right,it could have been done alot better than it was. But its like you know a wreck of the 1715 fleet is off Fla and know they have a monument at the waters edge where it sank,plus its in books of lost treasures and hasn't been found. All you have to do is put it together in your mine and go for it. That's what happen. He didn't really have anything to start. When they showed them trying to tie a knot on the cannon,i laughed. For one think,you don't show your mistakes on film,unless someting else is in the background that's never been seen b4. But he found it. What have you or i found?

 

[Bobadilla]

Frankie,
I hope you are not talking to me and about Cofresi lost ship, are you? Sorry, but you did not mention any name of ship or any other name in your post, so I am a little confused now.....

Bobadilla

 

[piratediver]

Bobadilla: I think he is speaking of the WHYDAH. The National Park Service put a plaque about half a mile away on the top of the sand dune mentioning that the wreck is out there. I was there during the initial search phase and it was far from easy to find. We have to dig through many feet of sand to check out mag hits and there are tons of wrecks nearby and lots of other stuff like a piece of Marconi's tower. Anyone who has ever used a prop-wash can tell you it is a very time consuming process to move a short distance and dig again. The sand on Cape Cod is also constantly moving so many times we would have to dust off holes every morning. The wreck is also widely scattered and since 1983 we are still finding new areas of interest.

Rob McClung was director of operations so if you know him ask how easy it was!


Pirate Diver

 

[cuzcosquirrel]

It's an unusual wreck because of the shoreline erosion on that area of beach. A lot of the initial wreck debris may have been deposited close along the shoreline, but since then the shoreline has moved back a couple hundred feet, and the cliff of sand has fallen down and settled over the top of the wreck. Like they said, the Marconi radio towers were on the beach rise right in front of the wreck, but in the 70 years that followed, the site of the towers is now in the water, or very near the water on the beach.

I briefly looked over the area this summer, and went out to the museum.

 

[Bobadilla]

Thank you Piratediver!

Bobadilla

 

[signumops]

I went to the traveling museum exhibit in Cincinnatti two summers back... excellent! I highly recommend the ticket for anyone who can get to the show.

The Florida State History museum in Tallahassee would do well for a similar traveling exhibit considering how much they have to share (thanks to US). Seems the Florida BAR is always strapped for cash, and a traveling exhibit similar to the Bellamy recovery would be a snap for them to fill with artifacts... they could charge a comparable price (my ticket was about $8.00 at the Cincinnatti Museum) and make some money for expansion of the museum in Tallahassee. But then, they would have to attribute the material on display to those who actually found it, and that will NEVER happen.

 

[piratediver]

Signumops: you are so right in that evil treasure hunters will never be publicly praised but constantly vilified.


Pirate Diver

 

[Whydah]

Robert, I can't wait to see what's in the lead plugged cannon.... Have talked with Barry on a few ocasions about this. I think the last time we talked about it was in the Summer of 2009, he said something about waiting till 2017 for the 300th aniversary of the sinking..... Hope that it get's teivised. I know that they have peeked at the inside and it seemed to hold Diamonds and Gold inside of the cannon. I would suspect that Cannon belonged to Sam Bellamy himself. He must have used it as his personal treasure chest, what's your thought's on this? Oh one last thing, I also have talked with Ken (Kinkor) about what he thought that the ring (TEYE BA) & (WFS) stand for ? I told him I had an idea that may be WFS stood for Whydah Fighting Ship ? I hear that the old Vast Explorer may be towed to New Bedford and demolished? Any truth to this?

 

[bellamycay]

Re: whydah wreck

Robert, I can't wait to see what's in the lead plugged cannon.... Have talked with Barry on a few ocasions about this. I think the last time we talked about it was in the Summer of 2009, he said something about waiting till 2017 for the 300th aniversary of the sinking..... Hope that it get's teivised. I know that they have peeked at the inside and it seemed to hold Diamonds and Gold inside of the cannon. I would suspect that Cannon belonged to Sam Bellamy himself. He must have used it as his personal treasure chest, what's your thought's on this? Oh one last thing, I also have talked with Ken (Kinkor) about what he thought that the ring (TEYE BA) & (WFS) stand for ? I told him I had an idea that may be WFS stood for Whydah Fighting Ship ? I hear that the old Vast Explorer may be towed to New Bedford and demolished? Any truth to this?

Actually, the old Vast Explorer (i.e. Vast Explorer II) was sold a number of years ago and was eventually taken possession of (if I'm not mistaken) by the city of Provincetown. It sunk in Cape Cod Bay during a storm in 2011. The current, and far superior, vessel bears the name Research Vessel Vast Explorer without the "III" suffix.

As to the TEYE BA gold ring, we're still doing research on it. There are a few possible leads which will only be made public when sufficiently confirmed.



As to the provenance of the treasure cannon...

My speculation is this. Pirate ships of the time had very strict regulations, usually written right into the ship's Articles, about stealing treasure

from other crew mates or dealing deceitfully with it, with very severe penalties. Bellamy's ship was no exception. According to the testimony of the survivors, the quartermaster divided the treasure evenly and offered the crew access to it after consulting him first. There seemed to be a very organized yet liberal system onboard Bellamy's ship. Considering this, one might wonder if any of the crew would actually tempt fate by not only hiding some of the treasure from the rest of the crew but also disabling a perfectly good (and very large and heavy) cannon - and hope that everyone was too dumb to find out about it. And Bellamy himself was apparently much liked by his crew... would he risk their allegiance and his captaincy by smuggling the treasure without his crew's knowledge? And even if the crew consented to such a thing, what purpose would it serve to shove a handful of loot into a cannon and seal it considering that they had 5 tons of other treasure onboard?

On the other hand, Bellamy was stock-piling cannons on the ship, amassing more than 60 on the Whydah alone before the ship wrecked. Many were confiscated from captured ships and stored below as balast. Could it be that this cannon was actually being used as a type of safety deposit box sent as a tribute from a Caribbean island governor to a king, or possibly as a payment from a king or corporation to a Caribbean governor or plantation owner when it was intercepted by Bellamy? And could it be that the crew brought this cannon aboard and placed it down below while unaware of what was inside of it? And if the crew had discovered that the cannon was plugged, mightn't they have either opened it to see what was inside or else tossed it overboard as defective and useless?

So it seems that there are at least three possibilities: either the crew brought the cannon aboard while totally oblivious to its secrets, or, there was a traitor aboard who stupidly risked his life by disabling a cannon and stuffing it with treasure that he kept hidden from the crew, or, Bellamy and/or his crew agreed to create this treasure cannon because - fill in the blank.
(I should note that our historians do not concure with my speculation).

 

[piratediver]

Bellamy: what is your affiliation with the WHYDAH project?


Pirate Diver

 

[bellamycay]

Bellamy: what is your affiliation with the WHYDAH project?


Pirate Diver

Hi Pirate Diver, I'm the Whydah Pirate Museum Docent, manager and historian, and I work on a number of projects for Barry. 2015 is my 7th year. Sadly, our Project Historian Ken Kinkor passed away.

 

[bellamycay]

We'll be opening at the Provincetown location again this year (2013), which is my 5th year with the Museum. We had hoped to relocate the Whydah Pirate Museum to the Hyannis Armoury, but those plans are still being worked on. Many of the artifacts have been changed out so we'll have some new stuff this year (if you can call 300 year old artifacts "new").