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On this day in 1717, the WHYDAH sank on Cape Cod on what is now known as Marconi Beach. On the morning after there were 102 pirate bodies littering the beach. I was the first archaeologist and confirmed her identity in 1984 and we found her bell in 1985.
How long does it take to clean up a bell that has been submerged for 300+ years? Does it end up looking like it's in good shape, and does it still sound good...or at least OK?
So where's the image now?🤭
I worked with Rob on WHYDAH and we dove the East River looking for HMS Hussar, which of course we never found.
The bell is on exhibit at the Whydah museum on Cape Cod in a water filled Plexiglas container. It took a long time to remove all the concretion but it looks great now.
Well, that answers the question about whether it sounds good, seeing that it's tough to ring a bell under water. Is it kept in water because it's not stabilized, or for some other reason? If I remember correctly, the bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald only spent a couple of decades under water, and is being displayed in an open air environment. But a couple of decades is a lot different than three centuries.
So I'm guessing it's not sitting in tap water, either. And since it's in a Plexiglass container, it's probably not pressurized. Is it too late to stabilize it so it can be displayed in an open air environment? If it is too late, that doesn't bode well for yet to be recovered Titanic artifacts as time marches on.
I believe it's highly filtered water that is changed frequently, I can try to get more details if you like.
Don't worry about it, at least not in the Titanic thread. But feel free to start a new thread about the Whydah museum if you want.
I certainly will MM.
