Six pirate skeletons discovered in 1717 shipwreck off coast of Cape Cod

The wreck of the Whydah is the world’s only confirmed pirate shipwreck

Credit: Kathryn Scott Osler /Denver Post 

A team of investigators has discovered the remains of at least six pirates from a 1717 shipwreck off Cape Cod, Massachusetts that could lead to them to the infamous buccaneer Captain “Black Sam” Bellamy.

The remains, entombed in several large concretions – hard, compact mineral masses – were found in the wreck of the Whydah, the world’s only confirmed pirate shipwreck, by a team from the Whydah Pirate Museum in Yarmouth, Massachusetts.

The skeletons are currently being examined by underwater explorer Barry Clifford and his team, the museum said in a statement. Mr Clifford discovered the Whydah in 1984. 

"We hope that modern, cutting-edge technology will help us identify these pirates and reunite them with any descendants who could be out there,” Mr Clifford said in the statement.

The Whydah was originally commissioned in London as a cargo and slave-trading ship by Sir Humphrey Morice, an MP and figurehead of Britain’s slave trade, and was named after the Kingdom of Whydah in modern-day Benin. 

The remains were found in concretions similar to this one salvaged from the wreck in 2018

Credit: Whydah Pirate Museum

Silver recovered from the wreck of the Whydah

Credit: Sam Bellamy/Wikipedia

In February 1717, less than a year after its first voyage, the Whydah was captured by Bellamy. He proceeded to sail it up the east coast of North America, capturing and plundering multiple ships along the way, but on April 26 was caught in a huge storm off Cape Cod and wrecked. 

All but two of the 145 crew were lost.

“Black Sam” Bellamy was born in Devon in 1689 and joined the Royal Navy as a teenager. After a failed stint as a treasure hunter in North America, he turned to piracy, dubbing himself the "Robin Hood of the Sea" and reportedly serving aboard the Marianne alongside Edward Teach, the future Blackbeard. 

The author Casey Sherman, another member of the team, said he hoped the new remains might lead them to Bellamy. In 2018, Mr Sherman tracked down a living descendant of Bellamy in England and took a DNA sample. 

A bone found previously at the site proved not to be from the captain of the Whydah, but Mr Sherman held out hope for this new find. 

“These newly found skeletal remains may finally lead us to Bellamy as we now have his DNA”, he said.