Introduction
The Whydah pirate shipwreck site was discovered in 1984 by underwater explorer Barry Clifford and his team. Mr. Clifford continues to direct the ongoing excavation of the wreck in a project that has been described by state and federal regulatory agencies as “a model for private archaeology”.
Artifacts from the Whydah are not sold, but are conserved and studied prior to display at Expedition Whydah Sea-Lab & Learning Center museum in Provincetown, Massachusetts. In 2007, a selection of artifacts from the Whydah collection commenced a five-year traveling exhibition, entitled “Real Pirates” under the auspices of The National Geographic Society and Arts & Exhibitions International.
R/V Vast Explorer off the back side of Cape Cod.
Recent Exploration Developments
During the 2005 dive season, the project field team located an area within the debris field of the Whydah site that revealed more than fifteen new cannon, many long rolls of lead and other large artifacts. These objects had been stored with the ship’s ballast, and, when the vessel capsized, they pinned a very large quantity of artifactual material beneath.
The 2006 dive season focused on further surveys of this small area, and a nearby section of ship’s structure first observed in 2000. The latter artifact was successfully recovered and is currently under study as possibly being associated with the Whydah
With the acquisition of a new crane in 2007, the team returned to the dense concentration of cannon, lead rolls and other large concretions found in 2005. In the course of the most productive season since the ‘eighties, the team succeeded in recovering over 25,000 pounds of artifactual material—including a ship’s stove and a ten thousand pound concretion containing more than seven cannon!
There are, however, still more artifacts in this same sector, and this will be our focus in the 2010 season.
