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50-502: Pirate upgrade: 28 active guns Whydah Gally / ˈ hw ɪ d ə ˈ ɡ æ l i , ˈ hw ɪ d ˌ ɔː / (commonly known simply as the Whydah ) was a fully rigged ship that was originally built as a passenger, cargo, and slave ship. On the return leg of her maiden voyage of the triangle trade , Whydah Gally was captured by the pirate Captain Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy , beginning

100-678: A tonnage rating at 300 tuns burthen , and could travel at speeds up to 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph). Christened Whydah Gally after the West African slave-trading Kingdom of Whydah , the vessel was configured as a heavily armed trading and transport ship (which included the Atlantic slave trade ). She set out for her maiden voyage in early 1716, carrying a variety of goods from different businesses to exchange for delivery, trade, and slaves in West Africa. After traveling down

150-526: A 4-mile (6.4 km) length of coast. One of the two surviving members of Bellamy's crew, Thomas Davis, testified in his subsequent trial that "In a quarter of an hour after the ship struck, the Mainmast was carried by the board, and in the Morning she was beat to pieces." By morning, hundreds of Cape Cod's notorious wreckers (locally known as "moon-cussers") were already plundering the remains. Hearing of

200-708: A child between 8 and 11 years old. His mother's account to local port authorities on what John's description was like, and especially of note, what he had been dressed in the day of his "kidnapping" by Bellamy's crew, included long silk stockings. A museum exhibition called "Real Pirates: The Untold Story of The Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship" toured the United States from 2007 to 2014. Venues included: Cincinnati Museum Center , Cincinnati, OH; The Franklin Institute , Philadelphia, PA; The Field Museum, Chicago, IL; Nauticus, Norfolk, VA; St. Louis, MO; Houston, TX;

250-415: A half to five tons of silver, gold, gold dust, and jewelry, which had been divided equally into 180 50-pound (23 kg) sacks and stored in-between the ship's decks. Though Southack did salvage some nearly worthless items from the ship, little of the massive treasure hoard was recovered. Southack wrote in his account of his findings, that, "The riches, with the guns, would be buried in the sand." With that,

300-445: A map that he made of the wreck site, Southack reported that he had buried 102 of the 144 Whydah Gally crew and captives lost in the sinking (though technically they were buried by the town coroner, who surprised Southack by handing him the bill and demanding payment). Mary Anne was also wrecked, ten miles south at Pochet Island. According to surviving members of the crew at the time of her sinking, Whydah Gally carried from four and

350-463: A new role in the Golden Age of Piracy . Bellamy sailed Whydah Gally up the coast of colonial America, capturing other ships as he went along. On 26 April 1717, Whydah Gally was caught in a violent storm and wrecked off the coast of Cape Cod , Massachusetts. Only two of Whydah Gally ' s crew survived, along with seven others who were on a sloop captured by Bellamy earlier that day. Six of

400-416: A sail into upper and lower sails was a matter of practicality, since undivided sails were larger and, consequently, more difficult to handle. Larger sails necessitated hiring, and paying, a larger crew. Additionally, the great size of some late-19th and 20th century vessels meant that their correspondingly large sails would have been impossible to handle had they not been divided. Jibs are carried forward of

450-407: A struggle—and who in any case may have been favorably known by reputation to the pirate crew—Bellamy gave Sultana to Prince, along with £20 in silver and gold (equivalent to £3,800 in 2023). Whydah Gally was then fitted with 10 additional cannons by its new captain, and 150 members of Bellamy's crew were detailed to man the vessel. They razeed the ship by clearing the top deck of

500-471: A thick, gray fog bank rolling across the water—signaling inclement weather ahead. On 26 April the pirates captured the ship Mary Anne with a hold full of Madeira wine. The captain of Mary Anne refused Bellamy's request to pilot them up the coast, so Bellamy arrested the captain and five of his crew and brought them aboard Whydah Gally , leaving three of the original crew aboard Mary Anne . Then Bellamy sent 7 of his own men onboard of Mary Anne —one of whom

550-490: A violent nor'easter , a storm with gale force winds out of the east and northeast, which forced the vessel dangerously close to the breaking waves along the shoals of Cape Cod. The ship was eventually driven aground at what today is Marconi Beach at Wellfleet, Massachusetts . At midnight she hit a sandbar, bow first in 16 feet (5 m) of water about 500 feet (152 m) from shore. Pummeled by 70 mph (110 km/h) winds and 30-to-40 ft (9-to-12 m) waves,

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600-672: Is currently transitioning in preparation for exhibition in CA. In one instance Whydah Gally ' s brief participation in the Atlantic slave trade was a source of controversy. The Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, Florida , announced the exhibit and linked it to the 2007 release of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End . After being criticized for trivializing the ship's role in slavery while glorifying its role in piracy,

650-514: The Science Museum of Minnesota , St. Paul, MN; and Union Station, Kansas City, MO. The venue includes videos, artifacts, educational live personal narrations to include supplementary audio programs, interactive activities, a 3/4 scale mock-up of the rear of the vessel and is supported by costumed actors portraying real-life historical pirates from the ship. A walking tour takes between 1–4 hours depending upon level of interest. The display/show

700-399: The mizzen topgallant staysail . In light winds studding sails (pronounced "stunsls") may be carried on either side of any or all of the square rigged sails except royals and skysails. They are named after the adjacent sail and the side of the vessel on which they are set, for example main topgallant starboard stu'nsail . One or more spritsails may also be set on booms set athwart and below

750-763: The 6 pirates going aboard Mary Anne in hopes of escaping, possibly by jumping overboard and swimming ashore as they drew near to the Cape. Sometime around sunset that evening, the winds completely died, and a massive fog bank made visibility virtually nil. The four ships in Bellamy's fleet lost sight of one another. Bellamy's ships Anne (captained by his quartermaster Richard Noland ) and Fisher moved out to sea (eventually making it to Damariscove Island with heavy damage). Williams had turned Marianne away earlier, putting into Block Island to visit relatives but agreeing to meet Bellamy later off Maine. That weather turned into

800-595: The Cape's easternmost coast. With the discovery of the ship's bell in 1985 and a small brass placard in 2013, both inscribed with the ship's name and maiden voyage date, Whydah Gally is the only fully authenticated Golden Age pirate shipwreck ever discovered. Whydah Gally was commissioned in 1715 in London , England, by Sir Humphrey Morice , a member of parliament (MP), who was known as 'the foremost London slave merchant of his day'. A square-rigged three-masted galley ship, she measured 110 feet (34 m) in length, with

850-459: The Netherlands; Peter Cornelius Hoof of Sweden; John Shaun of France; and Simon van der Vorst of New York. Carpenters Thomas South and Thomas Davis, who were tried separately, had been conscripted by Bellamy—forced to choose between a life of piracy or death. Therefore, they were acquitted of all charges and spared the gallows . John Julian was not tried, but instead was sold as a slave (to

900-482: The North-East gales Nor what those gales set free — The pirate ships with their close-reefed sails, Leaping from sea to sea. — Rudyard Kipling , "The Pirates of England" Accounts differ as to Whydah Gally ' s destination in her last few days. Some blame Whydah Gally ' s route on navigator error. In any case, on 26 April 1717, near Chatham, Massachusetts , Whydah Gally approached

950-559: The Seas that she was "cut down" and made a safe and fast ship. In 1651 Sovereign of the Seas was again made more manoeuvrable by reducing the number of cannon . Ships were razeed not only by navies but also by pirates – Charles Johnson 's A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates describes George Lowther refitting Gambia Castle in 1721: They one and all came into measures, knocked down

1000-574: The West African coast, through modern-day Gambia and Senegal to Nigeria and Benin , where its namesake port was located, she left Africa with an estimated 500 slaves, gold, including Akan jewelry, and ivory aboard. She traveled to the Caribbean , where she traded and sold the cargo and slaves for precious metals, sugar, indigo , rum, logwood, pimento, ginger, and medicinal ingredients, which were to then be transported back to England. She

1050-414: The bowsprit. One or two spankers are carried aft of the aftmost mast, if two they are called the upper spanker and lower spanker . A fore-and-aft topsail may be carried above the upper or only spanker, and is called the gaff sail . To stop a full-rigged ship, except when running directly down wind, the sails of the foremast are oriented in the direction perpendicular to those of the mainmast. Thus,

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1100-525: The cabins, made the ship flush fore and aft, prepared black colours, new named her the Delivery , having about 50 hands and 16 guns. This did not reduce the number of gun decks, but had the effect of making the razee ship much handier, since the forecastle and aftcastle no longer created windage , top weight was reduced, and the ship was made lighter overall. In the Royal Navy , the razee operation

1150-522: The close of the Napoleonic Wars, three elderly 74-gun ships were razeed into 58-gun fourth rates (not losing a complete deck, so remaining a two-decker, but having the quarterdeck removed). Two more followed immediately post-war, although the second never completed conversion. Another eleven more-recent 74s were razeed in 1826-1845, in this case being fully reduced to 50-gun heavy frigates; three others were scheduled for similar conversion, but this

1200-442: The crew on his own initiative the previous November, when Bellamy captured the ship on which he and his mother were passengers. He was reported to have been so insistent, that he threatened to hurt himself or his own mother if he wasn't allowed to join Bellamy. Among Whydah Gally ' s artifacts recovered by Clifford was a child-sized, black, leather shoe together with a silk stocking and fibula bone, later determined to be that of

1250-415: The elements of a full-rigged ship, such as having one or more masts support only a fore-and-aft sail or a mast of only two segments. The masts of a full-rigged ship, from bow to stern , are: If the masts are of wood, each mast is in three or more pieces. They are (in order, from bottom up): On steel-masted vessels, the masts are not constructed in the same way, but the corresponding sections of

1300-430: The exact location of the ship, its riches and its guns were lost, and came to be thought of as nothing more than legend. Of the 146 souls aboard Whydah Gally , only two men—the ship's pilot, 16-year-old Miskito Indian John Julian , and Welsh carpenter Thomas Davis—are known to have made it to the beach alive. All seven of Bellamy's men on board Mary Anne survived, as did Mary Anne 's three original crewmen. Including

1350-490: The fall of 1985 was the ship's bell, inscribed with the words " THE WHYDAH GALLY 1716 ". With that, Whydah Gally became the first ever pirate shipwreck with its identity having been established and authenticated beyond doubt. Work on the site by Clifford's dive team continues on an annual basis out of Provincetown, Massachusetts. Clifford opened The Whydah Sea-Lab & Learning Center in Provincetown after discovering

1400-407: The foremast, are tacked down on the bowsprit or jib-boom and have varying naming conventions. Staysails may be carried between any other mast and the one in front of it or from the foremast to the bowsprit. They are named after the mast from which they are hoisted, so for example a staysail hoisted to the top of the mizzen topgallant on a stay running to the top of the main topmast would be called

1450-520: The great-grandfather of John Quincy Adams ) after his capture and finally hanged 16 years later. On 15 November 1717, the famous Puritan minister Cotton Mather accompanied the six condemned men as they were rowed across Boston Harbor to Charlestown . All six men confessed and repented in the presence of Mather, but they were still hanged. Barry Clifford found the Whydah Gally ' s wreck in 1984, relying heavily on Southack's 1717 map of

1500-443: The line were sometimes razeed, either to become flush-decked (with the quarterdeck and forecastle removed) or cut down to become two-deckers. HMS  Namur  (1756) was a 90-gun second rate launched in 1756. She was razeed as a 74-gun third rate in 1805. Three 64-gun ships were cut down (razeed) in 1794 into 44-gun frigates. The most successful was HMS Indefatigable which was commanded by Sir Edward Pellew . Towards

1550-412: The main mast snapped, pulling the ship into about 30 ft (9 m) of water, where she violently capsized, sending over 4.5 short tons (4.1 tonnes ) of silver and gold, more than 60 cannons and 144 people to the ocean floor. The 60+ cannon on board ripped through the overturned decks of the ship and quickly broke her apart, scattering parts of the ship, 102 human bodies, and thousands of objects over

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1600-415: The mast are still named after the traditional wooden sections. The lowest and normally largest sail on a mast is the course sail of that mast, and is referred to simply by the mast name: Foresail, mainsail, mizzen sail, jigger sail or more commonly forecourse etc. Even a full-rigged ship did not usually have a lateral (square) course on the mizzen mast below the mizzen topmast. Instead, the lowest sail on

1650-453: The masts cancel out of their push on the ship. This allows the crew to stop and quickly restart the ship without retracting and lowering the sails, and to dynamically compensate for the push of the wind on the masts themselves and the yards. Running downwind the sails still need to be lowered to bring the ship to a halt. Razeed A razee or razée / r ə ˈ z iː / is a sailing ship that has been cut down ( razeed ) to reduce

1700-416: The mizzen was usually a fore/aft sail—originally a lateen sail, but later a gaff sail called a spanker or driver. The key distinction between a ship and a barque (in modern usage) is that a ship carries a square-rigged mizzen topsail (and therefore that its mizzen mast has a topsail yard and a cross-jack yard) whereas the mizzen mast of a barque has only fore-and-aft rigged sails. The cross-jack yard

1750-594: The museum canceled the exhibit. On 27 May 2007 a UK documentary/reality show titled Pirate Ship ... Live! followed a team of divers, including comedian Vic Reeves , in live coverage of a dive at the Whydah Gally site. On 7 January 2008 the National Geographic Channel aired a 2-hour documentary about the ongoing excavation of the wreck. It included detailed interviews with Clifford. Full-rigged ship Other large, multi-masted sailing vessels may be regarded as "ships" while lacking one of

1800-426: The nine survivors were hanged, two who had been forced into piracy were freed, and one Indian crewman was sold into slavery. Whydah Gally and her treasure of captured pirate gold eluded discovery for over 260 years until 1984, when the wreck was found off the coast of Cape Cod , buried under 10–50 ft (3–15 m) of sand, in depths ranging from 16–30 ft (5–9 m) deep, spread for four miles, parallel to

1850-481: The number of decks. The word is derived from the French vaisseau rasé , meaning a razed (in the sense of shaved down) ship. During the transition from galleons to more frigate -like warships (1600 – 1650) there was a general awareness that the reduction in topweight afforded by the removal of upperworks made ships better sailers; Rear Admiral Sir William Symonds noted after the launch of Sovereign of

1900-588: The pilot's cabin, removing the slave barricade, and getting rid of other features that made her top heavy. Bellamy and his crew then sailed on to the Carolinas and headed north along the eastern coastline of the American colonies, aiming for the central coast of Maine , looting or capturing additional vessels on the way. Whydah Gally was caught up in a storm, which heavily damaged it and broke one of its masts. Patch-ups and repairs were effected until they reached

1950-459: The pirate gang. Pirate recruitment was most effective among the unemployed, escaped bondsmen, and transported criminals, as the high seas made for an instant leveling of class distinctions. They were freed African slaves, displaced English seamen, Native Americans, and a scattering of social outcasts from Europe and elsewhere. In a gesture of goodwill toward Captain Prince who had surrendered without

2000-517: The seven men aboard Mary Anne , nine of Bellamy's crew survived the wrecking of the two ships. They were all quickly captured by Justice Joseph Doane and his posse and locked up in Barnstable Gaol . On 18 October 1717, six were tried in Boston for piracy and robbery. The following were found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging : John Brown of Jamaica, Thomas Baker and Hendrick Quintor of

2050-496: The shipwreck, governor Samuel Shute dispatched Captain Cyprian Southack , a local salvager and cartographer, to recover "Money, Bullion, Treasure, Goods and Merchandizes taken out of the said Ship." When Southack reached the wreck on 3 May, he found that part of the ship was still visible breaching the water's surface, but that much of the ship's wreckage was scattered along more than 4 miles (6.4 km) of shoreline. On

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2100-515: The time of Whydah Gally ' s capture, Bellamy was in possession of two vessels, the 26-gun galleon Sultana and the converted 10-gun sloop Marianne , captained by Bellamy's friend and investor Paulsgrave Williams . After a three-day chase, Prince surrendered his ship near the Bahamas with only a desultory exchange of cannon fire. Bellamy decided to take Whydah Gally as his new flagship; several of her crew remained with their ship and joined

2150-455: The waters near Nantucket Sound, where greater repairs were effected, possibly at Block Island or Rhode Island. At some point during his possession of Whydah Gally , Bellamy added another 30+ cannon below decks, possibly as ballast. Two cannon recovered by underwater explorer Barry Clifford in August 2009 weighed 800 and 1,500 pounds (360 and 680 kg), respectively. They could not wipe out

2200-516: The wreck and the center operated on MacMillan Pier until its move in 2016. Selected artifacts from the wreck are now displayed at The Whydah Pirate Museum in West Yarmouth, Massachusetts and at Real Pirates in Salem, Massachusetts. Famously, the youngest known member of Whydah Gally ' s crew was a boy by approximately 10 or 11 years old, named John King . Young John actually chose to join

2250-489: The wreck site—a modern-day, true-to-life "pirate treasure map" leading to what was at that time a discovery of unprecedented proportions. That Whydah Gally had eluded discovery for over 260 years became even more surprising when the wreck was found under just 14 feet (4.3 m) of water and 5 feet (1.5 m) of sand. The ship's location has been the site of extensive underwater archaeology , and more than 200,000 individual pieces have since been retrieved. One major find in

2300-556: Was fitted with a standard complement of 18 six-pound cannons , which could be increased to a total of 28 in time of war. In late February 1717, Whydah Gally , under the command of Captain Lawrence Prince ( not to be confused with the buccaneer who served under Sir Henry Morgan ), was navigating the Windward Passage between Cuba and Hispaniola when she was attacked by pirates led by "Black Sam" Bellamy . At

2350-533: Was never completed. In the French navy, a number of 74-gun two-deckers were similarly razeed into 54-gun ships: In the United States Navy , several of the final generation of sailing frigates launched in the 1840s were cut down to become large sloops-of-war . Advances in metallurgy and artillery in the 1850s allowed the casting of guns that fired substantially heavier shot than had previously been in use, as well as exploding shells . Thus, when

2400-414: Was the carpenter Thomas South, who had been forced by Bellamy and his crew to make repairs; not wanting to join the pirate crew, he had been offered release by Bellamy after work was completed, but the surviving pirates later testified to the court that they had over-ruled Bellamy's decision and forced South to stay due to his much whimpering and complaining. South testified that it was his choice to accompany

2450-425: Was the lowest yard on a ship's mizzen mast. Unlike the corresponding yards on the fore and main mast it did not usually have fittings to hang a sail from: its purpose was to control the lower edge of the topsail. In the rare case, the cross-jack yard did carry a square sail, that sail would be called the cross-jack rather than the mizzen course. The full set of sails, in order from bottom to top, are: The division of

2500-459: Was typically performed on a smaller two-deck ship of the line , resulting in a large frigate . The rationale for this apparent reduction in gun power was that the smaller ships-of-the-line could no longer be used safely in fleet actions as the overall size and armament of opposing ships increased. The resulting razeed ship was classed as a frigate; it was stronger than the usual run of purpose-built frigates. In similar fashion, three-decked ships of

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