Expedition Whydah - Hardcover

Clifford, Barry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060192321 ISBN 13: 9780060192327

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1999

Synopsis

The companion to a National Geographic television special chronicles the author's life-long quest to find and salvage the priceless cargo of the pirate ship Whydah, which sank off the shores of Cape Cod in 1717. TV tie-in. 75,000 first printing. Tour.

About this title

Review

"An adventurer, enchanted since his youth by pirate Black Sam Bellamy's role in the "Whydah shipwreck, realizes his destiny is to find the "Whydah and its treasure. ...The real-life story is full of entertaining detail: pirate history, nautical, lore, the dangerous work of sea salvage."--"Boston Magazine"Readers drawn into the dangerous straits of this quest will find themselves exhilarated as the pirate ship at last yields up her secrets."--"National Geographic Adventure Magazine"Teems with a wealth of insight into life on the high seas as Clifford reveals all you would ever want to know about Bellamy's adventures...Clifford's search for the "Whydah makes for an entertaining tale: that of a likable rogue moving ever closer to uncovering the history of a long gone, a time when pirates roamed the eastern seaboard proud and free."--"Boston Herald

From the Author

A book with everything - Business, Adventure, and Ghosts
From a writer's point of view, this book has everything. Which means, of course, that it has everything from a reader's point of view, too. This is a story of obsession, that of a modern day explorer named Barry Clifford and an 18th century pirate named "Black" Sam Bellamy.

Bellamy crashed his pirate ship, the Whydah, on the sandy shores of Cape Cod in April of 1717. At least 146 pirates were killed in that crash, along with the booty from 50 ships.Such a crash would have been a heyday for the residents of the impoverished Cape had they been able to reach the capsized vessel. Unfortunately for them, the storm prevented anykind of salvage and they could only watch in frustration as the ship filled with treasure sank into the voracious sands of the Cape. Shortly it disappeared and people forgot exactly where it had sank. Eventually it became a legend, like so many other "lost gold" legends around the world. . . .

Enter Barry Clifford. It is 266 years later and he is telling Walter Cronkite the story of "Black" to Sam Bellamy at a Thanksgiving get together at writer William Styron's house."Why don't you look for the Whydah?" asks Cronkite. And Barry does. Through an exciting process of discovery, he finds the Whydah. Then the adventure begins, as modern day pirates try to jump his claim and jealous archaeologist try to keep him from bringing up artifacts and treasure.Barry is a human monument to perserverance. Over the years he and his colorful crew have brought up over 100,000 artifacts, including gold, silver and the ethereal jewelry of African tribesmen who were hauled as slaves to the New World by the former Captain of Whydah, a slave runner named "Prince."What will you get out of this book besides a good read? You'll get and understanding of what "obsession" and "pursuit of excellence" means.

The cost of finding this legendary pirate ship - the only one in the world to be excavated - has been a high one for Barry. But the reward has been a large one, too. He refuses to sell any of the thousands of artifacts that he has retrieved from this dangerous archaeological site. Instead he is keeping the collection together to contribute to our knowledge of a mysterious sub-culture, one that contributed to the formation of our nation.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060192321
• ISBN 13: 9780060192327
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 311