Expedition Whydah: The Story of the World's First Excavation of a Pirate Treasure Ship and the Man Who Found Her - Softcover

Clifford, Barry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060929715 ISBN 13: 9780060929718

Publisher: PerfectBound, 2000

Synopsis

A Captivating Account of the Golden Age of Piracy, the Search for Sunken Treasure, and the Business of Underwater Exploration

Bored by his successful life and obsessed with a boyhood dream of lost pirate treasure, Barry Clifford began a quest for legendary pirate Black Sam Bellamy's ship Whydah, which had supposedly wrecked off the coast of Cape Cod more than two centuries ago. Ignoring claims that he was a fool and a dreamer, Clifford pressed on, until he unbelievable found the Whydah...and then the real story begins in a spellbinding story that will capture your imagination.

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: PerfectBound
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0060929715
• ISBN 13: 9780060929718
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 324