Pirates of the 'Whydah'

The Whydah was a pirate ship that sank off Cape Cod in North America in 1717, after a bad storm.

The wreck of the ship was found in the 1980s and is still being explored.

Treasure hunters have found the ship's bell, its cannon and pieces of gold.

The Whydah was first of all a slave ship carrying slaves from Africa to America.

The ship was attacked by pirates led by 'Black Sam' Bellamy. It became their pirate ship.

When it sank it had 146 crew members and was carrying 180 bags of gold and silver.

The treasure had been shared equally among the crew.

TASK ONE: Find out about Sam Bellamy's pirates. Fill in the sheet the teacher will give you. You will find the information here

TASK TWO: Find out more about the Whydah and make a slide show about the treasure hunters. Find information here and here.

Pirates - the truth?

These are stereotypes of pirates.

What were pirates really like in the 18th century Atlantic?

It is difficult to know because most of the records we have were written by people in government, army and navy officers or victims of pirates.

This evidence can be one-sided (biased)

One way to find out is through marine archaeology: looking at the wrecked ships at the bottom of the sea. In the 1980s an explorer found the wreck of the Whydah, a pirate ship that sank off Cape Cod in the USA.

We now know a lot about the pirate captain, Black Sam Bellamy, and his crew.

The Whydah is telling us - bit by bit - what pirate life was like.

LINKS:

All about the Whydah.

The crew.

The exploration.

Another shipwreck - this time a treasure ship.
Pirates of the Whydah

YOUR TASK

You have been commissioned by the editor of a magazine to write an article about the pirate ship Whydah.
The article should be fun, interesting to read and easy to understand. It should contain ideas to make the reader think.
Use the links above to find information about the ship, the crew and how experts have found out about them.
Your article can be handwritten or wordprocessed using Word. It should have some illustrations.

It should cover:

• The story of the ship
• The lives of the crew members
• How it was discovered
• What was found on the ship
• What we learn from the Whydah about the real world of pirates.

You can also try some pirate adventures.