Pirate Classics (episode 80)

Arrrr, matey!  Nikki and I are running a pirate themed relay race on Cape Cod this weekend instead of recording a new episode, so of course we’re going to play three classic pirate stories this week.  The first two clips will highlight the role Boston played in the golden age of piracy, while the third discusses Puritan minister Cotton Mather’s complicated relationship with the pirates whose execution he oversaw.  Listen now!


Boston in the Golden Age of Piracy (part 1)

Boston in the Golden Age of Piracy (part 2)

 

Puritans and Pirates

Execution Sermons

More Primary Sources

  • Ben Franklin writes to Samuel Mather with recollections about Samuel’s father, Cotton Mather, who was Ben’s childhood minister
  • The 1641 Body of Liberties, the first code of laws in New England
  • An entry from Cotton Mather’s diary in 1724 brags about being hated and feared by New England pirates

Articles

Featured Historic Site

Both our site and event this week are outside the greater Boston area, but they fit too well with our pirate theme to pass up.  In the spring of  1717, Black Sam Bellamy’s pirate crew was sailing their ship the Whydah along the shores of Cape Cod.  The Whydah was a slave ship that they had captured and converted to a heavily armed pirate ship. Now, it was loaded down with the booty from at least 50 ships they had captured as they sailed up the East Coast of North America.  On April 26, they ran into a huge storm, and the ship capsized and sank, never to be seen again.

At least not until 1984.  A treasure hunter named Barry Clifford began working from a map of the wreck made by another treasure hunter back in 1717.  Using this real life treasure map, he began finding ship parts under 14 feet of water and 5 feet of sand. As his team brought up a steady stream of artifacts, they found a ship’s bell in mid 1985.  Inscribed on it were the words “The Whidah Galley 1716.” With that, the team had proof that they had found the wreck of the Whydah, the only fully authenticated pirate wreck ever found. Over the years, Clifford’s team worked in partnership with National Geographic to recover over 200,000 artifacts, including troves of silver and gold.

 

Today, the Whydah Pirate Museum in West Yarmouth displays a selection of these artifacts, from shackles used in the Whydah’s days as a slaver to the gold coins pillaged from the holds of the ships she captured.  Here’s how the museum’s website describes their collection:

In addition to her tremendous archaeological importance, the story of the Whydah is a vehicle that links a number of important historical events and personalities in a fresh and insightful way. It involves such personalities as cartographer Cyprian Southack, puritan minister Cotton Mather, the powerful Adams family of Boston, philosopher Henry David Thoreau and others.

Sam Bellamy, captain of the Whydah, was linked to such important pirates of the “Golden Age of Piracy” as William Kidd, Blackbeard, Bart Roberts, William Condon, Ben Hornigold, Henry Jennings, Olivier ”La Buse” Levasseur (“the Buzzard”) and others.

Given the tragic drama of the Whydah shipwreck itself, and the fact that the Whydah was a pirate ship carrying an enormous cargo of treasure, ensured her place in American folklore. The legend of pirate captain “Black Sam” Bellamy and Maria Hallett “the Billingsgate Witch” is particularly enduring and appealing. With elements reminiscent of Shakespeare, Hawthorne, Cooper, Irving, Longfellow and Sir Walter Scott, it is especially compelling when the historical evidence for the basic core of the story is considered.

The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10am to 5pm.  Admission is $18.95 for adults and $14.95 for children. There’s also a smaller selection of artifacts on display at the Expedition Whydah Sea Lab and Learning Center located right on MacMillan pier in Provincetown.

Upcoming Event

We’re sticking with the nautical theme for our historic event this week.  If you can make it up to Danvers at 1pm on May 15, the Danvers Historical Society is hosting a film screening and discussion.  The topic is two Cape Ann shipwrecks.

In 1922, the USS New Hampshire sank off the coast near Manchester by the Sea.  The New Hampshire was almost a century old at that point. The keel was laid down as the USS Alabama in 1819, and she was ready for launch by 1825.  The Navy didn’t need a new ship in 1825, so the ship wasn’t launched for almost 40 years. When the Civil War broke out, there was a need for ships, and the Alabama was renamed the USS New Hampshire and pressed into service to blockade the ports of the traitors in South Carolina.  After the war, the New Hampshire was used as a training and receiving ship for over a half century. It was renamed the Granite State in 1904, and then in 1921, it burned and sank in the Hudson River in New York City. After it was refloated, it was sold as salvaged and set to be towed to the Bay of Fundy to be scrapped, but it never got there.  The sad end of that voyage will be one topic of the film.

The other shipwreck that you’ll see will be the 1939 wreck of the USS Squalus.  The Squalus was a Sargo class submarine that was brand new in 1938. The following May, the Squalus was undergoing testing based out of the US Navy shipyard in Kittery, Maine.  On the 19th dive, a valve failed, and the aft torpedo room filled with water, killing 26 of the crew. The submarine plummeted to the bottom in 243 feet of water. Working quickly, crews from Boston and Kittery were able to establish communications with the sailors stuck on the sea bottom, and within a few days, the remaining 33 crew members were rescued using a prototype diving bell.  In September, the Squalus was brought to the surface, renamed the Sailfish, and sent to the Pacific Ocean in 1940. It would go on to earn nine battle stars in 12 cruises during World War II.

The film recounting these heart pounding stories will be shown at Tapley Memorial Hall in Danvers.  There is a $10 suggested donation.  More information.