The Whydah gally was built in London in 1715, primarily as a slave ship. Its name stem from Ouidah, a slave port in Benin, West Africa which played a key role in slave trade in the 1700 to 1900 century. Lawrence Prince, the captain, was an experience slave trader who steered the ship’s maiden voyage in early 1716 for which, it was equipped with firearms, gunpowder, pewterware, clothes, bar iron, liquor and array of goods for exchanges.
The Whydah departed from London to West Africa passing through Gambia, Senegal and Nigeria where it acquired approximately 500 slaves and subsequently travelled to the Caribbean to trade them in exchange of precious metals, spices and other valuables which later on were granted to England.
However, destiny drastically changed the Whydah’s mission. In 1717, the gally was on a regular journey close to Cuba and the Hispaniola Island when it was attacked by Pirates ships under the command of Captain Samuel Bellamy who converted it into a pirate ship. Some of the Whydah’s crew stayed and were joined by Bellamy’s gang.
As a new pirate ship, the Whydah sailed close to the Carolinas, and the USA’s east coast in search of capturing more ships and raiding in the open sea. This entire infamous act was halted on April 26, 1717 when the ship approached a Nor’easter storm close to the Cape Cod coast in Massachusetts and capsized and sank off the coast of the Cape. The ship remained in the ocean for many years and centuries to come.
In 1984, a Cape Cod native and underwater archaeologist, Barry Clifford discovered the wreck off the coat of Wellfleet in the Cape Code, MA. Clifford and his team members have recovered approximately 200 artifacts including a bell with “the Whydah Gally 1716” inscription, cannons, weapons, and silver and gold coins which constitutes a real pirate treasure! And the only Pirate Treasure ever discovered in the world.
Today, thanks to an intrepid and stubborn archeologist, the Whydah gally can narrate its story through the exhibits held in the Whydah Pirate Museum in West Yarmouth, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This is the only museum in the world that displays an authentic pirate ship treasure along all the artifacts recovered from a real pirate ship!
Things to know:
-The Gally was a 100-foot in length and weighed 300-ton.
-It was a legend until the remains and artifacts were discovered in 1984
-It was believed that the Whydah sailed to Province Town Harbor, the tip of the Cape Cod to visit Maria Hallet, his beloved known as the “Witch of Wellfleet.”
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