Captain Black Sam Bellamy - The Whydah Galley

In February 1717 Captain Black Sam Bellamy captured the Whydah and made it his flagship. It's said that when the Whydah was wrecked off Cape Cod in a storm on 26 April 1717, Bellamy, 28, had been heading for Boston with a vast fortune on board. Bellamy, the “Robin Hood of the sea” was the highest-earning pirate of all time. Bellamy’s fleet captured over fifty vessels. The site on the shores of Cape Cod may contain the bones of as many as 102 men whose corpses remained after the Whydah sank. The Whydah was found buried beneath 18 feet of sand in 25 feet of water 1,500 feet from the shore in 1984.

The shipwreck has yielded over 200,000 artifacts, including treasure and the ship's bell. Coins recovered from the site represent a cross-section of global commerce in the early 18th century, spanning multiple mints, dates, and origins. Investigators discovered what they think are the remains of Bellamy himself.

A leg bone was found among sand and debris, next to a pistol said by the researchers to have unique features and symbols that prove it was one of Bellamy’s flintlocks.