Or so the story goes.
While in St. Louis Alex and I went to the National Geographic Pirate Exhibit at the city’s museum. As cameras are not allowed in the specially created structure, no pictures were taken, but if you have the chance to see this traveling exhibit I highly encourage it.
To begin, the entire collection is in this enormous pressurized structure keeping humidity, temperature, and even salt content at the needed levels to continue preserving the items. Did you know that as soon as you pull something out of the water it reacts with the atmosphere and begins to oxidize? There is an entire science to this and within the winding tunnels you actually see the bits and pieces in various processes restoration.
However, the real beginning is love.
The story is that Sam Bellamy fell in love with a young woman named Maria Hallet but as a poor sailor he couldn’t provide for her. As all young men in romantic fairy tales do, Sam Bellamy went off to find his fortune. In his case, the fortune lie with piracy. As time went on he accumulated a small fleet but victory came in the form of the slave ship Whydah (pronounced Wih-daw). The human cargo had already been sold and the ship was laden with more than 20,000 pounds in gold and silver. A veritable fortune for men who has honest sailors would have made roughly 2 pounds per month and for those of Sam Bellamy’s crew that were freemen on a ship but slaves to be owned on land, life on the sea was good.
Profits on board, it is said Sam Bellamy was ready to return home to his love with fortune in hand proving himself worthy of her love. Unfortunately, on the return journey a terrible storm swept in sinking the Whydah and all but two of her 145 crew men. The carpenter was tried for treason but found not guilty as the poor man had been pressed into piracy at Sam Bellamy’s doing and the second was Julian, a Native American who on the sea piloted the ship but once on land sold into slavery.
The exhibit follows the story of several of the crew members (including the youngest pirate ever on record!) and follows the process of finding, excavating, and preserving this expansive treasure.
To be perfectly honest though, I really wanted a doubloon. Thankfully they had a few in the museum shop or I would have been tempted into piracy myself!
Ahoy Mateys,
Jess (The Occasional Pirate)
