IN 1984, newspaper headlines and television newscasts around the world announced that the wreck of the pirate ship Whydah had been discovered off Cape Cod. The Whydah was the first sunken pirate ship ever to be found. It had lain undiscovered for so long — almost three hundred years — that many had come to wonder if it had ever existed, if the incredible stories they had heard about the ship, its crew, and its amazing cargo of treasure were actually myths.

The stories connected with the Whydah are tales of pure adventure, populated by colorful characters, including one of the boldest and most successful pirates ever. Filled with outlandish deeds, amazing courage, barbarous acts, triumphs, and tragedy, the stories are made even more extraordinary by the fact that they are true.

The saga of the Whydah continued after it went down, and this part of its story is, in many ways, as fascinating as the tales of deeds and misdeeds aboard the ship when it rode the high seas. In the ordinary course of events, ships that outlive their usefulness are stripped or broken apart. But over the centuries, many have been shipwrecked — so many that much of human history lies hidden beneath the waves. Famed oceanographer Robert Ballard has described shipwrecks as “the pyramids of the deep.” “I think there’s more history in the deep,” he has said, “than in all the museums in the world combined.”

When a ship sinks, it becomes a time capsule. If it is salvaged, like the Whydah, it provides evidence of what ships were like and what life was like at the time of its sinking.

The Whydah was not only the first sunken pirate vessel to be discovered; it was also the first pirate ship to be excavated. Marine archaeologists have uncovered artifacts in its wreck that have changed our entire notion of who the pirates were and how they lived. Pirates have long been the subject of legend and literature — and considerable imagination. But the true story of the pirates is every bit as fascinating as the fiction they spawned.

Martin W. Sandler
Cotuit, Massachusetts