1717 — Apr 27, pirate ship Whidah crash into sandbar in gale, Wellfleet, Cape Cod, MA– 144
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 7-14-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
–144 Fraser, Doug. “Legend of the Whydah pirate ship endures.” Cape Cod Times. 4-23-2017.
–144 Snow, E.R. Storms and Shipwrecks of New England. Boston Printing Co., 1943, p. 54.
–144 Wikipedia. Whydah Gally. 7-2-2024 edit. Accessed 7-14-2024.
Narrative Information
Wikipedia: “….On 26 April the pirates captured the ship Mary Anne with a hold full of Madeira wine. The captain of Mary Anne refused Bellamy’s request to pilot them up the coast, so Bellamy arrested the captain and five of his crew and brought them aboard Whydah Gally, leaving three of the original crew aboard Mary Anne. Then Bellamy sent 7 of his own men onboard of Mary Anne—one of whom was the carpenter Thomas South, who had been forced by Bellamy and his crew to make repairs; not wanting to join the pirate crew, he had been offered release by Bellamy after work was completed, but the surviving pirates later testified to the court that they had over-ruled Bellamy’s decision and forced South to stay due to his much whimpering and complaining.
“South testified that it was his choice to accompany the 6 pirates going aboard Mary Anne in hopes of escaping, possibly by jumping overboard and swimming ashore as they drew near to the Cape. Sometime around sunset that evening, the winds completely died, and a massive fog bank made visibility virtually nil. The four ships in Bellamy’s fleet lost sight of one another. Bellamy’s ships Anne (captained by his quartermaster Richard Noland) and Fisher moved out to sea (eventually making it to Damariscove Island with heavy damage). Williams had turned Marianne away earlier, putting into Block Island to visit relatives but agreeing to meet Bellamy later off Maine.[1]
“Shipwreck. That weather turned into a violent nor’easter, a storm with gale force winds out of the east and northeast, which forced the vessel dangerously close to the breaking waves along the shoals of Cape Cod. The ship was eventually driven aground at what today is Marcone Beach at Wellfleet, Massachusetts. At midnight she hit a sandbar, bow first in 16 feet (5 m) of water about 500 feet (152 m) from shore. Pummeled by 70 mph (110 km/h) winds and 30-to-40 ft (9-to-12 m) waves, the main mast snapped, pulling the ship into about 30 ft (9 m) of water, where she violently capsized,[2] sending over 4.5 short tons (4.1tonnes) of silver and gold, more than 60 cannons and 144 people to the ocean floor. The 60+ cannon on board ripped through the overturned decks of the ship and quickly broke her apart, scattering parts of the ship, 102 human bodies, and thousands of objects over a 4-mile (6.4 km) length of coast. One of the two surviving members of Bellamy’s crew, Thomas Davis, testified in his subsequent trial that “In a quarter of an hour after the ship struck, the Mainmast was carried by the board, and in the Morning she was beat to pieces.”
Sources
Fraser, Doug. “Legend of the Whydah pirate ship endures.” Cape Cod Times. 4-23-2017. Accessed 7-14-2024 at: https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news/local/2017/04/23/legend-whydah-pirate-ship-endures/21313328007/
Snow, Edward Rowe. “The Pirate Ship Whidah,” pp. 51-56 in Storms and Shipwrecks of New England. Boston Printing Co., 1943.
Snow, Edward Rowe (updated by Jeremy D’Entremont). Storms and Shipwrecks of New England. Carlisle, MA: Commonwealth Editions, 2003. Accessed 7-13-2024 at: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Storms_and_Shipwrecks_of_New_England/GdEDSnredWgC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Storms+and+Shipwrecks+of+New+England&printsec=frontcover
Wikipedia. Whydah Gally. 7-2-2024 edit. Accessed 7-14-2024 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whydah_Gally
[1] Cites: Sandler, Martin W. The Whydah: A Pirate Ship Feared, Wrecked, and Found. Somerville MA: Candlewick Press, 2017.
[2] Cites: Webster, Donovan. “Pirates of the Whydah.” National Geographic Magazine. May 1999.