A drawing of the Whyda, the pirate ship that John King is believed to have been
sailing on when he died. (Expedition Whydah Sea-Lab & Learning Center)
Posted on 06/03/2006 12:25:26 PM PDT by Pharmboy
A drawing of the Whyda, the pirate ship that John King is believed to have been
sailing on when he died. (Expedition Whydah Sea-Lab & Learning Center)
The silk stocking, shoe and fibula believed to be John King's, found in the
wreckage off Wellfleet. (Expedition Whydah Sea-Lab & Learning Center)
He was a boy, no more than 11, when pirates captured the ship he and his mother were sailing on in the Caribbean. As he watched the pirates haul off the ship's cargo of sugar and tobacco, John King made a decision: He would leave his mother and join the pirate crew, led by Captain Sam Bellamy.
Now, 290 years later, King's remains -- his fibula, silk stocking, and shoe -- have been identified among the wreck of Bellamy's ship, the Whydah, 1,500 feet off the coast of Wellfleet. While teenage pirates were common in the 18th century, King is considered to be the youngest ever identified.
Researchers excavating the Whydah used 18th century Caribbean court records and modern forensics to make the determination.
Their find opened a window onto the strange and brief life of a young boy swept up in a lost world of ocean piracy.
``It's a whole touchstone to a period in history which is often misunderstood or it's been twisted around by all these novels," said Ken Kinkor, a historian at the Expedition Whydah Sea-Lab and Learning Center in Provincetown, which made the discovery. ``Even though we find treasures, the best treasures aren't always gold or silver. It's the knowledge we get from the past."
King's tale ranges through the Caribbean, to the coast of Venezuela, finally to his watery grave off Wellfleet. It involves high-seas plundering, an appearance by the Puritan clergyman Cotton Mather, and a public hanging in Boston.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Black Tom Rackham here
When I tried that second site, I was no longer Eric The Enforcer, I was also Black John Rackham. Why are we all related? It's like being in West Virginia, but sailing!
By Associated Press
June 2, 2006
PENSACOLA, Fla. - Navy construction crews have unearthed a rare Spanish ship that was buried for centuries under sand on Pensacola's Naval Air Station, archaeologists confirmed.
The vessel could date to the mid-16th century, when the first Spanish settlement in what is now the United States was founded here, the archaeologists said.
But the exposed portion looks more like ships from a later period because of its iron bolts, said Elizabeth Benchley, director of the Archaeology Institute at the University of West Florida.
"There are Spanish shipwrecks in Pensacola Bay," Benchley said. "We have worked on two - one from 1559 and another from 1705. But no one has found one buried on land. This was quite a surprise to everybody."
Construction crews came upon the ship last month while rebuilding the base's swim rescue school, destroyed during Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
The exposed keel of the ship juts upward from the sandy bottom of the pit and gives some guess of the vessel's form. Archaeologists estimated the rest of the ship is buried by about 75 feet of sand.
During initial work to determine the ship's origin, archaeologists found ceramic tiles, ropes and pieces of olive jars. The settlement was founded in 1559; its exact location is a mystery. The Spanish did not return until more than a century later in 1698 at Presidio Santa Maria de Galve, now the site of the naval station.
The French captured and burned the settlement in 1719 but handed Pensacola back to Spain three years later. Hurricanes forced the Spanish to repeatedly rebuild.
The Navy plans to enclose the uncovered portion of the ship, mark the site and move construction over to accommodate archaeological work, officials said.
"We don't have plans to excavate the entire ship," Benchley said. "It's going to be very expensive because it's so deeply buried, and we would have to have grant money," she said.
I dunno. Gentle names for gentle pirates?
That is very cool! I'm Captain Blade McSlain, arrrrggghhhh!
Historians got really confused when he was listed on the passenger manifest in alphabetical order by last name!
I'm Captain Plunder.
Hee hee, I know where "Beef Island" is - that's where the airport is on Tortola now!
Seems to me that he was sailing a might longer than the story indicates, if he left Trellis Bay and ended up off Wellfleet, Mass., in the fog.
Could've been the mushroom tea from Bomba's Shack at Cane Garden Bay on Full Moon night, but it was probably just 151 rum.
Allow me to introduce meself-- I'm Iron Sam Rackham. I'll be in town for a spell, and I was wondering if you might have a spare hammock. Oh, and what time might supper be?
In light of your Pirate name, your FRname has a certain redeeming quality.
Let me guess:
Little Buttercup?
It does sound like the boy had a taste for grog...
I prefer the CAPTAIN BLOOD TRILIOGY by Rafiel Sabatini!
For a pirate name, I'm feeling like a "Blazing Kate" tonite, dunno why.
Captain Eye-Gouger, reporting for duty, matey.
I thought the title meant that the DVD guys got even with this kid.
Mine is Captain Quirk.
Am looking forward to "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" when it comes out in July.
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