The Whydah Wreck-Slaves, Pirates, Ghosts, Gold Quiz

Answer: Sugar, tobacco, and cotton

A 'normal' triangle trade trip took anywhere from five to twelve weeks. Sugar, often in the form of molasses, would be loaded up in the Americas and sent to Europe to be sold or made into rum. The sale of the rum or sugar in Europe went to purchase manufactured goods. Those goods were then shipped to Africa where they traded for slaves.

The slaves were then sent to the Americas to work on the sugar plantations. And so the circle began again.

Answer: 20%

One of every five slaves died during the journey to the Americas. Slaves were taken on board in Africa, stripped until naked, and examined. Men were then packed below decks in areas sometimes only eighteen inches tall. They were often shackled in place. Women and children were above board in separate quarters but subject to violence and sexual abuse.

The extreme heat, lack of any sanitation, and foul air gave way to sicknesses. Fevers, diarrhea, and smallpox swept through the population. Those who were too sick to eat were force fed by captors.

The slaves that did not survive were simply tossed overboard.

Answer: "Black Sam" Bellamy

Samuel Bellamy captured 53 ships in his short career. This made him the wealthiest pirate in recorded history. He referred to himself as the Robin Hood of the sea. He took up sailing in his early teens. In 1716, he left Cape Cod to work for a treasure seeking expedition along the Florida coast.

He and his crew found no treasure but took up piracy. He always led two ships at a time and was known for being a dashing man dressed in a long black coat carrying four dueling pistols. He was an excellent captain and sailor and was revered by his men.

His greatest find came in 1717 when he captured the Whydah in a three-day chase. Known for his generosity, he traded one of his emptier ships to the captain of the Whydah, with no harm, and set sail with his bounty.

Answer: To improve a ship's stability

Ballast is material used to provide stability to vehicles or structures. A compartment within a boat or ship called a ballast tank holds water to perform this function as well. Typically, ballast remains below the water level in the vessel in order to counter the weight above. Ballast can be moved as needed.

This is not always an easy task, as the cannon the Whydah held were later recovered and weighed between 800 and 1500 pounds each!

Answer: Massachusetts

Cape Cod is a geographic cape separated from the mainland by Cape Cod Canal. It was one of the first places settled by the English in North America. The cape developed as a large fishing and whaling center. The coast near it has been labeled an "ocean graveyard" as the fifty mile stretch has over 3,000 shipwrecks.

This is due to the dangerous shoals in the area. Lighthouses now dot the cape and it has become a summer getaway for many people in the area.

Answer: Witch of Wellfleet

After Bellamy sailed away, promising to return, Marie Hallett discovered she was pregnant. She was banished from the village by her elders and lived in seclusion, awaiting her beloved's return. When Bellamy's ship wrecked, many people saw her standing on the shore above cursing the wind that caused the problem. Villagers named her the "Witch of Wellfleet" and chased her away.

It is said she either died in the swamps nearby or buried some treasure in the dunes where she and Bellamy used to frequent and then killed herself. Regardless, it is said her ghost still haunts the beach nearby still waiting for "Black Sam" to return.

Answer: Maps

Southack reported dead bodies, pieces of treasure, and wreckage strewn about the beaches as people raced to the scene to grab whatever they could find. Of the 146 crew aboard the Whydah, only two survived. John Julian, the ship's pilot, was half Native American and was sold as a slave to John Quincy Adam's grandfather.

The other survivor was Thomas Davis who testified about the huge treasure now on the bottom of the ocean. Southack helped bury the bodies, retrieved some guns and rings, and saved some wooden ship pieces. Best of all, though, he made a map of the shipwreck and its area.

This would be instrumental in helping find the wreckage hundreds of years later.

Answer: Henry David Thoreau

In the book 'Cape Cod', Thoreau made mention of a cooking range (called a caboose) in a chapter about treasure washed ashore. He said "the violence of the seas moves the sands on the outer bar, so that the iron caboose of Bellamy's ship at low ebbs has been seen".

This account, along with other clues, helped the treasure seekers in 1984. Pieces of the caboose were seen shining like copper as the divers uncovered it and the caboose was hauled out of its watery resting place.

Answer: Ship's bell

More than 200,000 pieces have been retrieved from the site including over 15,000 gold pieces. There have also been weapons, clothing, jewelry, and pieces of the ship itself. Each find had its location carefully logged and was stored in water filled vats to preserve it from drying.

The divers even found a bone with a small leather shoe and silk stocking attached which was determined to be that of an 11-year-old youth. This pointed to the identification of John King who was the 11-year-old cabin boy.

These findings have toured the globe as museum exhibits and the salvage operation itself was the focus of National Geographic articles and a two-hour television documentary.

Answer: All of these statements are true based upon the Whydah findings

Captured pirates and captors' tales helped back up the fact that at least thirty of the pirates on the Whydah were black. These are men who preferred to sail the high seas rather than live on a plantation as a slave. Men gave up loyalties to nations so that Native Americans, English, slaves, outcasts from all reaches of life, etc. were a true subculture on the ships.

The jewelry gathered at the wreckage was that of buttons, cuff links, rings, chains, and buckles. These all showed to be of a fancy, almost dandy-like, persuasion.

This would especially stand out in a time of Puritanical tastes. Finally, the ammunition collected during the salvage was almost all bird shot and musket balls and grenades. This bore out the theory that pirates did not necessarily prefer to shoot cannons and sink ships, but to capture the enemy ships, board them, and perform close quarter combat.