Pirate skeletons from 1717 shipwreck discovered off Cape Cod
Shiver me timbers!At least six pirate skeletons were recently discovered in a shipwreck off the coast of Cape Cod.
The remains were unearthed from the wreck site of the Whydah, which sank near the town of Wellfleet in 1717, according to the Boston Globe.
Investigators at the Whydah Pirate Museum said the skeletons were identified in several large concretions, or hard masses of minerals, from the wreck site.
They are now being examined by a team of archaeologists led by underwater explorer Barry Clifford, who discovered the Whydah in 1984, the museum said.
It remains the world’s only authenticated pirate wreck.
“We hope that modern, cutting-edge technology will help us identify these pirates and reunite them with any descendants who could be out there,” Clifford said in a statement.
A human bone found in the wreck was also tested against a DNA sample from a bloodline descendant of the Whydah’s captain, Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy, obtained in 2018.
“That bone was identified as a human male with general ties to the Eastern Mediterranean area,” said member of the Whydah team, author Casey Sherman.
“These newly found skeletal remains may finally lead us to Bellamy as we now have his DNA.”
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