Whydah Pirate Museum

 

   I've done all kinds of fun things over the last couple of weeks. I'm happy to have a computer and can write about them again. Last Friday I did one of those fun things. I did went to the Whydah Pirate Museum in West Yarmouth, MA. Laurie and I took the trip down. Going to the Whydah Pirate Museum was one of the last things I could think of doing in MA that I had never been to. I was excited when we came up with the idea. 

  First off...the name. Whydah is the name of a pirate ship that sank off of the coast of Wellfleet in 1717. The ship had been lost for three hundred years even though it sunk only five hundred yards offshore. The ship had been captured by pirate Sam Bellamy. After he captured it, he turned it into his flagship. He was on his way home to Massachusetts from plundering the seas for a year. In that year he captured over fifty ships. The Whydah was caught in a nor'easter and crashed on a sandbar. All but a few passengers (pirates) died in the storm. The pirate treasure is one of the only pirate treasures ever really found despite what we were taught as kids. It is by far the largest pirate treasure ever found.

   The museum is open 10-4, closed Mondays. Cost for an adult is $17. I did have to wear a mask. I was only allowed to take photos near the front desk where there is a painting of Sam Bellamy and the anchor recovered from the shipwreck. I was not allowed to take photos in the main galleries. Heading east on Main Street (Route 28) the museum is set back on your left.

Pirate Captain Sam Bellamy

   The little museum is awesome. All of the artifacts were discovered/recovered from the wreck of the Whydah. There are multiple canon and pistols on display. There are coins from all over the world on display. You can even touch one of them. There were many other artifacts you wouldn't think about such as the forks and cooking utensils that the pirates would have used to eat during their daily lives. 

   There are a few bones found from the bodies that were buried in Davy Jones Locker. The youngest pirate on the ship was a little boy. There is a femur that is almost certainly his. 

Reading all of the info, it only takes about ninety minutes to go through the museum. I found all of the info fascinating. I loved seeing the canon and the treasure. Though not very big, the Whydah Pirate Museum well surpassed my expectations. I went to a shipwreck museum in Key West in 2019 and frankly I was bored. However, this museum was the history of one ship, its crew, and its sunken treasure. It was fascinating. Go if you have any interest.