Infamous pirates like Blackbeard, Henry Avery, and Black Sam used a hideout at Nassau in the Bahamas during the Golden Age of piracy in the late 1600s. Now, marine archaeologists have found evidence of their activities in a previously closed zone on the island of New Providence.
The Antiquities, Monuments, and Museums Corporation of the Bahamas granted an international team led by Sean Kingsley, a British marine archaeologist, permission to dive in Nassau harbor. The expedition soon discovered six wrecks, and Kingsley believes there could be many more.
“These finds are the tip of the iceberg. I was shocked at the unexpected survival of a wooden hull; ships were the key tool of pirate terror, after all. There could very well be dozens more shipwrecks in and around the harbor,” he told The Guardian.
Nassau has changed a great deal since the Golden Age of piracy. Photo: Shutterstock
Burning the evidence
Someone had burnt the wooden hull to the waterline, which suggests pirate activity. After they had finished looting, pirates would often burn and sink ships to hide their crimes. The wreck was also heavily armed, with an iron cannon, swivel guns, and lead musket balls.
Around some of the other wrecks, the team discovered glass bottles, bits of rigging, and 143 clay tobacco pipes.
The expedition team had set out hoping they might find a particular ship: The Fancy. A pirate named Henry Avery had sailed to Nassau in The Fancy in 1696, supposedly fully laden with loot that he subsequently used to bribe the governor of the Bahamas and set up a pirate base at Nassau. However, though the charred hull is likely a pirate ship, they found no evidence that it was The Fancy.
Henry Avery (c. 1653-c. 1712). A notorious English pirate whose ship, ‘The Fancy,’ is shown capturing a treasure ship of the Great Mogul in the Red Sea. Photo: Shutterstock
Though marine archaeologists have discovered a few pirate ship wrecks along the eastern seaboard of the U.S., this marks the first-ever discovery of a pirate wreck in “the home port of the pirates of the Caribbean in the Bahamas,” according to Kingsley.
The expedition is due to be covered in detail by a TV show — Mystery of the Pirate King’s Treasure — and by Wreckwatch magazine.
