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The Wreck of the Whydah Gally (1717)

A pirate ship of twenty-six guns under Bellamy took a ship bound for New England from the Madeiras off Cape Cod in the last week of April 1717 and put her own hull ashore on the same coast, a hundred and twenty men aboard her by the Bermuda report and two of them saved.

Also writtenThe Widdaw (the ship's name in Lieutenant Governor Bennett's despatch from Bermuda, 30 July 1717); The Widow (the spelling printed in the London Gazette of 21 to 24 September 1717)

Lieutenant Governor Benjamin Bennett wrote to the Council of Trade and Plantations from Bermuda on 30 July 1717 with news out of Boston. On 27 April a pirate ship of twenty-six guns, commanded by "one Bellemy", had met a ship bound for New England from the Madeiras and taken her near Cape Cod. The taking is also dated the Friday before, 26 April, a fortnight after the pirates set Captain Beer ashore.2,28

The prize

The master of the prize and all his men but one man and a boy were taken out of her, and seven pirates put aboard with orders to keep company. She was a pink, and she came ashore on the south side of the Cape, "opposite to Slutts-bush, at the back of Stage Harbor", in what is now Orleans. How she got there is told two ways: in the trial evidence Baker, the pirate commanding her, had her foremast and mizzen cut down and the sea drove her high on shore; in Bennett's despatch the man and boy steered her aground, the seven being drunk and asleep on deck.4,5,21

The ship on the bar

The ship under Bellamy was one Bennett calls "the Widdaw", taken from Captain Prince of Bristol as he came through the Bahama Islands homeward from Jamaica. An anchor was let go, the sea was so great that the cable was cut, and the attempt to work off shore failed. She drove on the bar. She is said to have struck the outer bar first and turned bottom up before she broke up.3,7,29

A quarter of an hour after she struck, the mainmast went by the board. By morning she was a tangled mass of wreckage, and about sixteen prisoners had drowned, Crumpstey the master of the pink among them. She had come ashore about midnight; at first light Thomas Davis, one of the two survivors, walked two miles to Samuel Harding's house and rode back with Harding to gather what washed up, and by the Sunday morning, when Justice Doane reached the beach, everything of value was gone.8,19,20

Where she came ashore is not agreed. Bennett, who has both crews drinking the Madeira until they were drunk, puts the pirates ashore at "a place called Nossetts Bay", to the southward of the Cape. Later writers name Wellfleet as the place, and put the drowned there at a hundred and forty-four.6,30,1

Bennett had a hundred and twenty men aboard her and two saved. One figure has a hundred and forty-two going down with Bellamy on the back of the Cape.10,11

On 10 May, forty leagues eastward of Cape Ann, a small pirate sloop with nineteen men aboard took Daniel Collins, a fishing master, who deposed to it afterwards. They told him they were "the only men that escaped that belonged to the ship that run on shoar att Cape Cod", and that they got away in the long boat.12,13

Shute wrote to the Board on 23 July of pirates on that coast who had done no great damage, and of one of their ships cast away about thirty miles from Cape Cod with a hundred and thirty pirates drowned. He put no name to her.9

Southack on the beach

The day after he reached Eastham, Captain Cyprian Southack, sent down by Shute, had a notice nailed to the doors of three meeting-houses nearby, announcing the Governor's authority "to discover and take care of the wreck". He found the ship in pieces along nearly four miles of shore. A coroner and his jury had ordered the drowned buried and put in a demand for the cost, and Southack objected to public money going on the burial of outlawed pirates.14,15,16,18,17

Boston, and London in September

Bennett has the inhabitants securing the seven and carrying them to Boston. Dow and Edmonds have Justice Doane, a deputy sheriff and a posse overtaking them at Eastham tavern and lodging them in Barnstable gaol. A few days later the nine men held there were put on horseback and taken to Boston under guard.31,22,23

A year later the trial itself went to London, sent by Shute with the militia numbers of his two provinces. Eight men were indicted for piracy and tried at Boston on 18 October 1717; the last two of the eight were acquitted and the others convicted. Their case has its own record.24,25

London read the Bermuda letter in the Gazette of 21 to 24 September, where the pirate ship carries sixteen guns and her name is printed "the Widow", and Bellamy is said to have taken her from Captain Prince in March.26,27

The ship, her people and the site off Wellfleet belong to the Bellamy and the Whydah collection.

Three papers would settle most of what is loose. Southack's salvage letters and his journal of the work would give the burials and the reckoning of what came off the beach. The printed trial of the eight men, which went to London in 1718, would give the pink her name, the hours of that night and what the men off the wreck swore to. The Boston News-Letter for 29 April to 6 May 1717 would give the first report from the shore. How much money was aboard, and how much went into the sand or into Cape Cod houses, is reckoned in none of them.

What the evidence does not settle

Number of men aboard

  • The number aboard the wreck, 144 to 146, is unfixed

Date of the Whydah's capture

  • The capture date is only estimated as late February 1717

Bellamy's Robin Hood image

  • Evidence for Bellamy's Robin Hood image beyond Johnson

Each line is one question with its own grade, taken from the register where a claim carries it. Nothing here is graded as a whole.

Sources for this record

Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.

  1. On the night of 26 April 1717 a violent storm drove the Whydah onto the bars off Wellfleet on the outer arm of Cape Cod, where she lost her masts, broke up and capsized in the surf. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Printed trial deposition: The night of 26 April from Thomas Davis's deposition in The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy, Boston, 1717, as carried on the Archive's hurricanes record
  2. Lieutenant Governor Benjamin Bennett reported to the Council of Trade and Plantations from Bermuda on 30 July 1717 that he was advised from Boston that on 27 April a pirate ship of twenty-six guns commanded by one Bellemy took a ship bound for New England from the Madeiras near Cape Codd. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 29 (1716-1717), America and West Indies: July 1717, 17-31, item 677, Lt. Governor Bennett to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Bermuda, 30 July 1717 (library file csp-col-v29-pp344-364.txt, lines 1699-1702)
  3. Bennett's despatch of 30 July 1717 names the pirate ship the Widdaw and reports that Bellamy had taken her from Captain Prince of Bristol as he was turning through the Bahama Islands homeward from Jamaica. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 29 (1716-1717), America and West Indies: July 1717, 17-31, item 677, Lt. Governor Bennett to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Bermuda, 30 July 1717 (library file csp-col-v29-pp344-364.txt, lines 1710-1714)
  4. Bennett's despatch reports that the master of the prize and all his men except one man and a boy were taken out of her, and that seven of the pirates were put aboard her with orders to keep company. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 29 (1716-1717), America and West Indies: July 1717, 17-31, item 677, Lt. Governor Bennett to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Bermuda, 30 July 1717 (library file csp-col-v29-pp344-364.txt, lines 1702-1704)
  5. The prize pink took the ground at the back of Stage Harbor opposite Slutts-bush, on the south side of Cape Cod in what is now the town of Orleans, where Baker, the pirate in command of her, ordered the foremast and mizzen mast cut down and the heavy sea drove her high on shore. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship reporting a trial print: Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast, 1630 to 1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter on Samuel Bellamy, p. 124, footnoted there to The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy, Boston, 1717
  6. Bennett's despatch reports that the crews of both vessels drank so liberally of the Madeira that they all got drunk, and that the pirates ran their own vessel ashore at a place called Nossetts Bay to the southward of the Cape. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 29 (1716-1717), America and West Indies: July 1717, 17-31, item 677, Lt. Governor Bennett to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Bermuda, 30 July 1717 (library file csp-col-v29-pp344-364.txt, lines 1704-1707)
  7. An anchor was let go, the violence of the sea was so great that the cable was cut, the attempt to work off shore failed, and the ship drove on the bar. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship reporting sworn evidence: Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter VIII on Samuel Bellamy, p. 125 (library file dow_piratesnec.txt, lines 5388-5391)
  8. A quarter of an hour after she struck the mainmast went by the board, by morning the ship was a tangled mass of wreckage, and about sixteen prisoners were drowned, including Crumpstey, the master of the pink. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship reporting sworn evidence: Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter VIII on Samuel Bellamy, p. 125 (library file dow_piratesnec.txt, lines 5390-5394)
  9. Governor Samuel Shute reported to the Council of Trade and Plantations from Boston on 23 July 1717 that pirates had infested the coast but done no great damage, and that one of their ships was cast away about thirty miles from Cape Cod with a hundred and thirty of the pirates drowned, naming neither the ship nor her commander. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 29 (1716-1717), America and West Indies: July 1717, 17-31, item 666, Governor Shute to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Boston, 23 July 1717 (library file csp-col-v29-pp344-364.txt, lines 949-954)
  10. Bennett's despatch reports that a hundred and twenty men were on board the pirate ship when she ran ashore and that only two of them were saved. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 29 (1716-1717), America and West Indies: July 1717, 17-31, item 677, Lt. Governor Bennett to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Bermuda, 30 July 1717 (library file csp-col-v29-pp344-364.txt, lines 1704-1707)
  11. A third count of the loss puts Bellamy himself among the dead, lost on the back of Cape Cod with a hundred and forty-two of his crew and prisoners on 26 April 1717. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Modern editorial insertion in a reprinted list: Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter VIII on Samuel Bellamy, p. 345 (library file dow_piratesnec.txt, lines 13317-13321)
  12. Daniel Collins, master of a Cape Ann fishing sloop, deposed that he was taken about forty leagues eastward of Cape Ann on 10 May 1717 by a small pirate sloop with nineteen men aboard. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship reporting a deposition: Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter VIII on Samuel Bellamy, p. 130 (library file dow_piratesnec.txt, lines 5566-5570)
  13. The nineteen men aboard that sloop told Collins that they were the only men that escaped from the ship that ran ashore at Cape Cod, and that they made their escape in the long boat. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship reporting a deposition: Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter VIII on Samuel Bellamy, p. 130 (library file dow_piratesnec.txt, lines 5571-5573)
  14. Governor Shute dispatched Captain Cyprian Southack to the scene of the wreck. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Modern scholarship: Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter VIII on Samuel Bellamy, p. 127 (library file dow_piratesnec.txt, lines 5477-5479)
  15. The day after he arrived at Eastham, Southack posted a notice on the doors of three nearby meeting-houses announcing that the Governor had authorised him to discover and take care of the wreck. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship reporting a posted notice: Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter VIII on Samuel Bellamy, p. 128 (library file dow_piratesnec.txt, lines 5505-5508)
  16. Southack found the fragments of the wrecked ship scattered along the shore for a distance of nearly four miles. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Modern scholarship reporting salvage correspondence: Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter VIII on Samuel Bellamy, p. 128-129 (library file dow_piratesnec.txt, lines 5522-5523)
  17. Southack objected that public money should not be spent on burying outlawed pirates. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship reporting salvage correspondence: Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter VIII on Samuel Bellamy, p. 128 (library file dow_piratesnec.txt, lines 5517-5519)
  18. A coroner and his jury had ordered the victims of the wreck to be buried and made a demand for the cost of it. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Modern scholarship: Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter VIII on Samuel Bellamy, p. 128 (library file dow_piratesnec.txt, lines 5514-5516)
  19. The ship came ashore about twelve o'clock at night, and as soon as it was light Thomas Davis, one of the two survivors, walked about two miles to the house of Samuel Harding, told his story, and went back to the shore on Harding's horse to salvage what had washed up from the ship. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Modern scholarship: Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter VIII on Samuel Bellamy, p. 127 (library file dow_piratesnec.txt, lines 5455-5462)
  20. When Justice Doane reached the beach on the Sunday morning after the wreck he found that everything of value had been carried away. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Modern scholarship: Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter VIII on Samuel Bellamy, p. 127 (library file dow_piratesnec.txt, lines 5464-5469)
  21. Bennett's despatch reports that the man and boy left aboard the prize, seeing the seven pirates drunk and asleep on deck, stood in for the land and ran her fast aground. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 29 (1716-1717), America and West Indies: July 1717, 17-31, item 677, Lt. Governor Bennett to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Bermuda, 30 July 1717 (library file csp-col-v29-pp344-364.txt, lines 1707-1709)
  22. Justice Doane, with a deputy sheriff and a posse of men, pursued the fleeing pirates, who were overtaken and seized at Eastham tavern and taken to Barnstable gaol. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Modern scholarship: Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter VIII on Samuel Bellamy, p. 124 (library file dow_piratesnec.txt, lines 5368-5370)
  23. A few days after the wreck the nine men held in Barnstable gaol were put on horseback and started for Boston under a strong guard. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Modern scholarship: Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter VIII on Samuel Bellamy, p. 127 (library file dow_piratesnec.txt, lines 5464-5469)
  24. Governor Shute wrote to the Council of Trade and Plantations from Boston on 26 June 1718 that he had sent home, with the militia numbers of both his provinces, the trial of the pirates tried there by the power invested in him. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 30 (1717-1718), America and West Indies: June 1718, item 575, Governor Shute to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Boston, 26 June 1718 (library file csp-col-v30-pp264-287.txt, lines 1121-1124)
  25. The trial enclosed with that letter was the printed Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy held at Boston on 18 October 1717, naming Simon van Vorst, John Brown, Thomas Baker, Hendrick Quintor, Peter Cornelius Hoof, John Shuan, Thomas South and Thomas Davis, the last two acquitted and the rest found guilty. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 30 (1717-1718), America and West Indies: June 1718, item 575 i, Governor Shute to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Boston, 26 June 1718 (library file csp-col-v30-pp264-287.txt, lines 1145-1150)
  26. The London Gazette of 21 to 24 September 1717 printed, under a Bermudas dateline of 30 July, letters received from Boston in New England advising that on 27 April last there was a pirate ship of sixteen guns. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period printed newspaper: The London Gazette, issue 5575, from Saturday September 21 to Tuesday September 24, 1717, the Bermudas letter of 30 July (library file gaz_5575.txt, lines 4-8)
  27. The same Gazette report gives the pirate ship's name as the Widow and states that Bellamy had taken her in March last from Captain Prince of Bristol as he was turning up to the Bahama Islands bound home from Jamaica. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period printed newspaper: The London Gazette, issue 5575, from Saturday September 21 to Tuesday September 24, 1717, the Bermudas letter of 30 July (library file gaz_5575.txt, lines 30-34)
  28. The taking of the pink is dated to Friday, 26 April 1717, early in the morning, about a fortnight after Captain Beer was set ashore. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Modern scholarship: Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter VIII on Samuel Bellamy, p. 122 (library file dow_piratesnec.txt, lines 5281-5283)
  29. The ship first struck on the outer bar and turned bottom up before she broke up and came ashore. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Modern scholarship: Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter VIII on Samuel Bellamy, p. 127 (library file dow_piratesnec.txt, lines 5455-5456)
  30. The chapter heading of Dow and Edmonds on Samuel Bellamy states that his ship was wrecked at Wellfleet and a hundred and forty-four drowned. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Modern scholarship: Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 (Salem, 1923), chapter VIII on Samuel Bellamy, p. 116 (library file dow_piratesnec.txt, lines 5044-5049)
  31. Bennett's despatch reports that the inhabitants secured the seven pirates put aboard the prize and carried them to Boston. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 29 (1716-1717), America and West Indies: July 1717, 17-31, item 677, Lt. Governor Bennett to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Bermuda, 30 July 1717 (library file csp-col-v29-pp344-364.txt, lines 1707-1709)