For Cornell Club Members and Friends Only

A special presentation and appearance at the Whydah Pirate Museum
by the ship’s discoverer, Barry Clifford

Continuing the Recovery and Excavation of the Pirate Ship Whydah Gally

The Cornell Club is proud to present a morning at the Whydah Pirate Museum like no other!

Join us on March 16 at 10 am for this unique event. Staff educator/conservator Jessica Sheppard will begin with a talk in the greenhouse, with seating for everyone. Barry Clifford then will arrive and introduce himself. Following his presentation, everyone is free to do the self-tour of the museum; Barry will stay around for a while to chat.

Who is Barry Clifford?

The Whydah Gally, captained by the pirate Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy, went down in a violent storm on April 26, 1717 off the coast of what is now Marconi Beach in Wellfleet, MA. Barry Clifford is an American underwater archaeological explorer, best known for discovering the remains of Bellamy’s wrecked pirate ship Whydah Gally in 1984, the only fully verified and authenticated pirate shipwreck of the Golden Age of Piracy ever discovered in the world!

Recovery and excavation of the Whydah has been ongoing ever since, resulting in the recovery of more than 200,000 artifacts, including the ship’s inscribed bell found in 1985, and numerous large cannon in 2009. [Note: The Whydah was launched from London in 1716 as a slave ship. It was on the return leg of her maiden voyage of the triangle trade that she was captured by the pirate Captain “Black Sam” Bellamy in February of 1717 in the Caribbean.]

Everyone is encouraged to read Barry Clifford’s book, “Expedition Whydah: The Story of the World’s First Excavation of a Pirate Treasure Ship and the Man Who Found Her,” (William Morrow, 2nd ed, 2000) which is an amazing insight into the voyage and the process. It’s available on Amazon.

When: Thursday, March 16. Buy your tickets from 10 am, presentation begins at 10:30 am.

Where: Whydah Pirate Museum, 674 Rt. 28, West Yarmouth, MA 02673 https://www.discoverpirates.com/.

Cost: The talk is free; entry tickets must be purchased—$17, or $15 for age 65 and older. Remember, we will have the museum to ourselves.

Questions? Please contact Mark Petracca at CCCapeCod@cornell.edu.

And after….there will be a no-host lunch following the self-tour of the museum at 12:30 pm next door at Captain Parker’s: 668 Rt. 28, West Yarmouth, captainparkers.com (currently closed for renovations, reopening February 13th).