Whydah Gally

The final voyage

Whydah Gally was built in London in 1715–16 for the transatlantic slave trade, named for the West African port of Ouidah. On her return leg from the Caribbean — after having sold over 300 enslaved people in Jamaica and taken on valuable trade goods — she was chased and captured in the Windward Passage in early 1717 by the pirate Samuel Bellamy, who made her his flagship.

Over the following months Bellamy's fleet took numerous prizes along the Atlantic coast. On the night of 26 April 1717, a violent nor'easter drove Whydah onto sandbars off what is now Wellfleet, Cape Cod, and she broke apart. All but two of her roughly 146 men aboard drowned, including Bellamy himself.

What was aboard

No pirate-kept cargo manifest survives; Whydah's plundered goods were, by definition, taken from many different captured vessels. What is documented rests on archaeological recovery and on contemporary accounts of Bellamy's prizes, not a single ship's ledger.

The ship's bell: Recovered in 1985, inscribed "THE WHYDAH GALLY 1716," providing the identification that confirmed the wreck.

Coined silver and gold: Spanish colonial silver cobs and gold coin, consistent with plunder taken from captured vessels, have been recovered from the site.

Ordnance: More than 65 cannon have been documented in ongoing recovery from the wreck.

West African gold jewelry: Gold items associated with the ship's earlier role in West African trade have been recovered and are cited by the site's excavators.

How to collect

Insist on the bell-confirmed chain: Genuine Whydah material should trace to the post-1984 licensed excavation, not an independent, undocumented find.

Recognize the ship's dual history: Responsible presentation of Whydah material should acknowledge her origin as a slave ship, not only her pirate career.

Check coin origin claims: Recovered coinage represents plunder from many prizes; a coin's mint and date do not by themselves prove Whydah provenance without site documentation.

Verify exhibition or auction paperwork: Given the site's fame, forgeries and misattributed 'pirate coin' circulate; require a documented link to the excavation.