Martin W. Sandler. The Whydah. Candlewick, 2017.

The Whydah describes what we have been able to learn about the life and death of one of the most successful pirates and pirate vessels during the so-called Golden Age of Piracy (roughly 1690-1720). There are two parts to the story of the Whydah (the y is pronounced like a short i). The first tells of its construction in 1716 and its capture by pirates led by the young Black Sam Bellamy until its wreck in a storm off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in 1717.

The second part begins in 1983 when Barry Clifford began a serious search for the vessel. The first remains of the ship were found in 1984, and the wreckage, scattered over square miles of the seabed after nearly three centuries of tides and storms, was positively identified as the Whydah’s in 1987.

The Whydah’s relics shed new light on the lives of these renegade seafarers. They lived in a fairly civilized manner with a fancy galley (kitchen) and normal eating utensils. The Whydah was full of loot. One year’s diving, for example, uncovered approximately $40,000 in silver (I understand that is just the weight of the silver, not the value of the old coins to collectors). The Whydah had many pounds of silver and gold coins from the era. It also had quite a few articles of African gold jewelry.

Piracy appealed to many sailors because their treatment on pirate ships was generally better than on most merchant ships or naval vessels. Each sailor got an equal share. They voted for their captain and quartermaster. Most were volunteers. Nationality was not important—Bellamy was an Anglo-American, but sailors came from many European countries, various African and Caribbean locations, and included native Americans.

There were specific rules governing punishments and following orders. If a sailor was disabled while fighting or performing normal ship duties, there was a kind of insurance for him. Back then, sailors and soldier injured in battle simply became beggars when they returned home. More than one pirate complained that if the legitimate navies and merchants treated sailors better, they would not have become pirates.

Whenever the Whydah or another vessel in its small fleet overtook a vessel, they would ask if anyone on the vessel wanted to join them. In most instances, many did, though some were forced to join if they had a needed skill. The Whydah’s carpenter was forced to join, but most of the other 180 or so men in the fleet volunteered. One of the volunteers was a boy of about 8-10 years old, who had been a passenger with his mother on a vessel they captured.

The discovery and recovery of material from the Whydah still goes on today. One interesting tidbit was that when Mr. Clifford was organizing his first crew, John Kennedy, Jr., who had met him on Martha’s Vineyard, volunteered. Witnesses say he was enthusiastic and worked very hard.

Clifford located the wreck because he used an eighteenth-century map published by probably the most reliable American cartographer-sailor at the time. The map was published in the same year the ship went down and notes its location off the town of Wellfleet. Curiously, there was at the time a natural “canal” separating the northern end of Cape Cod from the mainland just north of the “elbow.” At the time, parts of it were shallow as a ditch, and eventually it filled in.

This book is geared towards late elementary or middle school readers, but it does contain a lot of information and helpful sidebars. Anyone thinking of researching pirates from this time period would do well to consult this book along with Daniel Defoe’s nonfiction A General History of the Pyrates and Exquemelin’s Buccaneers of America. It debunks many myths about pirates and, perhaps, shows them in a more human manner.