Pirates of the Caribbean is a $4.5bn swashbuckling film franchise and Blackbeard and Calico Jack Rackham are among marauding buccaneers who have captured imaginations over the centuries.
But almost nothing is known about the life and times of actual pirates.
Now a leading British marine archaeologist is co-directing an expedition that has been allowed for the first time to search for pirate ships off Nassau on the island of New Providence, a notorious pirate hideout 300 years ago.
No one had until now explored the seabed for their ships and treasure, let alone everyday belongings that could be as valuable to historical research as a stash of emeralds, Dr Sean Kingsley said.
“The potential is enormous,” he added. “We are expecting to find some really cool stuff because this is the real home of the pirates of the Caribbean. Pirates didn’t keep journals listing their lawlessness. What happened in Nassau stayed in Nassau. If we want to discover the truth, we’re going to have to dive for it.”
The Bahamas was a major crossroads for trade and more than 500 ships have been wrecked off New Providence since the 1680s, according to historical sources. But there may be dozens more, with pirate ships among them.
In 1718, when Woodes Rogers sailed to Nassau to become its governor, he noted 40 seized ships on the shore that had been “either burned or sunk” to destroy evidence and “about 700 pirates”.
In 1696, the privateer Henry Avery sailed to Nassau in his ship, the Fancy, laden with loot. He used some of the treasure to bribe the governor of the Bahamas, establishing Nassau as a base for fellow pirates.
Top of the most-wanted hitlist of shipwrecks is the Fancy, a 46-gun flagship.
Kingsley said: “Avery of Plymouth lit the fuse and threw the grenade that started the golden age of piracy after looting a Mughal treasure ship of $108m off India. He then sailed to Nassau in 1696 to lie low, party and for the crew to break up with their cut of the booty.
“Avery scuttled the Fancy in Nassau. It’s the crown jewels of pirate ships. If we were to find anything associated with it, it would be spectacular. Its plunder was the greatest and most successful pirate heist on the high seas.”
The New Providence Pirates Expedition – which is dedicated to science, education, entertainment and tourism in the Bahamas – is drawing on historical and archaeological evidence to conduct the first underwater survey, which begins in September.
The project has secured the first-ever agreement with the Antiquities, Monuments and Museums Corporation of the Bahamas, a partner collaborator.
Kingsley has explored more than 350 shipwrecks in the last 30 years and is the founding editor of Wreckwatch, the world’s only magazine dedicated to the sunken past.
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Dr Sean Kingsley. Photograph: Wreckwatch Magazine
The affiliated Wreckwatch TV is collaborating with the New Providence Pirates Expedition to bring “the history, ruined landscape and sea dogs of the golden age of piracy between 1696 and 1730 back to life” through a documentary, The Mystery of the Pirate King’s Treasure.
The film’s co-director, Chris Atkins, said: “The Bahamas, with its azure waters and crystal-clear underwater visibility, is a film-maker’s dream. For the first time in history, viewers are going to see with their own eyes the places where Blackbeard and gang terrorised the Americas.
“Somewhere out there are the wine bottles they partied with, the tobacco pipes they smoked, the pieces of eight carelessly lost and so much more. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get up close and personal with the real pirates of the Caribbean.”
Asked how they will identify pirate shipwrecks, Kingsley said: “Generally, if you find a Dutch, English or French shipwreck, it has a very specific type of material culture on it. If it’s Spanish, it will have olive jars, a good marker. If it’s British, it may have Bristol or London tobacco pipes, for instance.
“On a pirate wreck, you will find French, English and Dutch ceramics and a mix of coins, anything from Arabian to British, and weapons such as stinkpots, explosive weapons used by pirates.”
Dr Michael Pateman, the expedition’s co-director and the ambassador for history, culture and museology in the Bahamas, said: “This is the first project to reconstruct the port and landscape where Blackbeard, Calico Jack Rackham, Anne Bonny and the rest of the notorious Flying Gang were based. Anything could still be down there.”