They expected Bellamy and his men to steal their ships and kill them all.īut Bellamy wasn’t a murderer. The captains gave in quickly when they saw the Whydah’s black flag and huge cannons. They had recently taken it from English slave traders. Bellamy had 145 men in his crew and a fleet of five stolen ships. Ships were carrying gold and silver and silk and spices. They were searching for ships traveling between the Caribbean islands and England. He and his men had been prowling the waters of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The year 1717 began very well for a pirate named Sam Bellamy. Within days, the ship’s wreckage had slipped off the sandbar and settled at the bottom of the ocean. One hundred and forty-four men drowned, including Sam Bellamy. Men tumbled into the sea as massive cannons and wooden masts came crashing down over them. But suddenly, a monstrous gust of wind took hold of the Whydah and sent it slamming into a sandbar. The pirate crew struggled to keep the ship under control and away from the rocky shore. Howling, 70-mile-per-hour winds tore apart sails and toppled men like toy soldiers. Thirty-foot waves crashed over the Whydah’s decks. On April 26, when the ship was just 500 feet from the shores of the Cape town of Wellfleet, a vicious storm swept in. Whatever lured Bellamy to the Cape, he never made it. Some say the blue-eyed Maria and the black-haired pirate planned to marry, and Bellamy wanted to delight his future bride with a glimpse of his new treasures. He had a girlfriend there, a farmer’s daughter named Maria Hallett. There, they would divide up their booty and head their separate ways.Īs the fleet sailed north, Bellamy ordered the Whydah to make a stop on the shores of Cape Cod. It was time to head to their hideaway: an island off the coast of Maine. By April 1717, the Whydah was filled with plundered treasures, including 180 bags of gold and silver coins. In just one year, Bellamy and his men had looted more than 50 ships. He was a thief, and a very successful one. Terrified ship captains surrendered quickly when they saw the Whydah on their tails, its black flag raised, its huge cannons ready to fire. Their best ship was the Whydah, which Bellamy and the crew had recently taken from English slave traders. Their prey was ships traveling between the Caribbean islands and England-ships laden with gold and silver and silk and spices.
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