Bizarre Pirate Traditions You Didn't Know About

[Riddick]

[kbot]

Nice post Riddick - there are a few good books out there on pirate lore. I have a few, but even so, just learned something new here.

Speaking of pirate news, New England has a fairly rich pirate history with a number of shipwrecks off the coast, and well-established tales of the pirates from Newport and Providence, RI as well as Boston and Salem, Mass.

The Whydah was a ship commanded by a pirate named Jack Bellamy and the wreck of the Whydah was found off Cape Cod years ago. Now it appears that the remains of Bellamy may have been found......

Arrrgh, could it be pirate 'Black Sam' Bellamy? Scientists hope to extract DNA from bone found in Whydah's Cape Cod wreckage

Archaeologists say they have recovered a human bone from the shipwreck of the 18th century pirate ship Whydah that they think may be pirate captain Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy's leg, the Cape Cod Times reported.

The Whydah ran aground and sank just off the coast of Cape Cod sometime in 1717, killing all but two of the crew. Historians say 102 bodies washed ashore, but 40 bodies were never recovered, Bellamy's among them.

A human femur found sticking out of a lump of concretion containing artifacts, sand and debris could be Bellamy's, archaeologists say, because it was found very close to where one of Bellamy's own flintlock pistols was found.

The bone was extracted from the concretion Monday during a press conference at the Whydah Pirate Museum in West Yarmouth.

A team of forensic scientists from the University of New Haven will try to extract DNA from the bone and compare it with DNA taken from a relative of Bellamy's.

Bellamy was 28 when the ship sank.

Perhaps not as famous as his contemporary and fellow Flying Gang member, Edward "Black Beard" Teach, Bellamy was, nevertheless, a far better pirate. While Black Beard has gotten the lion's share of press over the centuries, it was Bellamy who captured the most booty.

http://www.masslive.com/news/boston/ind ... _blac.html

Provincetown, at the very tip of Cape Cod has a pirate museum that tells the story of the Whydah and Jack Bellamy and is one of those places I'd love to get to someday. When I was in the Caribbean years ago, we looked at some of the traditions associated with the islands down that way - fascinating life Riddick