Sea booty could be pirate bones
RESEARCHERS believe they may have found the remains of the richest pirate to plunder the seven seas.
Scientists have been carefully studying bones recovered from a Cape Cod shipwreck to see if they belong to infamous Captain Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy, The Sun reports.
The Whydah Pirate Museum in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, has displayed the bones for the first time alongside what they believe is one of Bellamy’s pistols.
They were found encased in sand and stone pulled from the wreck of the ship Bellamy went down in, the Whydah Gally.
The museum has now enlisted forensic scientists to compare DNA from the bones to a sample given by one of Bellamy’s living descendants.
Bellamy’s ship went down in stormy seas in 1717, killing most of its crew and leaving its treasure scattered across the ocean floor.
Bellamy was just 28. Bellamy is long regarded as the most successful pirate in recorded history, bagging more than $177 million in plundered loot from more than 50 ships.
He was said to be a tall, strong and well-mannered man with a penchant for flashy clothes, like many of his counterparts.
Bellamy called himself the “Robin Hood of the Sea”; there is no record of him ever killing a captive and he often returned captured ships and cargo if they didn’t suit his purpose.
Little is known of his early life, though he is believed to have been born in the west of England. His parents were said to be poor tenant farmers.
Bellamy left home at a young age and was a ship’s boy at 13. His nickname Black Sam came from the fact he wore his black locks tied back in a ponytail rather than a powdered white wig.