Whydah Pirate Museum

Body of Captain Black Sam Bellamy 'found' at Cape Cod

Human bones recovered from a shipwreck may belong to the infamous pirate Samuel 'Black Sam' Bellamy.Black Sam is regarded as the most successful pirate of all time, capturing more than 53 ships and plundering a loot of $130 million (adjusted for inflation) during his short career.The ship he went down in, the Whydah Gally, reportedly held more than four and a half tonnes of gold and silver when he captured it in 1717.Remains of the wreckage were found in the Cape Cod peninsula in Massachusetts, USA, where the Whydah sunk in stormy seas the same year.Most of the crew were killed and the treasure on board sunk to the ocean floor.But after the wreck was discovered in 1984, trinkets and human remains encased in a hardened mass of sand and stone were recovered.Now the Whydah Pirate Museum in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, has enlisted forensic scientists to compare DNA from the bones to a sample given by one of Bellamy's living descendants.It says it will also publicly display the bones for the first time and showcase what they believe to be Bellamy's pistol on Monday.The Whydah was a state of the art ship built in 1715 in England.It weighed 300 tonnes, was 102 feet long and loaded with 18 cannons.But at midnight on April 26, 1717 Bellamy and his crew were caught in a violent Nor'easter storm off the coast of Cape Cod.Their beloved Whydah capsized and sunk, and more than 100 bodies were washed ashore in the days that followed.Few of those on board survived, but crewman Thomas Davis was among them.Much of what is known about Bellamy came from the Welsh carpenter's stories about him.Black Sam was born in Devonshire, England, and joined the British navy in his late teens before pirating in the West Indies and elsewhere for little more than a year.He is famous for being one of the original members of the Flying Gang pirates from the Post Spanish Succession Period and launched the careers of some of the most infamous pirates of all time.Hugely successful at sea, his strategy was to use two ships: a larger one would be heavily armed and a smaller one would be used to block and capture targets.And his personal tastes were expensive.He liked flashy clothes - especially black coats - and usually carried four dueling pistols in his sash while marauding at sea.His nickname Black Sam came from the fact he wore his black locks tied back in a ponytail rather than a powdered white wig.Also known as the Prince of Pirates, he was popular among women.Tall, strong and with long dark hair, he was said to be well-mannered and tidy.He left his wife and child in England to begin his new life at sea, sailing to the coast of Florida to look for sunken Spanish treasure.On the way he stopped off in Eastham Harbor, Massachusetts, where he met local beauty Maria Hallett.Though her parents liked Black Sam, they thought he was far too poor to go out with their daughter, who was just 15 at the time.When he left Massachusetts with his friend Paulsgrave William, he promised to return as the