Word: whydah
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Professional Salvor Barry Clifford, 41, is running Fisher a close second in treasure hunting. Some 30 ft. down and only 1,200 ft. out from the sunbathers on Cape Cod's Marconi Beach, Clifford is salvaging booty from the Whydah, a 100-ft.-long pirate galley that foundered on a sandbank in 1717. "Everyone grew up knowing the story," recalls Clifford, who first heard the tale of sunken treasure from his crusty, Cape Cod-born uncle. "She was part of our lore...
Clifford began his search for the Whydah in 1982. Armed with an exclusive permit from the state of Massachusetts, he concentrated on a 2-sq.-mi. area, using a magnetometer and side-scan sonar. In the summer of 1983 divers found a clay pipestem, brass nails and some rudder strapping. But try as he might, Clifford could not convince everyone that the artifacts were from the Whydah and not from any of the countless other ships that have been wrecked off the Cape. Even the 1984 discovery of three cannons failed to satisfy Clifford's critics. But last fall, while...
...copious treasure too. Aided by mailboxes, divers labored continuously last week, bringing up more of the Whydah's riches. "There's a lot of work, a lot of hours," says Diver Todd Murphy, 28. "No weekends. No holidays...
...payoff is well worth the trouble. The divers have retrieved more than $15 million in silver coins, gold dust, and artifacts; the Whydah's bell alone has been appraised at $5 million. Clifford, who has meticulously studied the manifests and other records of the 50-odd ships plundered by the Whydah's captain before his ship sank, estimates that the loot still in the sand is worth $380 million more. It includes 500,000 to 750,000 silver coins, 10,000 lbs. of gold dust, a casket of "hen's-egg-size East Indian jewels" and some African ivory...
...Barry Clifford. A high school teacher turned treasure hunter, Clifford, 40, found the wreck in 1982. He was convinced that it was the Whydah, but officials of the Massachusetts board of underwater archaeological resources wanted proof. Last week they had it. After Clifford brought up the vessel's 18-in. bronze bell, the corrosion was chipped away, and the ship's name was uncovered. Clifford had made history: the Whydah is the only sunken pirate ship ever found. The glory of that discovery is Clifford's. But a fourth of the value of the ship's treasure that could...