Conservators restoring an anchor recovered from the pirate ship Whydah recently found a small brass nameplate bonded to it.
Originally, restorers thought it might be the nameplate from a pistol. But once it had been cleaned, diver and conservator Chris Macort thinks the full inscription, “Whydah Gally 1713,” indicates it is likely from an earlier vessel that bore the same name.
The Whydah that Barry Clifford discovered in relatively shallow water 1,500 feet off Wellfleet, Mass., in 1984 sank in a nor’easter in 1717. It was captained by the pirate Sam Bellamy, who drowned when his ship sank.
