Early in the year Meredith studied how the Navigation Acts, imposed on the colonists by the British, served as a catalyst for smugglers, privateers and pirates. So, when we found out the “Real Pirates: The Untold Story of The Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship” exhibition from National Geographic was at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, we immediately made plans to drive into the city to see it.
Friday morning I packed the Suburban with as many kids as it could legally hold and set-off for Houston. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t cooperating, but we decided that wasn’t terribly important when a museum is the order of the day, right?
This was PIRATES after all–dreary weather fit the bill.
As in most cases with specialty exhibits, photography was not allowed, but the “Real Pirates Official Companion Book to the Exhibition” was available for purchase in the gift shop, so using it, I’m able to show you just a glimpse of this amazing exhibit.
I don’t want to give too much away, but the exhibit begins with the ship’s bell–the first proof that the wreckage discovered off Cape Cod was indeed The Whydah, the slave ship turned pirate ship.
The Whydah‘s bell authenticated the first ever actual pirate shipwreck to be found.
At the start of the exhibit, we learned that in 1716 much of the wealth of the Caribbean hinged on slave labor. Millions of Africans, Native Americans and Irish were captured and brought to serve on plantations against their will.
On the other hand, piracy offered men of all races an opportunity to stand on equal footing–even achieve positions of leadership. Hendrick Quintor, born in Amsterdam around 1692, was one such man. He turned pirate when the Spanish brigantine he was on was captured, eventually ending up as a crew member on The Whydah.
The exhibit gave a good deal of attention to “The Middle Passage”, the slave trading voyage between the African coast and the Caribbean slave markets. When I read to the children that it took eight to twelve weeks to make this crossing they weren’t impressed necessarily.
However, the continued descriptions proved to be great eye openers for them.
They saw actual brands used to physically mark slaves as property. They stared at large illustrations of cross-sections of the boat’s hull showing how the slaves were positioned; packed in like sardines in total darkness with only two-and-a-half feet of headroom. They also saw the neck, wrist and ankle shackles used to restrain the slaves.
All of these were found within the ship’s wreckage.
All of these made slavery real and tangible for my kids.
The Whydah‘s maiden slave voyage was the only one it would ever make for the purpose of slave trade. Shortly after she was emptied of her cargo The Whydah was captured by Captain Sam Bellamy.
One of the most successful pirates of his day, Bellamy managed to gather a small flotilla and a great amount of wealth in what turned out to be just under a two year voyage.
Serving alongside Bellamy as one of The Whydah‘s pilots was John Julian, a 16-year-old Miskito Indian.
The youngest crew member was John King, believed to be about 8 years of age. He and his mother were traveling aboard a ship that was captured by Sam Bellamy. Later, the commander of the ship that Bellamy looted described how John King declared “he would kill himself if he was restrained [from going with Bellamy], and even threatened his mother.”
One interesting part of the exhibit was the description of the different flags we’ve come to recognize as “pirate flags”. In the 1600s, when a crewman died, the ship’s captain registered the death by flying a plain black flag. The skull and crossbones were drawn in the ship’s log next to the man’s name.
Later, the pirates combined the images to create the black flag with the skull and crossbones known as The Jolly Roger. There were many different variations of this flag.
The Jolly Roger was a symbol of unity and defiance–it proclaimed the pirates as outlaws, not citizens of any nation. They understood this meant they would be convicted and hanged if ever captured.
Indeed they were caught and hanged at times–and then their dead bodies were enclosed and displayed in a cage called a Gibbet. The life-size Gibbet at the exhibition was a real attention getter!
Of the 146 men on board The Whydah on April 26, 1717, only two survived what was said to be one of the worst storms ever to hit Cape Cod. The two men were soon picked-up by the authorities, tried and hanged.
The kids learned that the treasure found in the wreckage of The Whydah is the only pirate treasure ever to be recovered. The treasure ranged in size and shape and an example of each kind of coin found was available to view (some to touch).
On a lighter note we also learned where the common slang word “pisser” (as in head/jon/toilet) came from–the ship’s toilet was called a Pissoir or a “Pissdale” and was comprised of two lead tubes. One was available in the head and another in the stern.
There are a number of books that detail the life of a pirate. We own “PIRATE”, part of the DK Eyewitness Books series. It discusses Sam Bellamy and his crew, but also covers Pirates of Ancient Greece and the Roman World, Vikings, Barbarians, as well as information on Privateers from Spain and the New World. It has many photos of weaponry, talks about life at sea, the food they ate, and their punishment when/if they were caught.
As you can imagine we’ve had a good deal of “pirate play” both inside and out since arriving home from the exhibit.
Even Emelie had to get in on the fun at the gift shop.
If you get a chance to see this exhibit, you should. It is truly worth the time and money. We went ahead and joined the Museum for the year and are looking forward to many more exhibits in the future.
Have you studied Privateers or Pirates? I’ve decided to teach a co-op on this in the Fall of 2011 and I would love some helpful suggestions to grow my resources. It will probably be for the 3rd-5th grade age group.
Heather Sanders is a leading homeschooling journalist who inspires homeschooling families across the nation. Married to Jeff, Heather lives in the East Texas Piney Woods and homeschools her three children, Emelie, Meredith and Kenny.