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Gadling.com
May 7 2011
Captain Kidd's pirate ship to become underwater museum
by Sean McLachlan (RSS feed) on May 7th 2011 at 2:00PM
The submerged wreck of Captain Kidd's pirate ship will become a
"Living Museum of the Sea" reports Science Daily.
The Quedagh Merchant was found a couple of years ago just off the
coast of the Dominican Republic. It's only 70 feet from the shore of
Catalina Island and rests in ten feet of water, so it's a perfect
destination for scuba divers or even snorkelers.
Underwater signs will guide divers around the wreck, and like in
above-ground museums, there's a strict "don't touch the artifacts"
policy. Often when shipwrecks are found the discoverers keep the
location secret to protect them from looting. Hopefully this bold step
of allowing visitors to swim around such an important wreck will help
inform the public without any harm being done. One can only hope!
Captain Kidd is one of the most famous and most controversial of
pirates. For much of his career he was a privateer, a legal pirate
with permission from the King of England to loot enemy ships and hunt
down other pirates. Privateers were one of the ways the big empires of
the day harassed one another.
Lots of stories of his evil nature have come down to us. He was
supposed to have been brutal to his crew and was even reported to have
buried his Bible, as is shown in this public domain image courtesy
Wikimedia Commons. He's also supposed to have buried treasure all over
the world. How much of this is true and how much is legend is still
hotly debated by historians.
The Quedagh Merchant was an Armenian vessel carrying a rich treasure
of gold, silver, and fine cloth that Kidd captured in 1698 off the
coast of India. Although the ship was Armenian and was under the
protection of the French Crown, it was captained by an Englishman.
This got Kidd's status changed from privateer to pirate and from then
on he was wanted by the English authorities.
Kidd left the Quedagh Merchant in the Caribbean with a trusted crew as
he sailed off on another ship to New York to clear his name, but his
"trusted crew" looted the vessel and sunk it. His loss was posterity's
gain.
Kidd shouldn't have gone to New York. He was lured to Boston by a
supposed friend and then arrested and shipped to England to be put on
trial for piracy. The judge found him guilty and sentenced him to
hang. His body was left hanging over the River Thames in an iron cage
called a gibbet as a warning to others. The museum will be dedicated
on May 23, the 310th anniversary of Kidd's execution.
http://www.gadling.com/2011/05/07/captain-kidds-pirate-ship-to-become-underwater-museum/
From: A. Papazian
May 7 2011
Captain Kidd's pirate ship to become underwater museum
by Sean McLachlan (RSS feed) on May 7th 2011 at 2:00PM
The submerged wreck of Captain Kidd's pirate ship will become a
"Living Museum of the Sea" reports Science Daily.
The Quedagh Merchant was found a couple of years ago just off the
coast of the Dominican Republic. It's only 70 feet from the shore of
Catalina Island and rests in ten feet of water, so it's a perfect
destination for scuba divers or even snorkelers.
Underwater signs will guide divers around the wreck, and like in
above-ground museums, there's a strict "don't touch the artifacts"
policy. Often when shipwrecks are found the discoverers keep the
location secret to protect them from looting. Hopefully this bold step
of allowing visitors to swim around such an important wreck will help
inform the public without any harm being done. One can only hope!
Captain Kidd is one of the most famous and most controversial of
pirates. For much of his career he was a privateer, a legal pirate
with permission from the King of England to loot enemy ships and hunt
down other pirates. Privateers were one of the ways the big empires of
the day harassed one another.
Lots of stories of his evil nature have come down to us. He was
supposed to have been brutal to his crew and was even reported to have
buried his Bible, as is shown in this public domain image courtesy
Wikimedia Commons. He's also supposed to have buried treasure all over
the world. How much of this is true and how much is legend is still
hotly debated by historians.
The Quedagh Merchant was an Armenian vessel carrying a rich treasure
of gold, silver, and fine cloth that Kidd captured in 1698 off the
coast of India. Although the ship was Armenian and was under the
protection of the French Crown, it was captained by an Englishman.
This got Kidd's status changed from privateer to pirate and from then
on he was wanted by the English authorities.
Kidd left the Quedagh Merchant in the Caribbean with a trusted crew as
he sailed off on another ship to New York to clear his name, but his
"trusted crew" looted the vessel and sunk it. His loss was posterity's
gain.
Kidd shouldn't have gone to New York. He was lured to Boston by a
supposed friend and then arrested and shipped to England to be put on
trial for piracy. The judge found him guilty and sentenced him to
hang. His body was left hanging over the River Thames in an iron cage
called a gibbet as a warning to others. The museum will be dedicated
on May 23, the 310th anniversary of Kidd's execution.
http://www.gadling.com/2011/05/07/captain-kidds-pirate-ship-to-become-underwater-museum/
From: A. Papazian