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Photo Vincent Guadazno
Barry Clifford's plans call for exploration of the wreck of Capt. Kidd's ship and a new pirate museum in Boston or New Bedford. |
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Swashbuckling Clifford has new irons in the fire
Sally Rose
BANNER STAFF
However compelling and exciting, that local marine salver and explorer Barry Clifford led an expedition team which believes it discovered the wreckage of legendary pirate Captain Kidd's boat The Adventure Galley is nearly old news. It's been reported on the Discovery Channel, in the Cape Cod Times, The New York Times, on television news and is soon to be featured in People Magazine. But together with all the other irons Clifford has in the fire, it's all fine fodder.
Clifford has teamed with the Discovery Channel for three expedition news specials, of which the trip to Madagascar to search for Kidd's Adventure Galley is the first. He will not divulge yet the plans for the others. Although he said he has two more trips to Madagascar to continue exploration of the Adventure Galley and four other ships found in the Sainte-Marie island harbor.
In addition, Clifford has a three-book contract with HarperCollins to do one a year on a variety of nautical history topics, the focus of which he also won't disclose.
He's still excavating Captain Bellamy's Whydah pirate ship off Wellfleet. He believes the bulk of the treasure, 'the mother lode' of artifacts from that discovery has yet to be found.
And, Clifford has teamed with Boston Harbor Cruises (see Fast Ferry article on this page) for a variety of adventures. In addition to selling a half-interest in the Expedition Whydah Center on MacMillan Pier to Boston Harbor Cruises (who will be docking their new fast ferry there), Clifford and BHC managing partner Rick Nolan are also planning a partnership in a new pirate museum, to be located probably either in Boston or New Bedford, in which there will be replicas of the Whydah wreck site and a floating replica of the Adventure Galley.
Clifford is in the midst of talks with former Congressman Gerry Studds about possibly locating the new museum on the New Bedford waterfront. Studds is executive director of the New Bedford Aquarium, slated to be built in a large old building which once housed a ConEdison plant, a plan the community hopes will revitalize the New Bedford area.
To locate Kidd's Adventure Galley, Clifford and historian Ken Kinkor delved into British and American historical documents, including court documents from Captain Kidd's trial. Kidd was hanged for piracy in London.
A Discovery Channel special documented the expedition to a tiny island in Madagascar called Sainte-Marie to search for the Adventure Galley, which was scuttled and partially burned in 1698.
Sainte-Marie island was a notorious pirate base, 'a staging area and supply base,' said Kinkor. He said it was known that there wasn't a lot of treasure aboard but the ship and its location are historically rich.
Using the information in those documents together with satellite imaging, Clifford and his team were able to find the careening spot, a shallow area in the harbor used to roll a ship onto its side to clean the hull and make repairs, where they believed the Adventure Galley had gone down. In fact, once they arrived, they found it rather easily, much in contrast to what Clifford and Kinkor's team went through locating the Whydah, Kinkor said.
The trip wasn't easy however, said Clifford. A couple of the expedition team members, including his son, returned with strange maladies and parasites.
Captain Kidd was a prosperous sea captain, a church-going fellow, who lived in New York City. In fact, there is still a pew in the Trinity Church in lower Manhattan with Kidd's name on it. Kidd worked as a privateer for the British government, charged with capturing Spanish and French vessels in the Caribbean. From all reports, said Kinkor, Kidd was an excellent captain. Until things began to change. Possibly because of a mutinous crew, Kidd crossed the line from privateer into piracy. Kinkor likened to the Watergate Scandal the magnitude of the scandal created by Kidd's trial, but perhaps it is more comparable to the Iran-Contra Affair, because Kinkor believes Kidd was made a scapegoat by the English government trying to patch downward spiraling relations with India.
Stay tuned, as we follow the adventures of Kidd, Clifford and Kinkor.
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Mar 23rd, 2000