Barry Clifford

Barry Clifford

Underwater Explorer Barry Clifford
Born 1945 (age 70–71)
Cape Cod, Massachusetts, U.S.

Barry Clifford is an underwater archaeological explorer best known for discovering the remains of Samuel Bellamy's wrecked pirate ship Whydah [pronounced wih-duh], the only fully verified and authenticated pirate shipwreck of the Golden Age of Piracy ever discovered in the world – as such, artifacts from the wreck provide historians with unique insights into the material, political and social culture of early 18th-century piracy.

Citing federal admiralty law in 1988, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled[1] that 100% of the Whydah rightfully belonged to Clifford, and he has kept The Whydah Collection intact without selling a single piece of the more than 200,000 recovered artifacts, which includes tens of thousands of coins, more than 60 cannon, and the "everyday" objects used by the crew. Clifford also has exclusive dive rights to the site, which is patrolled by the National Park Service and U.S. Coast Guard. He maintains a large private facility in which the majority of the artifacts are kept for conservation and examination; however, Clifford exhibits a variety of artifacts from the Whydah, as well as from other of his many shipwreck discoveries, for the public to enjoy at his WHYDAH PIRATE MUSEUM in Provincetown, Massachusetts, with a smaller selection of artifacts on an international touring exhibition through a National Geographic/Premier Exhibitions joint venture, called REAL PIRATES. The Whydah Project has been called "a model of underwater archaeology" by the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources, and is the subject of several book and television documentaries on the National Geographic Channel, the Discovery Channel, History Channel, PBS, BBC One, A&E, NBC, and others, and has been featured in virtually every major print publication, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, People, National Geographic Magazine, Parade, USA Today, The London Independent, Cape Cod Times, etc.

Biography

Early life

Born in 1945 on Cape Cod, Barry Clifford has been involved in underwater exploration for most of his adult life. He graduated from Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield, Maine before earning a bachelor's degree in History and Sociology from Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado, and received graduate training at Bridgewater State College in Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

Early career

In 1999 and 2000, Barry Clifford and his Project Team completed three major expeditions to Île Sainte-Marie off Madagascar, as a Discovery Channel Expedition Adventure initiative and tentatively identified the pirate ship Adventure Galley (flagship of William Kidd) and another pirate ship which could be the Fiery Dragon (commanded by the pirate Christopher Condent, also known as William Condon). At the time two other shipwrecks were believed to be in the same area.

After discovering and decoding cryptic rock carvings, he then used ground-penetrating radar to locate and chart an apparent tunnel-complex, similar to the Oak Island Money Pit, which may have been constructed by late-17th-century pirates.

In an ongoing project, Mr. Clifford is currently working to identify suspected in-situ remains of the Santa María—flagship of Christopher Columbus in his first travel to the Indies, wrecked near modern Cap Haitien on Christmas Day in 1492. His work as a Discovery "Quest" Scholar to locate this site was the subject of a May 2004 Discovery Channel documentary Quest for Columbus. Also ongoing off the Haitian coast is an archaeological survey project that has tentatively identified four shipwrecks associated with Henry Morgan, including Morgan’s flagship The Oxford. In 2010 Mr. Clifford returned to lead an expedition to identify the other shipwrecks at Île Sainte-Marie. The expedition is featured in the History Channel documentary Pirate Island.

On 13 May 2014, it was reported by The Independent that a team led by Clifford believes that they have found the wreck of the Santa Maria, flagship of Christopher Columbus. The greatest proof of its authenticity was a 15th-century cannon on the wreck site, which is directly out from the beach upon which archaeologists had discovered the site of Columbus' fort, precisely as Columbus wrote in his diary. His discovery is peer-supported. In the following October UNESCO's expert team published their final report, concluding that the wreck could not be Columbus's vessel, claiming fastenings used in the hull, and possible copper sheathing dated it to the 17th or even 18th century. The report was heavily challenged by Clifford. “It was highly political,” he said. “They conducted a prejudiced and nonscientific investigation of the site.”[2]

In May 2015, Clifford found a 50-kilogram (110 lb) silver ingot in a wreck off the coast of Île Sainte-Marie in Madagascar that he believes was part of Captain Kidd's treasure.[3][4] This was subsequently found to be composed primarily of lead, and the claim of it being connected to Captain Kidd were dismissed by Unesco: "However, what had been identified as the Adventure Galley of the pirate Captain Kidd has been found by the experts... to be a broken part of the Sainte-Marie port constructions.";[5] Barry Clifford has vehemently challenged UNESCO charges as false and biased.

Works

Clifford has authored articles and books on his explorations; including The Pirate Prince, (Prentice Hall/Simon & Schuster, New York, 1993), Expedition Whydah (Harper Collins, New York, 1999), The Lost Fleet (Harper Collins, New York, 2000), Return to Treasure Island (Harper Collins, New York, 2003), They Lived to Tell The Tale (The Explorers’ Club 2007) Real Pirates: The Untold Story…(The National Geographic Society, 2007), and a 2007 National Geographic children's book of the same name.

His work has been the subject of television documentaries and features as well; including Black Bellamy’s Treasure (PBS), Search for Pirate Gold (Nova). Sea-Raiders (Turner Broadcasting), The Hunt For Amazing Treasures (NBC) concerning his discovery of a treasure-filled cannon from the Whydah, Lost Treasure of King Charles I (Discovery Channel), Sea Tales (A&E), Pirates of The Whydah (National Geographic), The Lost Fleet (Discovery Channel/BBC-One), Quest For Captain Kidd (Discovery Channel), Quest for Columbus (Discovery Channel), and The Pirate Code (National Geographic). In 2008 the National Geographic Channel aired a 2-hour documentary,[5] about the ongoing excavation of the wreck of the Whydah Gally, featuring in-depth interviews with Clifford. It was subsequently released on DVD.

A 2002–03 action-adventure television series entitled "Adventure Inc." produced by Gale Anne Hurd was "inspired by the real life exploits of explorer Barry Clifford." Clifford is also credited as a consultant for that show.

He is a Fellow of the Explorers Club, a 2005 recipient of The Rolex-Lowell Thomas Award for underwater archaeology, and an Honorary Member of the Boston Marine Society. In 2006, he was named "Explorer-in-Residence" by the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

A photographer, mountaineer, and jungle explorer, Clifford is also the head of Historic Shipwrecks, Inc.; Whydah Expeditions; and The Center For Historic Shipwreck Preservation, Inc. a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to the exploration and preservation of history under the sea.

See also

References

  1. ↑ THE NEW YORK TIMES, Susan Diesenhouse, 12 December 1988
  2. ↑ "U.N. group sinks Barry Clifford's Santa Maria treasure claim". Retrieved 2016-07-06.
  3. ↑ Aislinn Lang and Victoria Ward (May 8, 2015). "Captain Kidd's legendary treasure believed found in Madagascar after diver unearths silver bar". The National Post. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
  4. ↑ http://news.yahoo.com/treasure-hunter-roils-waters-makes-finds-141027115.html
  5. ↑ http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33524216

External links

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