Samuel Bellamy was a young English sailor who, like many others, wanted to become wealthy by finding treasure of sunken pirate ships. Although his career lasted only for about one year, he managed to capture over 50 ships. He was also known as Black Sam because he used to tie his long black hair with a black bow, and often called himself ‘‘Robin Hood of the seas’’.
Samuel Bellamy was born in 1689 in Hittisleigh in Devonshire, England. He became a sailor very young and left to Cape Cod where he married a girl named Maria Hallet. Soon after he had heard of sunken Spanish ship loaded with treasure near Florida, he left Maria hoping he would be able to support her once he finds the treasure. He persuaded his rich friend, Paul Williams, to finance the trip and the two set off to America. Unfortunately they had little luck and by 1716 turned to piracy by joining the crew of pirate
Benjamin Hornigold aboard his ship ‘‘Mary Anne’’. It was not long before Samuel Bellamy proved himself and was elected as a new captain. In the next few months they captured about 50 vessels and soon Samuel Bellamy sailed on a new ship, ‘‘Sultana’’, and Williams was given command over ‘‘Mary Anne’’.
In 1717 Samuel Bellamy found the greatest booty of his career when he captured, after a three day chase, the ‘‘Whydah Galy’’, a ship that weighed 300 tons and was full with gold and other valuable goods. Here he showed generosity by giving ‘‘Sultana’’ to Whydah captain and letting him go, while he boarded his new ship. He decided to sail along the coast of New England, maybe in order to visit his wife. Williams sailed the other way and the plan was to meet later on but that never happened. In April 1717, Samuel Bellamy’s ship was hit by a powerful storm near Massachusetts and after being driven to a sandbar it sunk taking Bellamy with him. All except two men drowned.
Samuel Bellamy became famous again in 1984 when the wreckage of the ‘Whydah Galy’’ was discovered. It was the first pirate ship to be found in modern times and at the same time the ship with most treasure including gold, ivory, indigo and money. It was found by a treasure hunter Barry Clifford who latter set up a museum in Provincetown, Massachusetts, dedicated to Samuel Bellamy with many original artifacts from the Whydah.
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