For hundreds of years in the early history of America, pirates sailed through coastal waters, pillaging and plundering all in their path. They stole from other ships and stole from coastal towns; not content only to steal, they destroyed everything they could not carry away. Some of the pirate ships amassed large treasures, the fates of which are unknown, leaving people of today to wonder at their whereabouts and to dream of one day coming across some lost treasure.
One notorious large treasure was on the pirate ship Whidah, which sank in the waters off Cape Cod during a strong storm in 1717. A hundred of the crew members went down with the ship, along with its treasure of coins, gold, silver, and jewels. The treasure on board had an estimated value, on today’s market, of more than 100 million dollars.
The remains of the Whidah were discovered in 1984 by Barry Clifford, who had spent years of painstaking research and tireless searching, only to finally locate the ship about 500 yards from shore. A considerable amount of treasure from the centuries-old ship has been recovered from its watery grave, but there is clearly still a lot more out there. Just as a reminder of what the waters off the coast have been protecting for hundreds of years, occasional pieces of gold, or silver, or jewels still wash up on the beaches, and lucky beachgoers find pieces of the treasure.