Yet more booty turns up at pirate wreck

After spending more than two decades combing the ocean floor off Cape Cod, examining the wreck of the pirate ship Whydah, underwater explorer Barry Clifford couldn't shake the feeling that he had missed a spot.

About two years ago, relying on a hunch and a map of the seabed drawn in 1982 by John F. Kennedy Jr. and other divers looking for the wreck, Clifford returned to the spot where his dive team had first discovered artifacts from the Whydah in 1984.

A lthough he didn't exactly strike gold -- not yet, at least -- he did find about 30 cannons buried 10 feet beneath the ocean floor. In recent days, three of the newly discovered cannons were hauled out of the ocean, spurring excitement that a long-hidden portion of the ship's treasure might be revealed.

Clifford believes the weaponry could be covering artifacts, including a trove of silver and gold coins, the ship's navigational equipment, and the personal belongings of the roughly 140 pirates who were on board when the Whydah capsized and sank during a northeaster just off Marconi Beach in Wellfleet on April 26, 1717 .

"This area was eliminated by archeologists as an area that had been completely excavated, and there was no reason to go back except for a hunch I had," Clifford, 63, said by telephone yesterday, just after two cannons were trucked to his Brewster laboratory. "For the last 25 years, we'd been looking all over the place for where the center of the ship would be, and it wound up being right where we started, except 10 feet deeper."

Clifford, a Cape Cod native, has had plenty to keep him busy in the years between his discovery of the wreck and his unearthing of the additional cannons.

The Whydah, considered the world's only verified pirate shipwreck and lying in pieces in about 50 feet of water, already has yielded 200,000 artifacts, including coins, jewelry, pistols, and swords. Also found were the fibula, silk stocking, and shoe of John King, who, at no more than 11 years old, was the youngest member of the ship's crew.

More than 200 artifacts from the Whydah are included in "Real Pirates," a traveling exhibit currently on display at the Cincinnati Museum Center. Other artifacts are stored at the Expedition Whydah Sea-Lab and Learning Center in Provincetown. The newly recovered cannons, found just 2,000 feet from the shore, range from 4 feet long and 500 pounds to 8 feet long and 1,500 pounds. They probably will join the traveling exhibit after being examined at the Brewster laboratory, Clifford said.

Kennedy, who Clifford said was the first person to dive in search of the Whydah, in November 1982, may have glimpsed some of the cannons that Clifford is now beginning to retrieve and examine. The map drawn by Kennedy and other divers, long disregarded by the wreck's explorers, shows three cannons lying in a row on the ocean floor, probably before they were buried by shifting sand, Clifford said.

Still, the discovery of the cannons -- all of which were taken from ships captured by the Whydah -- surprised Clifford, who had already recovered most of the Whydah's 22 to 28 original cannons.

"We had no idea that there were 30 extra cannons on board this ship," Clifford said. "Every time we go down there, we find another tip of another iceberg."

Because the extra cannons were stored in the hold at the very bottom of the ship, they crashed through the decks when the Whydah capsized, presumably trapping much of the ship's contents -- including loot stolen from at least 54 other ships -- beneath them, said Ken Kinkor , the Whydah museum's historian.

Removal of the cannons could take years to complete. But even if the work reveals the bulk of the Whydah's stolen treasure, Kinkor says, the artifacts will be used for education, not profit.

"We don't sell treasure," Kinkor said. "Our goal is education through exhibits."

Ryan Haggerty can be reached at rhaggerty@globe.com.