Having gone to the Cape for years, there aren't a lot of new things for us to see, so when we learned of the Whydah Pirate Museum, I wanted to check it out. This museum contains artifacts from an actual pirate ship, the Whydah, that was discovered off the coast of the Cape in 1984 after being undersea for over 260 years. Just before our trip we had happened to see a documentary about pirates and learned that most of what we assume is typical of pirates was fabricated by Robert Louis Stevenson in "Treasure Island"--no walking the plank (just throw them off the ship), no treasure maps, very little buried treasures--pirates were more likely to spend their loot as soon as they got it, as some examples.
I was curious if this museum would capitalize on the pirate myths. I was glad that they said exactly the same things as the documentary we saw.
I found this museum very interesting and I was glad to be able to actually touch a coin from a pirate's loot. There is an interesting room with chunks of rock in water that the employees are slowly chiseling away at with very small tools discovering more artifacts. It is such painstaking work.
An interesting newer find was this compass that belonged to John F. Kennedy Jr. as he was one of the divers helping to find artifacts and he lost it on one of his dives in 1983.
The museum contains many interesting artifacts, a replica of part of the ship which you can board and many informative displays to learn everything you ever wanted to know about pirates. I found it quite interesting and if it is a topic that interests you, I highly recommend checking it out. I was quite pleased to have something new and informative and entertaining to visit at Cape Cod. I will close with more photos from the museum.
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| The way these coins are displayed, you can touch actual touch them. |
