US/INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS
QUEST FOR CAPTAIN KIDD, MADAGASCAR
In 1999 and 2000, Barry Clifford and his Project Team completed three major expeditions to Ile Ste. Marie off the east coast of Madagascar, as a Discovery Channel "Quest" initiative. Five shipwreck sites were discovered.
Through careful archaeological study of artifacts such as coins, hull construction techniques and Kangxi-Period porcelain, the remains of the Adventure Galley (flagship of the infamous William Kidd) and the Dragon (commanded by the pirate William Condon were identified.The other three shipwreck sites have been tentatively identified as those of the Ruparrel (Kidd's consort vessel), The Mocha Frigate (Captain Robert Culliford) and The New Soldado (Captain Richard "Dirk" Chivers).
This exotic tropical island is truly a pirate ship graveyard.
It was used as a base for pirates preying on the shipping of the Indian Ocean during the 17th and 18th centuries.
After discovering and decoding cryptic piratical rock carvings, Barry and the team then used ground-penetrating radar to confirm the presence of an apparent tunnel-complex, similar to the Oak Island "Money Pit", which may have been constructed by late 17th-century pirates as an underground store-house.
To advance the work already accomplished, the Center is developing programs designed to continue these studies. As predators, most pirate ships attacked the shipping of all nations. Thus, the artifact record reflected by the contents of pirate shipwrecks represents a cultural cross-section of the maritime world as it existed in the 18th-century, and a tremendous potential resource for study.
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