by Bill Russo
The Sultana and the Mary Anne flew straight at the mighty Whidah. The Mary Anne came about on the port side of the prize, while the Sultana lightly scraped the timbers of the Whidah on the starboard side.
Now any sailor will tell you that Captain Peter Prince of the Whidah should have been able to sail right through this little blockade as easily as a rat avoids the boot of the ship’s cook.
But luck and ill winds had deserted the British vessel. Captain Prince thought about breaking out the oars and trying to escape – but under oar power, two knots would be the maximum speed he could hope for; and the invaders were cruising at better than ten.
Sam Bellamy, for the second time in his life, experienced love at first sight. He wanted the Whidah – not as much as he wanted Maria Hallett – but he wanted the boat in a different way. He wanted to master it and to sail the Whidah into Provincetown Bay. He prayed that he could capture the ship with little damage to her.
Captain Prince wanted to surrender. He was not a coward, but he could see that all was lost. With no wind to make good an escape, he had to stand and fight or give up.
The Whidah was carrying a skeleton crew of 30 able seamen. Most of the crew had been paid off and sent ashore at Boston when a large part of his freight had been exchanged for gold. Barely armed, his men would not stand a chance against seasoned pirates.
To save face, Captain Prince fired two chase guns far off the bow of the Sultana. A few seconds later, before the enemy would have a chance to return fire, he gave the order to lower the flag in surrender.
Sam Bellamy was ecstatic. He fairly flew across the gangplank to board the Whidah. He greeted Captain Prince warmly. Always a gentleman pirate, Sam informed Captain Prince that he was going to be given the Sultana and he would be allowed to keep one fourth of all cargo and riches.
Captain Prince could not believe his good fortune. Even just 25 per cent of his cargo and treasure would return a handsome profit to his investors. With his share, and what he could get for selling the Sultana, he could purchase a new galley just as fine as the Whidah.
How Captain Paul Williams, who had to remain with the Mary Anne, felt about Sam’s generosity; we can only speculate.
As for Sam, he gleamed as brightly as the golden treasure being stuffed between decks as he sailed towards the Cape at the helm of his new flagship, The Whidah.
Paul Williams reminded Sam that to go back to the West Indies would be the safe thing to do.
“Taking a dozen small ships creates barely a stir in England or the Colonies, but the capturing of a ship of the stature of the Whidah, puts a mammoth target on our backs and heads,” Paul said.
“Ease your mind Paul,” Sam advised. “On the way to the Cape we will take another dozen ships and add millions to our wealth. We will be able to purchase pardons and be free men. I will have so much gold left over that I can pile it at Maria’s feet and even build her a home with the roof, floor and walls, all made of gold.”
“Aye, and I will have enough wealth to buy the whole of Virginia and all the tobacco in it,” Paul laughed, “unless we get our necks stretched first.”
Over the next week, they captured four more ships. Two were plundered. Sam gave the ships back to the captains along with a share of their riches and cargo. The Captains knew of Sam and told him they had heard of him. He learned from them that he was being called ‘the gentleman pirate’ for the humane way he went about his devilish business.
A third ship, a leaky old tub, quickly sank after being hit only 12 times by the cannon of Admiral Bellamy’s fleet. At risk of their own lives, Sam and Paul’s crew braved the turgid Atlantic waves to rescue the mates of the sinking vessel. No seaman was lost and all were offered positions as apprentice pirates in the Bellamy fleet. Most men accepted. Those that did not were given provisions, money, and a sturdy lifeboat to head back to shore.
Salvaging wrecks along the Cape Cod coast was a
major industry in the heyday of the age of sail.
The fourth ship, a sleek bark called ‘Goose Wings’ was added to the fleet along with about half of her crew. Those that did not accept piracy were allowed a boat and provisions, in the usual manner of the genial, handsome young Admiral Sam Bellamy.
Here and there, a few men who lost their ship and berths to Sam, bore him a grudge. Back in the Colonies or in England they told lies and painted a dark picture of Bellamy and his crews. Enough people believed the lies that a new nickname emerged for Sam. Most people still termed him, ‘The Gentleman Pirate’. There were however, a number of bitter souls who spat out the words, ‘Black Sam Bellamy’, when they spoke of his heart and his deeds.
I will detail no more of Sam’s captures and plunders” other than to say that he made more than 24 more successful purges of vessels over the next month.
Finally, a mere eight weeks after he gained possession of the Whidah, he reached the placid waters of Cape Cod. He was just hours away from his reunion with his lovely bride to be, Maria Hallett.
Sam Bellamy’s personal share of looted treasure included more than four tons of gold in bars, coins and dust – enough to make him the richest pirate who ever sailed the Caribbean.
Though it was less than two bells of the afternoon, darkness overtook the Whidah as she glided by the coast of Wellfleet on April 26 in 1717.
Winds shredded the sails and broke the mainmast like a toothpick as the crew fought the storm for six hours. The tempest grew so bad that the waves were said to be cyclonic. Just before eight bells a wave that today would be called a tsunami rolled the Whidah on her side and broke her in two. Wreckage was strewn for miles in tidal pools and on the Wellfleet beaches.
The facts of the sinking of the Whidah are well documented. You can read them in many books and online publications. A high rated television show in the 1990s depicted the real life discovery of the Whidah and her treasures. There has probably even been a movie or two made about her.
You can visit the museum in Provincetown that is devoted entirely to the story of Sam Bellamy and the Whidah. It has artifacts taken from the actual wreckage as well as many other fascinating exhibits.
Some people say that even today - the majority of the doubloons, pieces of eight, gold and silver bars, jewels, and bags of gold dust; are still buried in sand in the beaches of Eastham and Wellfleet.
There are many variations to the ending of this story of Maria and Sam. My favorite is this one………………….
More than 100 bodies washed ashore after the wreck of the Whidah. Village officials devoted long hours to the grim task of identifying bodies.
Paul Williams, whose ship was not lost in the storm, volunteered to assist in the investigation in return for a full pardon. Selectman Cosgrove agreed and gave Williams his freedom.
Williams was instrumental in the eventual identification of every dead pirate. Six men who escaped the wreck unharmed were taken to Boston. Four were found guilty of various crimes and were hanged. Two men were released on the grounds that they had been forced into pirate labor.
Before they left for judgment, the six who were put on trial agreed with Paul Williams when he said that none of the dead men was Admiral Sam Bellamy.
Many local residents combed the beaches and waters close to shore for the next several years in search of the vast quantities of Whidah treasure. Bits and pieces were found, but the bulk of gold, silver, and jewels remained hidden.
Over the last several centuries people have claimed to have seen Maria (Goody) Hallett walking the dunes in Provincetown, Wellfleet and Eastham in beautiful gowns that she fashioned herself.
It is said that in life, or as a spirit, after she was stoned and jumped from the pier, she built a shack in the dunes next to the ocean.
“She was always looking toward the sea,” they avowed, “searching the horizon for her man, Sam Bellamy.”
Some of the braver citizenry peeked into her shack at the edge of the water and although it always appeared ready for occupancy; no one ever actual
ly saw Maria in it.
Constable Constant Hearthstone took over Hallett’s Inn along with his partners, the town Selectmen. It was never run as well as when Mr. Hallett was alive, but the pub was still a popular gathering place.
One evening in 1722, five years after the sinking of the Whidah, a peculiar young man entered the Inn. Dressed as a sailor, he had a shock of curly black hair with a gray streak running along the top of his head. Nearly white, the streak had taken the shape of a flash of lightning.
Oddest of all was a deep indentation in his forehead sitting under an angry scar. The wound ran from the top of his nose right up into the gray streak where it disappeared under cover of his hair. The large depressed section of his skull must have resulted from a powerful injury, such as might happen from a piece of a splintered mast bashing him as it snapped off during a storm.
“I am not sure but I think I am looking for Mr. Hallett,” said the confused young man to Constable Hearthstone, wearing a filthy apron has he drew beer, wine and grog for his patrons.
“He died son. Had an accident on the Town Pier. This is my place now.”
“I need to talk to Mr. Hallett, but I am not exactly sure what I am supposed to ask him,“ said the stranger.
“Well if you got the price of a tankard of ale, you can talk to me.”
“Money? I have money,” he said burying a hand in his pocket and coming out with a handful of shiny doubloons. “I will have a glass.”
Hearthstone’s eyes lit up at the sight of the golden coins. He tried to keep the confused man talking.
“I need to talk with Mr. Hallett, not you.” he repeated.
“Hallett’s dead I told you. You might have better luck talking to his daughter Maria. On a night like this, she might be walking the dunes,”
“Maria? Maria Hallett? I think I need to speak with Maria Hallett, but I am not sure what about,” said the stranger as he walked out the front door.
Several of the patrons had been watching the bewildered sailor with interest and they followed him as he lurched towards the dunes.
They reported later that the sailor had gone to the very edge of the dunes where Maria Hallett’s eerie shack still stood.
“There was a taper burning. We could see it through the window,” said one of the men.
“Though the slender candle gave scarcely any illumination, we could see enough to note that a woman with long hair and an elegant dress opened the door and called out to the stranger.”
“As sure as I am standing here,” said Selectmen Cosgrove, “that woman was Maria Hallett. She opened the door and looked right at the injured seaman walking slowly towards her.”
“She smiled a smile so bright it was like ten lamps on high wick, and she said ‘Sam - Dashing Sam Bellamy, Is that you?”
“What happened then?” asked Constable Constant Hearthstone as a dozen more patrons crowded around him, also eagerly awaiting the answer.
“The sailor stopped when he heard the voice. He spoke to her.
He said….
‘I remember you Maria. Your voice is more beautiful than the song of the nightingale’.
‘You said that to me once before Sam. Come to me my love.’
Selectman Cosgrove told the assembled townsmen that the sailor walked into the house and a moment later the dim light of the taper ceased to glow.
He said that he and the three friends who were with him, would swear that everything he was relating to them is true.
“We waited in the silent darkness for two hours before daring to go near the shack. Finally we crept to the window and peered in. Seeing nothing, we were brave enough only to open the door a crack. Still nothing. At length, we pushed the door full open and lighted the taper. Nothing. There was no one in the shack.”
“But on the table, in a dinner-plate was a ring. It was a gold wedding band, “ Cosgrove said.
None of the people of the Outer Cape ever saw Sam or Maria again by light of day – but on dark stormy nights, they were seen many times, walking arm in arm through the dunes.
People report that they can hear them talking, but the words are not understandable. From 1722 to 2022, it will be 300 years that they have walked the dunes together.
Every few years, credible and otherwise sensible people have reported viewing one or both of the ghosts of Eastham walking through the sand or wading in the ocean.
As recently as 2012, Maria, or some other lady with long blond tresses wearing an elegant dress from the 1700s; was seen leaving the ladies room at an Eastham restaurant. She walked outside.
A curious patron, who followed her, said that when he got outside the woman had disappeared.
“There was no place for her to go,” he declared. “I was right behind her. But when I stepped through the door, she was gone. There were no cars in sight and no place for her to hide. She just disappeared.”
The End
With apologies to those who had hoped to be scabrously frightened by the contents of this volume, so closes ‘The Ghosts of Cape Cod’.
It never was the intent of the author to provide terror or fear in these pages, but rather to give voice to some ancient legends and fables of an interesting little 64 mile long sandbar that clings to the mainland of Massachusetts by its three iconic, finger-like bridges.
If you liked the work, a review or a favorable mention on the Bill Russo author page at Amazon Kindle, would be deeply appreciated. On the page, you will also see, among others, “The Creature From the Bridgewater Triangle”. Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OEZK8IQ
It contains the report of my real life encounter with a Puckwudgie - whom I expect was much like the one Native Americans have spoken of, for more than a thousand years. My story has also been featured in the award winning documentary “The Bridgewater Triangle” produced by Aaron Cadieux and Manny Famolare.
My meeting with the swamp thing was also spotlighted in the TV version of the documentary, edited and re-titled as “America’s Bermuda Triangle”. The Discovery team also filmed me for a twenty minute segment in season two of Monsters and Mysteries in America on the Destination America Channel.
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