2006-10-20 05:50:08 · 7 answers · asked by ymranno 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Trivia
Captain Morgan's Ship Found
by Helen Stringer
There are pirates and there are pirates...and then there's Captain Morgan. He was the pirate's pirate, the man who led the swashbuckling, buccaneering life in exactly the way that would have made Erroll Flynn proud. And he managed to die in bed.
Not bad.
On Friday Klaus Keppler, a German treasure hunter, anounced that he and his team had found the wreck of Morgan's ship, the Jamaica Merchant, lying just off the coast of Haiti. If true, it would be one of the major finds of nautical archaeology, ranking with the discovery of the Titanic. Keppler claims that they are "98% sure" that it is Morgan's ship.
The vessel was a cargo ship which Morgan took as his command following the sinking of his flagship, the Oxford, which sank as the result of an explosion during a party on board.
No-one ever said that Morgan didn't know how to have a good time.
The Jamaica sank in the 1670s or 1680s near L'Ile a Vache off the coast of Haiti. The area is prone to hurricanes, so the number of sunken ships is daunting. Keppler and his team had been working in the area for some time, locating ship after ship, before they found the Jamaica. Once they thought they'd found her, they contacted the haitian governement to request permission to go down to the wreck. Haiti is notoriously reluctant to grant such permits, but Keppler was permited to dive and found that the wreck was about 40 meters long. The wooden ship itself has mostly rotted away, but the divers found the anchor, some cannon and some coins, in addition to a few pieces of porcelain. The porcelain was probably from the dishes used by the crew, and the coins are mostly bronze, rather than gold or silver, but hopes remain high that as the ship is excavated a cargo of greater value will be found. Morgan was known to steal from churches, and he made his daily bread attacking Spanish treasure ships so the find has the potential to be rich indeed.
Henry Morgan was born in South Wales in the late 1630s and sailed to the Caribbean in 1655 with a fleet sent by Oliver Cromwell. The fleet didn't achieve much in political terms, but it did manage to seize Jamaica from Spain. With Jamaica as their stronghold, disaffected English troops began attacking Spanish holdings in the Caribbean and the Americas. Over time, Morgan became recognized as their leader. A bold adventurer, Morgan's buccaneering career reached its peak with an attack on the city of Panama in 1670.
It's hard to imagine how he did it, with the primitive communications of the time, and the undisciplined forces at his disposal. Nevertheless, Morgan managed to get 2,300 pirates to meet on Ile-à-Vache. They sailed to Chagres on the Panamanian isthmus and then marched overland to the city. Once they arrived, they plundered the Spanish city and reputedly tortured many of the inhabitants. They then took their spoils and marched back to Chagres.
Good plan. Unfortunately, while they were carrying it out the English and the Spanish had made peace, signing the Treaty of Madrid. When Morgan returned to Jamaica he was promptly arrested and sent back to England for trial. Every expectation was that he would hang.
Fortunately for Morgan, the English people loved their swashbuckling hero. Even more fortunately, the kking at the time was Charles II, a monarch known for his wry sense of humor. Instead of being hanged Morgan was knighted and shipped back to Jamaica with the title of Vice-Governor. As Jackie Gleason would have said (and Morgan undoubtedly thought), "How sweet it is!"
Morgan lived out his years in Port Royal, developing a famous taste for rum and eventually dying in 1689. Tales of hidden treasure emerged almost immediately, most focusing on caves on the island. The wreckage of the ship covers 200 meters so it is anticipated that the full recovery will take some time. According to Keppler no bodies have been found as yet, though at least 18 of the 100 man crew are known to have perished.
If it really is Morgan's ship, it will represent a significant find, not just as the flagship of one of the most famous pirates, but also as one of the few 17th century wrecks ever discovered. It has the potential to tell us as much about the lives of 17th century seamen, as did the Mary Rose of sailors 150 years earlier.
2006-10-20 05:58:02 · answer #1 · answered by tonyinspain 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Captain Morgan Ship
2016-11-10 21:38:19 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
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2015-08-06 19:19:19 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
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2016-04-07 00:02:56 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Henry Morgan himself was offended in his lifetime when people referred to him as a pirate, as he considered himself to be a privateer (one whose nation paid and licensed them to attack and plunder an enemy's shipping).
So he never had his own ship. He recovered many, many ships of others though.
2006-10-20 05:56:08 · answer #5 · answered by Shayna 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The Rum Runner
2006-10-20 05:54:53 · answer #6 · answered by prizelady88 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
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2016-04-02 20:46:36 · answer #7 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋