Six Shipwrecks Discovered in Nassau Harbour, Three Dated to Golden Age of Piracy

An international team has discovered six shipwrecks in Nassau harbour on New Providence in the Bahamas, three of which date to the golden age of piracy. The expedition received the first official permission to dive in the closed zone of the harbour. The team found a charred wooden hull still weighed down by a stone ballast pile.

Its timbers were connected by wooden treenails. Archaeologists also recovered a swivel gun, an iron cannon, a pile of 25 lead musket balls, and a grinding stone for sharpening swords. Additional items included rigging, glass bottles, bricks from a ship’s cooking galley, and 143 clay tobacco pipes decorated with a unicorn, horse, crown, and the royal crest of England.

The pipes were made in London around the 1740s. Dr Sean Kingsley, a British marine archaeologist and the project’s co-director, said the finds represent the tip of the iceberg. He added that the survival of a wooden hull was unexpected and that dozens more shipwrecks could lie in and around the harbour.

Dr Michael Pateman, the expedition’s co-director and the ambassador for history, culture and museology in the Bahamas, said burning ships to the waterline was an infamous tactic to hide felony from authorities. He noted the Nassau hull shows all the signs of pirate mischief and that the ship was heavily armed, especially with swivel guns.

The discoveries were made by the New Providence Pirates Expedition and Wreckwatch TV.

Chris Atkins, the project film-maker, said tides flush dangerous currents through the waters twice a day and that the harbour is home to notorious packs of sharks. The waters of Nassau harbour have one of the world’s largest concentrations of sharks. Kingsley said the team did not bother the sharks underwater and remained conscious of respecting their realm.

Kingsley has explored more than 350 shipwrecks in the past 30 years and is the founding editor of Wreckwatch magazine. The expedition is covered in the first episode of the mini-series Mystery of the Pirate King’s Treasure, launched this week, and in the next issue of Wreckwatch magazine.