Barry Clifford, an explorer, was invited to speak at Homecoming Week by Associated Students of Utah State University. He spoke Sept. 22 in the TSC Ballroom. He’s an underwater explorer who works with National Geographic. He is the only explorer to have discovered legitimate pirate treasure to date.

Clifford and his team haven’t sold any of their findings. They’ve kept everything together and it is now in touring exhibits, which are booked for the next seven years. Clifford said the money from the exhibits funds all of their current projects including his most recent discovery, the Margaret.

The Margaret was found by Clifford’s team off the coast of Salem, Mass. This ship is especially important because it was considered the lead ship of the U.S. Navy in 1797. In a letter to her husband, Abigail Adams wrote about losing friends in the shipwreck who were traveling from Amsterdam to America.

Clifford’s most notable discovery, however, is the Whydah, a pirate ship that he discovered in 1984. He explained that according to local legend Sam Bellamy captained the ship. In Clifford’s favorite version of the tale, Sam met his girlfriend, Maria Hallett, under a blooming apple tree. He promised to return from trading in the Caribbean with a handsome dowry with which to wed her. In the meantime, she had his illegitimate child. She tried to hide the pregnancy by hiding the baby in a barn. However, the baby died and Maria was tried and convicted as a witch. She was run out of town and lived in a shack some miles away with a gray cat and a billy goat with a glass eye.

Sam didn’t have much luck in the Caribbean and soon turned to piracy. He captured 54 ships, but his greatest achievement came with the capture of the slaving vessell, Whydah, in 1717. The ship had just dropped off a massive cargo of African slaves in exchange for more than four-and-half tons of gold, gold dust, jewelry and other treasures. With his large bounty, Sam sailed the ship to Massachusetts where it was hit by a violent storm and sunk. Most of the 146 crew members washed ashore, including Bellamy. Maria found Bellamy’s body while walking the beach. She consequently went mad and haunts the beach.

Using the local folklore of eight survivors of the shipwreck Clifford found the court documents of their trial. Six of the eight were convicted and hung after telling of the massive bounty aboard the ship which was in bags, in chests between decks.

Clifford also found the maps made by Cyprian Southack, a local cartographer, who was dispatched by the governor to find the ship. Southack kept a detailed log of his findings. He found the ship but was unable to reach it because it was 500 feet out and being pummeled by 30-foot waves. He watched the remains of the wreck sink to the bottom of the ocean and was never able to access the treasure.

“We had to be sure something was still there after all of this time. Once we had put together all of this evidence we got a boat and we went out diving for it,” Clifford said.

Clifford began his search with his good friend John Kennedy Jr. in the late 1970s. The official discovery of the Whydah came in 1984 with the first artifact, a piece of a musket. Some critics of Clifford didn’t think the musket proved he had found the Whydah. But in 1985, the Whydah’s bell was discovered, which proved that they had found the Whydah.

Today they have found more than $400 million in treasure and they haven’t even reached the mother-load yet.

“We think we know exactly where it is. We were right on top of it this summer, but due to weather and other constraints we weren’t able to excavate it,” Clifford said.

Barry, in addition to being an explorer, is also a teacher. Maybe he’s the modern day Indiana Jones. He doesn’t have to fight off Nazis, Indian gods or aliens but things have gotten pretty intense between him and other explorers.

“As soon as you find something then the trouble starts. When you’ve got treasure fever, aspirin won’t cure it,” Clifford said.

He also explained he’s not in it for the money and he won’t be selling anything that he finds. It’s just as the Whydah Web site displays,”It’s not what you find – it’s what you find out.”

–mikayla.rich@aggiemail.usu.edu