The waters off of Cape Cod, Massachusetts have been preserving a pirate shipwreck time capsule for the last 300 years. Archeologists have found new pieces of a ship that was lost in a storm off the coast of Cape Cod in the 1700s. The vessel, named Whydah, was part of the pirate fleet of Englishman Sam Bellamy, the richest pirate in the world. Researchers have been carefully chipping away at the crusty build-up on what is suspected to be part of a long rifle or deck gun and a musket ball. Dr. Scott Herber told WBZ-TV that they've been using hospital CT scans and x-rays to analyze each piece and get a peek at what's under the centuries-old marine buildup preserving the time capsule ship. Herber says, "It tells me as a conservator where I need to target and to start being careful."
Experts say sea water reacts with iron pieces from the ship to form a hard shell which then acts as a preservative on the items inside the ship. Archeologist, Barry Clifford has been working on the pirate time capsule ship for decades, making sure no stone is unturned. Clifford says, "I told Scott he's got to be careful because of the number of jewels that were lost on the boat. You can mistake one for a stone, so every little thing has to be looked at carefully." The loot that has been found so far is on display at the Real Pirate Museum in Salem. The exhaustive restoration of this latest find is expected to take six months to a year to complete.
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