Samuel Bellamy

For the English footballer, see Samuel Bellamy (footballer).

Samuel Bellamy
c. (1689-02-23)February 23, 1689 – April 26, 1717 (1717-04-27) (aged 28)
Nickname	"Black Sam" Bellamy, "Prince of Pirates", "Black Bellamy"
Type	Pirate
Place of birth	Hittisleigh, Devon, England
Place of death	Wellfleet, Massachusetts
Allegiance	None
Years active	1716 – April 26, 1717
Rank	Elected Commander of pirate fleet
Base of operations	Blanco Islet, B.V.I. (later re-named Bellamy Cay), Caribbean Sea
Commands	Postillion, Mary Anne, Sultana, Whydah Gally
Wealth	Equiv. US $128 million today; #1, Forbes top-earning pirates

Captain Samuel Bellamy (c. February 23, 1689 – April 26, 1717), better known as "Black Sam" Bellamy, was an English pirate who operated in the early 18th century. Though his known career as a pirate captain lasted little more than a year, he and his crew captured at least 53 ships under his command – making him the wealthiest pirate in recorded history – before his death at age 28. Called "Black Sam" in Cape Cod folklore because he eschewed the fashionable powdered wig in favor of tying back his long black hair with a simple band, Bellamy became known for his mercy and generosity toward those he captured on his raids. This reputation earned him another nickname, the "Prince of Pirates". He likened himself to Robin Hood, with his crew calling themselves "Robin Hood's Men."

Biography

Bellamy was probably the youngest of six known children born to Stephen and Elizabeth Bellamy in the parish of Hittisleigh in Devonshire, England in 1689. Elizabeth died in childbirth and was buried on February 23, 1689, three weeks before Samuel's baptism on March 18. The future pirate became a sailor at a young age and traveled to Cape Cod, where, according to local lore, he took up an affair with a local girl named Maria Hallett—the "Witch of Wellfleet".

"...they spread a large black flag, with a Death's Head and Bones across, and gave chase to Cap't. Prince under the same colors." – Thom. Baker (Bellamy's crew)

He soon left Cape Cod—allegedly to support Hallett—by salvaging treasure from the Spanish plate fleet sunk off the coast of Florida, accompanied by his friend and financier Paul (or Palgrave, Paulgrave, Paulsgrave) Williams. The treasure hunters apparently met with little success, as they soon turned to piracy in the crew of pirate captain Benjamin Hornigold, who commanded the Mary Anne (or Marianne) with his first mate Edward "Blackbeard" Teach.

In the summer of 1716, the crew became irritated by Hornigold's unwillingness to attack ships of England, his home country. Hornigold was deposed as captain of the Mary Anne and left the vessel with his loyal followers, including Teach. The remaining 90-man crew elected Bellamy as their leader.

Upon capturing a second ship, the Sultana, Bellamy assigned his friend Paul Williams as captain of the Mary Anne and made the Sultana his flagship. However, Bellamy's greatest capture was to come in the spring of 1717, when he and his crew chased down and boarded the Whydah Gally (pronounced "WIH-duh"). The Whydah, a 300-ton English slave ship, had just finished the second leg of the Atlantic slave trade on its second voyage and was loaded with a fortune in gold and precious trade goods. True to his reputation for generosity, Bellamy gave the Sultana to Captain Lawrence Prince of the captured Whydah, and, outfitting his new flagship as a 28-gun raiding vessel (upgraded from its original 18 guns), set sail northwards along the eastern coast of the Carolinas and on to New England.

Bellamy was well-known to his contemporaries and to later chroniclers, and was a distinctive figure, even among pirates:

"He made a dashing figure in his long deep-cuffed velvet coat, knee breeches, silk stockings, and silver-buckled shoes; with a sword slung on his left hip and four pistols on his sash. Unlike some of his fellows, Bellamy never wore the fashionable powdered wig, but grew his dark hair long and tied it back with a black satin bow."

Captain Charles Johnson, a pseudonym, wrote what became the first standard historical text on pirates, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates. That source relates the story of the Whydah overtaking a sloop commanded by Captain Beer. Bellamy had wanted to let the captain keep his ship, but his crew had just voted to burn it, and the captain of the merchant vessel had just declined an invitation to join the pirates. Bellamy is attributed with making this now-famous speech:

Gold recovered from the wreck of the Whydah. Forbes ranked Bellamy #1 in its list of "Top-Earning Pirates".

"I am sorry they won't let you have your sloop again, for I scorn to do any one a mischief, when it is not to my advantage; damn the sloop, we must sink her, and she might be of use to you. Though you are a sneaking puppy, and so are all those who will submit to be governed by laws which rich men have made for their own security; for the cowardly whelps have not the courage otherwise to defend what they get by knavery; but damn ye altogether: damn them for a pack of crafty rascals, and you, who serve them, for a parcel of hen-hearted numbskulls. They vilify us, the scoundrels do, when there is only this difference, they rob the poor under the cover of law, forsooth, and we plunder the rich under the protection of our own courage. Had you not better make then one of us, than sneak after these villains for employment?"

     [Beer replied that his conscience would not let him break the laws of God and man, and Bellamy continued]

"You are a devilish conscience rascal! I am a free prince, and I have as much authority to make war on the whole world as he who has a hundred sail of ships at sea and an army of 100,000 men in the field; and this my conscience tells me! But there is no arguing with such snivelling puppies, who allow superiors to kick them about deck at pleasure."

— Captain Bellamy, quoted by Captain Charles Johnson (1724) , A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates

The location of the wrecked Whydah Gally in Cape Cod

Death

Just two months after acquiring the Whydah, as she and the Mary Anne approached Cape Cod, Williams told Bellamy that he wished to visit his family in Rhode Island, and the two agreed to meet up again near Maine.

If Bellamy intended to revisit his lover Maria Hallett, he failed. The Whydah was swept up in a violent Nor'easter storm off Cape Cod at midnight, and was driven onto the sand bar shoals in 16 feet of water some 500 feet from the coast of what is now Wellfleet, Massachusetts. At 15 minutes past midnight, the masts snapped and drew the heavily-loaded ship into 30 feet of water where she capsized and quickly sank, taking Bellamy and all but two of the Whydah's 145-man crew with her.

One hundred and three bodies were known to have washed ashore and were buried by the town coroner, leaving 43 bodies unaccounted for. The Mary Anne was also wrecked that night several miles south of the Whydah, leaving seven more survivors. All nine survivors from the two ships were captured and prosecuted for piracy in Boston, and six were hanged in October 1717 (King George's pardon of all pirates, issued the previous month in September, having arrived in Boston three weeks too late). Two were set free, the court believing their testimony that they had been forced into piracy. The last, a Native American from the Miskito tribe in Central America, John Julian, is believed to have been sold into slavery to John Quincy, the grandfather of U.S. President John Quincy Adams.

Later fame

Further information: Whydah Gally

In July 1984, Bellamy became famous again when the discovery of the wreckage of his flagship Whydah was announced, and would soon become the first authenticated pirate shipwreck ever discovered in North America. At the time of its sinking, the Whydah was the largest pirate prize ever captured, and the treasure in its hold included huge quantities of indigo, ivory, gold, and over 30,000 pounds sterling (approximately 4.5 to 5 tons). The discovery of the wreck was made in 1982 by a diving crew led and funded by underwater explorer Barry Clifford.

The vessel was under just 14 feet (4.3 m) of water and 5 feet (1.5 m) of sand.

The bell, inscribed, "THE WHYDAH GALLY 1716"

In 1985, Clifford recovered the ship's bell upon which were the words "THE WHYDAH GALLY 1716", the first incontrovertible evidence of his find. He subsequently founded The Whydah Pirate Museum on MacMillan Wharf in Provincetown, Massachusetts dedicated to Samuel Bellamy and the Whydah. It houses many artifacts which were brought from the actual wreck, including a cannon found to be stuffed with precious stones, gold and artifacts. A portion of the some 200,000 artifacts so far recovered are currently on a six-year tour around the United States under the sponsorship of The National Geographic Society.

In popular culture

Museum Exhibitions

• An exhibition entitled "Real Pirates: The Untold Story of 'The Whydah' (from slave ship to pirate ship)" is touring the U.S. Venues include Cincinnati Museum Center, Cincinnati, OH; The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA; The Field Museum, Chicago, IL; Nauticus, Norfolk, VA; St. Louis, MO and Houston, TX. The exhibit is currently at the Science Museum of Minnesota (February 18 through September 3, 2012).

Non-fiction

• Clifford, Barry; Perry, Paul (1999). Expedition Whydah : the story of the world's first excavation of a pirate treasure ship and the man who found her (1st ed. ed.). New York, NY: Cliff Street Books. p. 261. ISBN 9780060929718. 
• Clifford, Barry; Turchi, Peter (1993). The pirate prince : discovering the priceless treasures of the sunken ship Whydah : an adventure (1939 Hardcover ed. ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9780671768249. 
• Woodard, Colin (2008). The republic of pirates : being the true and surprising story of the Caribbean pirates and the man who brought them down (1st Harvest ed. ed.). Orlando, Fla.: Harcourt, Inc. pp. 28–29. ISBN 978-0-15-603462-3. 

Historical novels

• Samuel Bellamy is the main character of the historical novel, "Master Of The Sweet Trade: A Story of the Pirate Samuel Bellamy, Mariah Hallett, and the Whydah," by author Elizabeth Moisan, published by iUniverse Books, Bloomington IN, 2010.
• Samuel Bellamy appears as one of the main characters in the time travel historical novel, "House Call to The Past," by Janet Elaine Smith, published by Star Publish LLC, (3rd Edition, 2007).

Fiction

• Sam Bellamy appears as the main protagonist/hero in the bestselling novel, "Pirate In My Arms," by author Danelle Harmon, published by Avon Books, New York, NY, 1991.
• A pirate known as "Black Bellamy" is a major character in Gideon Defoe's novel The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists, and also appears in the other books in the The Pirates! series.
• Sam Bellamy is a character in the book "The Mystic Rose - Celtic Fire" written by Toney Brooks and illustrated by Matthew Harvey (Wessex Books, 2001). Bellamy, now a captain in the Celtic Otherworld Navy, commands a mission returning King Arthur to the modern age.
• Captain Bellamy appears as a minor character in the book "Cape Cod" written by William Martin in 1992.

Video - documentary

• On 27 May 2007 a UK documentary/reality show titled Pirate Ship ... Live! followed a team of divers, including comedian Vic Reeves, in live coverage of a dive at the Whydah site.
• On January 7, 2008 the National Geographic Channel aired a 2-hour documentary, Pirate Treasure Hunters, about the ongoing excavation of the wreck of the Whydah Gally, which includes detailed interviews with Barry Clifford. It is currently available on DVD.

Video - fiction

• A name for the island where Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swann are marooned in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is Black Sam's Spit.
• Captain Bellamy is a minor character in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, though the character is not a pirate and bears no resemblance to the historical Bellamy.

Music

• Samuel Bellamy's life and death are the main subject of the song "The Death of Captain Bellamy", written and performed by celtic punk band Barren Waves.
• Sam Bellamy is the subject of a song by The Musical Blades.

Other

• A 'Bellamy the Hyena' character based on Samuel Bellamy appeared in the anime and manga series One Piece by Eiichiro Oda. However, the character was based on Samuel's last name alone as he was shown to be arrogant, vain and despises those who dream, unlike Samuel in real life.^{[citation needed]}
• Upon reaching the winter of 1717 in the game Empire: Total War the player is presented with a message that the Samuel Bellamy has died.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Whydah Gally
• Barry Clifford

References

General

• Woodard, Colin. The Republic of Pirates. Harcourt, New York, NY. (2007). Bellamy page at associated website
• National Geographic, "Capt. Samuel Bellamy, Rogue Romeo"

Specific