In the winter of 1717, with the hoisting of the Jolly Roger, a slave ship was suddenly transformed into a pirate ship — a sea change that, centuries later, would trigger a controversy that embroiled a museum, an underwater explorer and a Florida community.
Ultimately, that controversy would yield the compelling narrative of a blockbuster exhibition called “Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship.”
The show, which opens March 4 at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, probes the link between slavery and piracy, lucrative businesses that operated in the thriving economic hub of the Caribbean during the early 18th century.
“It’s extraordinarily important that we tell the whole story,” said Mark Lach, senior vice president of Arts and Exhibitions International and designer of the show.
And not tell just the pirate story, glamorized in such movies as the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series.
The tale began after the slave ship Whydah — named for the largest slave port in West Africa — dropped its load of human captives in the Caribbean and headed back to sea.
In February 1717, just off the Bahamas, it was captured by the English pirate Samuel Bellamy and his crew.
In two months, they took over another 50 ships, collecting a vast wealth of plunder. But the three-masted ship sank in a violent storm off Cape Cod that April, and most of the 146-member crew drowned.
The shipwreck wasn’t discovered until 1984, when underseas explorer Barry Clifford, using a map from 1717, found the remains and started a recovery operation that continues today.
He brought up troves of gold and silver coins, everyday items such as pewter plates, even the ship’s bell, which was used to authenticate the only pirate shipwreck discovered in U.S. waters.
But in 2006, controversy hit when the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, Fla., wanted to exhibit some of the artifacts in a show designed to coincide with the Hollywood release of “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.”
Critics charged that the ship’s slave history was being downplayed in favor of the pop-culture pirate trend, and the idea was dropped.
So when National Geographic and Arts and Exhibitions International teamed up to design a show using the same pirate artifacts, they formed an advisory panel of academics and historians to ensure accuracy and balance in developing the content.
“Real Pirates” is a multimedia journey that cuts back and forth between the two worlds: the slave trade of West Africa that created such abundant prosperity in the Caribbean, and the drama of the Whydah, from its capture by pirates to the raging storm that sank the ship.
Along with weapons, treasure and a full-scale reproduction of the Whydah’s stern — complete with the pirate’s cabin — there are artifacts of slavery, including shackles and an iron bar used as “trade iron” in exchange for captive humans.
“Real Pirates” focuses on four of the Whydah pirates, including one who was Dutch African.
“Pirates were the bad guys and the bad girls,” Lach said. “But they were also people looking for freedom in a world where it wasn’t allowed for many, especially Africans.”
The pirate ship, he said, “was a floating democracy, where everyone had a vote.”
Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083 or coconnor@denverpost.com
A see-worthy show
What: “Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship”
When: March 4 through Aug. 21
Where: Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Tickets: Timed tickets, which include admission to the museum, are $20 for adults, $11 for children and students, and $14 for seniors. They go on sale at on Monday.
