Historical Pirates and Hispañola

[Auryn]

I recently finished watching Black Sails, a tv series that takes some historical facts and many liberties with pirates in the Caribbean, specifically Nassau.
I searched DR1 for threads about pirates in the area of Hispañola specifically, and found the following interesting old threads:

Pirates of the Caribbean- Tortuga

William Kidd’s Underwater Museum

Battle of Cayo Levantó - Samana

They’re all fascinating, from photos of wrecks in the waters off Cabarete, to the wreck of Kidd’s Quedagh Merchant off Isla Catalina, to pirate hideaways in Samana Bay. I remember visiting the fort (San Felipe) in Puerto Plata and have read a little about the role of piracy there.

Besides the preservation of Kidd’s wreck, has there been much done in regards to study, research, recognition, or recording of pirate history in the DR and Haiti?

While I’m sure the Punta Cana pirate excursion is great, I’m more interested in reputable efforts of historical piracy.

Pirates of the Dominican

According to this Air Transat article from 2016-17, you can dive the Quedagh Merchant, do the Punta Cana pirate show, and a pirate rum tour? But are there other locations or organizations with more accurate and/or ongoing information on pirates?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Auryn]

I meant to say reputable sources on historical piracy, not reputable efforts of.

Although there is debate, piracy was not typically a reputable effort.

 

[CristoRey]

I meant to say reputable sources on historical piracy, not reputable efforts of.

Although there is debate, piracy was not typically a reputable effort.

Plenty of modern day pirates running around this island. Shouldn't be all that difficult to learn more about this topic.

 

[Auryn]

Plenty of modern day pirates running around this island. Shouldn't be all that difficult to learn more about this topic.

Somewhere I came across an account of a couple on a catamaran near La Romana that were robbed by pirates. I think it was in 2014, but I maybe off by a few years. Very recent anyway.

Besides the Air Transat article, there doesn’t seem to be much out there from Dominican sources or with Dominican focus.

Are there other named pirate ship wreck sites? Where were historical pirate settlements in the DR? There is definitely mention of pirates, but nothing overly specific to location.
Has there been efforts by Dominican (or other) archaeologists to study any wrecks or settlement sites, besides the Quedagh Merchant?
Of course, that wreck off Isla Catalina is identified, catalogued, and protected. Samana Bay is often mentioned, Isla Saona is also mentioned briefly, but nothing about studies or sites.

Most of what I find focuses on the Caribbean in general, has a lot to say about Tortuga, and only briefly mentions Hispañola.

The DR1 threads I linked were the most helpful.

 

[Auryn]

So the wreck of Captain Kidd’s Quedagh Merchant was discovered by a team from Indiana University, as outlined in this article published in 2007.

Captain Kidd’s Shipwreck of 1699 Discovered

The article also states that a resident of Casa de Campo initiated the investigation and asked for the site to be explored.

IU seems to have been the most involved in these studies, but maybe there are others.

 

[melphis]

The pirate rum tour is gone. It was pretty good tour with caves and a lot of Dominican history. It's now a new shopping plaza and I believe they filled in the cave entrance.

I think the pirate show is long gone too. They do have a pirate boat booze cruise in Bavaro. It's the ugliest pirate boat I have ever seen.

 

[Auryn]

The Dominican agency in charge of this area is Oficina Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural Subacuático (ONPCS).

It was that director at the time (Francis Soto) that contacted IU after someone in Casa de Campo contacted him.

From IU:

Captain Kidd’s Quedagh Merchant

 

[Auryn]

An excerpt from the article above:


“The wreck is situated in eight feet of water, only 25 meters from the rocky shoreline of the island, which explains how those that searched for the ship never found its remains. The site is in a high-energy zone with a large amount of wave action; any lighter artifacts were either carried out to sea or were washed into the rocky shoreline, along with the upper ship structure.”

Apparently, it also contained 26 cannons and 10 tons of scrap iron.

 

[Auryn]

A thorough article on Sir Frances Drake’s piracy in the Dominican Republic:

Sir Francis Drake

The article also included this interesting piece of information:

“Interesting Facts

There were many different types and classes of what we clump together as pirates now.
– Pirate is a robber and destroyer of ships at sea.
– Buccaneer was originally an inhabitant of Hispaniola. The name coming from a Taino word boucan or barbecue. Because these people were said to prepare their meat in this manner they were originally called boucaniers.
– Privateer was a privately owned ship and crew hired by a national government during wartime to plunder the ships of an enemy nation.
– Corsair was a Mediterranean pirate of the 16th century.”
~from the colonial zone-dr.com website, article linked above.

Drake was considered privateer because he was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth, but realistically he was a pirate.

 

[El Hijo de Manolo]

Plenty of modern day pirates running around this island. Shouldn't be all that difficult to learn more about this topic.

They are disguised as disgraced property managers of Sosua.

 

[KyleMackey]

Plenty of modern day pirates running around this island. Shouldn't be all that difficult to learn more about this topic.

200 years too late..........................

 

[El Hijo de Manolo]

200 years too late..........................

A'Rrrrrr A'Rrrrr

 

[Auryn]

Here is a 2019 book specifically on pirates in the Dominican Republic. I haven’t read it and there are limited reviews. The description states:

“Further adventures of the Pirate Hunters, John Chatterton and John Mattera, as they uncover the history and remains in the Birthplace of Pirates”

PIRATE SHIPWRECKS: The Dominican Republic, the Birthplace of the Real Pirates of the Caribbean

Amazon states that the author, “John Mattera (born 1962) is a writer and American shipwreck explorer and the subject of the book Pirate Hunters by Robert Kurson. Pirate Hunters is the story of two US divers, John Chatterton, and John Mattera, finding the lost pirate ship Golden Fleece of Captain Joseph Bannister in the waters off the Dominican Republic in 2008.”

 

[Sailor51]

I meant to say reputable sources on historical piracy, not reputable efforts of.

Although there is debate, piracy was not typically a reputable effort.

Yes but it was a true form of democracy. If perchance the captaino couldn't find a ship to plunder ... he got voted out. Like right now.

 

[Sailor51]

Then too, should you happen to be really sucessful, the king gave you an island, like Jamaica.

 

[Auryn]

Here is the Pirate Hunters book by Robert Kurson that was mentioned above. Reviews don’t seem overly great, but it is focused on a wreck found off the Dominican coast.

Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship

 

[Auryn]

And in regards to the wreck of the Golden Fleece, this article states that the authors of Pirate Shipwrecks had (at least in 2007-2008) a dive shop called Pirates Cove Dive Center in Samana.

The Golden Fleece Shipwreck

It outlines technical difficulties, provides pictures, and also an interesting history regarding the time period in the Samana area.

 

[Auryn]

Then too, should you happen to be really sucessful, the king gave you an island, like Jamaica.

And, those who had been legal privateers of the British, whose job was to plunder were left with no means of employment after the War of the Spanish Succession.

They continued to do what they knew, but instead of being sanctioned by the British, were then called pirates.

Nassau, Port Royal, and Tortuga are mentioned in great detail regarding pirates in Caribbean waters.

Hispañola itself requires more digging.

 

[Northern Coast Diver]

And, those who had been legal privateers of the British, whose job was to plunder were left with no means of employment after the War of the Spanish Succession.

They continued to do what they knew, but instead of being sanctioned by the British, were then called pirates.

Nassau, Port Royal, and Tortuga are mentioned in great detail regarding pirates in Caribbean waters.

Hispañola itself requires more digging.

The under water plateau off Monte Cristi is littered with the remains of many old wrecks.

 

[Auryn]

The under water plateau off Monte Cristi is littered with the remains of many old wrecks.

Apparently so. And from what I’ve read, there is a very small number of them that have been identified with verification. Dominican waters or otherwise.

There’s an entire site dedicated to the wreck of Edward Teach/Blackbeards Queen Ann’s Revenge off the coast of North Carolina. It includes detailed lab reports of various frequency ranging from daily, weekly, and monthly running from about 2000-2014 that record and explain findings. Related thesis projects, biological reports, and archaeological reports are just a few of the available readings.

I haven’t found anything in near as much detail for any other wrecks yet, but it does seem that many have yet to be discovered and confirmed.

And from the aforementioned Golden Fleece article:

“The waters surrounding the Dominican Republic are ripe for discovering Colonial-era shipwrecks. The Atlantic Ocean to the north of Hispaniola, the island that includes the Dominican Republic, is thousands of feet deep. As you near the island, the depths abruptly become shallows, and a ship in trouble during a storm could easily run aground. The entrance to Samaná Bay is particularly treacherous. For example, our primary work area was within a part of Samaná Bay called Barco Perdido, which means "lost ship" in Spanish.”

Confirming the wrecks along the coast of Hispañola would be an interesting (albeit expensive) endeavour.