NASSAU — An international team co-directed by British marine archaeologist Sean Kingsley discovered six shipwrecks in Nassau harbour on New Providence, Bahamas, three of which date to the 'golden age of piracy' and include the first pirate-linked wrecks ever found in Nassau. The expedition, known as the New Providence Pirates Expedition, uncovered a charred wooden hull weighed down by a stone ballast pile, along with a swivel gun, an iron cannon, 25 lead musket balls, a grinding stone for sharpening swords, rigging, glass bottles, bricks from a ship’s cooking galley, and 143 clay tobacco pipes.

The charred hull’s timbers were connected by wooden treenails, and archaeologists considered whether it could have been Henry Avery’s pirate flagship, the Fancy. "Burning ships to the waterline was an infamous tactic to hide felony from authorities. The Nassau hull shows all the signs of pirate mischief." said Michael Pateman, the expedition’s co-director and ambassador for history, culture and museology in the Bahamas. "The ship was heavily armed, especially with swivel guns … Slotted on to deck rails, these anti-personnel weapons raked devastating fire on enemy crews."

Some of the clay tobacco pipes were sticking out of the sand next to fragments of wooden shipping crates. The pipes were decorated with a unicorn, horse, crown and the royal crest of England, suggesting they were made in London around the 1740s. "No others have been found in a wrecked cargo. The ship was likely English and sailed for Nassau just after the pirate menace had been crushed. The survival of the wreck, heavily smashed by coastal development, is a miracle. The trader’s cargo of wine in glass bottles and fancy smoking pipes sheds rare light on Nassau becoming a normal port of trade, bouncing back from the pirate anarchy." Kingsley said.

"These finds are the tip of the iceberg. I was shocked at the unexpected survival of a wooden hull – ships were the key tool of pirate terror, after all. There could very well be dozens more shipwrecks in and around the harbour." Kingsley said. The team studied 300-year-old documents and old maps between dives to guide their search.

"Tides flush dangerous currents through its waters twice a day. It’s home to notorious packs of sharks. This was a risky expedition with high chances of finding nothing," said Chris Atkins, the explorer and project film-maker.