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Great Big Story and CNN Films Presents: This Explorer Shares Shipwrecked Treasures with the World

Barry Clifford is an explorer, an underwater archaeologists and some would even say, a treasure hunter. In 1984, he discovered the first artifacts of what would be a massive find. The Whydah was a pirate ship that sank off the coast of Cape Cod in 1717. For the past 30 years, Clifford and his team of divers, excavators and archaeologists have continued unearthing the trove, whose value is estimated at more than $400 million. But unlike most treasure hunters, he does not sell what he finds. Instead, he places the artifacts on public display at a museum, all in the interest of preserving our cultural heritage.

This Great Big Story was made in collaboration with Audi.

Boston Globe – Pirate museum to open on Cape Cod June 25

A museum featuring what’s said to be the world’s only authenticated pirate coins, pistols, swords, and other artifacts, pulled from a ship that sank off Wellfleet in 1717, is opening in West Yarmouth this month.

The Whydah Pirate Museum, which is being billed as a 12,000-square-foot “treasure trove” that includes a life-size replica of the ship Whydah that can be explored, will welcome people aboard on June 25.

“There’s nothing like this to compare it to,” said Barry Clifford, who in 1984, alongside his diving team, discovered the Whydah Gally’s remains off Cape Cod. It became the first pirate ship whose identity was verified.