Brandon Clifford Named to the Explorers Club EC50 Class of 2026
The Whydah Project’s Director of Underwater Archaeology has been recognized among fifty people changing the world.
We are proud to announce that Brandon Clifford — divemaster, underwater field archaeologist, Executive Director of the Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation, and Director of the Whydah Project — has been named to the Explorers Club EC50 Class of 2026.
The EC50 is one of the most prestigious honors in exploration. Each year the Explorers Club selects fifty people from around the world whose work is pushing the boundaries of human knowledge — scientists, archaeologists, engineers, and adventurers doing work that matters. Brandon joins the Class of 2026 in recognition of his decades of work leading the ongoing excavation of the Whydah Gally wreck site off Cape Cod, and his broader contributions to maritime archaeology and cultural heritage preservation around the world.
A Life Built Around the Whydah
Brandon’s connection to the Whydah is not simply professional — it is personal and generational. In his own words, submitted to the Explorers Club:
“For most of my life, the Whydah Gally has been more than a shipwreck; it has been a thread connecting generations of my family, the coastline I grew up beside, and the stories that shaped my imagination.”
That connection has driven him back to the wreck site year after year, leading scientific diving operations, artifact recovery, and multidisciplinary research that spans maritime archaeology, history, and public science communication. His work has taken him beyond Cape Cod to expeditions in Haiti, Madagascar, and across the Atlantic coast of Massachusetts, documenting historically significant wrecks and piracy-era sites.
Beyond the Treasure — The Truth Behind the Artifacts
What sets Brandon’s work apart is his commitment to telling the full story of the Whydah — not just the pirate adventure, but the deeper history the wreck represents. The Whydah began her life as a slave ship. The artifacts recovered from her wreck site are a direct record of the Atlantic world of 1717 — its commerce, its brutality, and the human lives it consumed.
Brandon puts it directly:
“The impact of this work lies not in treasure but in truth. The Whydah was a pirate ship, but also a slave ship, tied directly to the economies and injustices of its time.”
Among the most significant recent discoveries from the wreck site were 768 brass currency rings — known as manillas — recovered during the 2018 and 2019 field seasons. Those artifacts, analyzed in a peer-reviewed study published in PLOS ONE in 2023, helped researchers establish a chemical link between the manillas used in the West African slave trade and the famous Benin Bronzes — some of the most celebrated artworks in African history and the subject of ongoing international restitution debates. As Brandon notes:
“The manillas we found in recent years at the Whydah shipwreck site have enabled other researchers to connect them with the famous Benin Bronzes, possibly the most discussed cultural heritage of recent years.”
Exploration as Legacy
For Brandon, the significance of this work extends beyond archaeology. It is about understanding who we are and how our shared history continues to shape the present — a message he is passing on to the next generation.
“Sharing this work with my own children has deepened its significance. Standing with them on the same decks where I once stood as a child reminds me that exploration is both personal and generational.”
He was nominated for the EC50 by Mark Agostini FN’25 and Richard Wiese FR’89.
Congratulations, Brandon
The entire Whydah Pirate Museum team congratulates Brandon on this well-deserved honor. His work — season after season, dive after dive — is what keeps the Whydah’s story alive and ensures that the artifacts recovered from the ocean floor off Cape Cod continue to deepen our understanding of history for generations to come.
To learn more about Brandon’s selection and the full EC50 Class of 2026, visit 50.explorers.org/community/brandon-clifford.
The Whydah Pirate Museum is home to the world’s only authenticated pirate treasure, recovered from the wreck of Captain Samuel Bellamy’s flagship off Cape Cod. Visit us at 674 MA-28, West Yarmouth — open year-round.