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WEEKLY NEWS 4: Remains Of Nine-Year-Old Pirate Found

Researchers in Massachusetts have identified the remains of the youngest pirate known to have sailed U.S. waters--a nine-year-old boy from the 18th century ship “Whydah.” Historian Ken Kinkor of the Expedition Whydah Sea-Lab and Learning Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, made the announcement last Wednesday.

The young pirate has been identified as John King, who was aboard the Whydah when the ship was caught in a storm off the coast of Cape Cod nearly 300 years ago. Only eight of the 180-man crew survived--the unlucky boy was not among those eight.

The tale of John King would have been lost to history if not for the 1984 discovery and salvage of the Whydah wreck. Explorer Barry Clifford used court documents and an old map to locate the ship. Among the thousands of artifacts recovered was a small fibula, or lower leg bone. The bone was placed in storage until the connection was made to young John King.

Meanwhile, Clifford’s research led him to court records detailing the last pirating expedition of the Whydah. Bonetta, the ship that the pirates attacked, carried a nine-year-old boy who was traveling with his mother from Jamaica to Antigua (both islands in the West Indies). Abijah Savage, commander of the Bonetta, had claimed that the boy went willingly and eagerly with the pirates, in spite of his mother’s protests.

With this new piece of information, Clifford was anxious to learn more about the small leg bone. He gave it to archeologists, who determined that the fibula came from a child between eight- and eleven-years-old. Clifford had also found a small, child-sized shoe and one silk stocking, bringing him to the conclusion that the King boy was on the ship when it went down.

One question remains: Why would a young boy be drawn to the violent life of a pirate? Historian Ken Kinkor told the Los Angeles Times there might be “a variety of reasons why a pirate’s life would have appealed to a youngster--a free and easy lifestyle, and a classless, democratic subculture.”

--Written by Patricia Daniels

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