Cedar Rapids Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Youngest Known Pirate Identified From Whydah Wreck

Underwater archaeologists identify the partial remains of John King a 9 year old boy who joined Captain Bellamy on the Whydah. The wreck off Cape Cod sank after a storm three months after the ship set sail leaving eight survivors two of whom were freed by Cotton Mather. The discovery connects a small fibula a silk stocking and a shoe to the boy whose brief pirate life is documented in a 1716 deposition. Conservationists and scholars note the findings illuminate a child’s risky era and the era’s democratic lure for youths at sea.