Thee Official PIRATE Thread - Beyond Tiki

B Bellamy Member Joined: Oct 16, 2013 Posts: 8	B Bellamy Posted posted on Fri, Oct 23, 2015 6:23 PM On 2013-10-30 16:51, MadDogMike wrote: This topic hold special interest to me as one of my ancestors was a confirmed pirate. Actually an uncle, the brother of one of my direct ancestors. Otto VanTuyl was born in Holland in 1663. He sailed under Captain Hoar on the John & Rebecca. He was on St Mary's Island in Madagascar when Captain Kidd arrived there in 1698 but Uncle Otto did not sail with Kidd, instead he sailed with Captain John Culliford. In 1699 Otto sailed with Captain Giles Shelly back to New York where he was arrested. Authorities were desperately seeking information on Captain Kidd. After questioning, VanTuyl was released - his deposition is stored in the Library of Congress. Uncle Otto decided to give up his pirate ways and took a job as the captain of the Castle Del Key. On 12/17/1704 his ship ran aground in Sandy Hook New York during a winter storm. Though they were visible from shore, rescuers were unable to reach the ship until December 21st by which time VanTuyl and 131 of his 145 men had either drowned or froze to death. Hey Mad Dog, thanks for sharing that story! You know, working in a pirate history and artifact museum I hear just about everyone and their brother tell me that they are related to a pirate; it's as obnoxious as working at the Plimouth Plantation where every guest thinks that they had a relative on the Mayflower (there must have been thousands of people on the Mayflower!). But your story sounds really good. At least, my eyes didn't begin watering from pain while reading it. Mad Dog, you may be happy to know that Barry Clifford, who found the pirate ship Whydah, also just recently found five pirate shipwrecks at Ile St. Marie (the "St Mary's Island" that you mentioned) - and YES, that includes Culliford's ship, which sank there! We currently have a HISTORY CHANNEL 8-part documentary series airing called "Pirate Treasure of the Knights Templar" that tells all about these ships we found. And we have a few artifacts from each of those ships at our main Whydah Pirate Museum in Provincetown on Cape Cod (Massachusetts). We're open every year from May to October 31st, so you should come visit some time. We have the very items that were held and used by your uncle's crew - maybe even by your uncle himself! Our diver & archaeologist Chris Macort is also well versed on Culliford; maybe we could arrange a meeting for you and he could share some things with you if you ever visit. [ Edited by: Bellamy 2015-10-23 18:30 ]

On 2013-10-30 16:51, MadDogMike wrote:
This topic hold special interest to me as one of my ancestors was a confirmed pirate. Actually an uncle, the brother of one of my direct ancestors. Otto VanTuyl was born in Holland in 1663. He sailed under Captain Hoar on the John & Rebecca. He was on St Mary's Island in Madagascar when Captain Kidd arrived there in 1698 but Uncle Otto did not sail with Kidd, instead he sailed with Captain John Culliford. In 1699 Otto sailed with Captain Giles Shelly back to New York where he was arrested. Authorities were desperately seeking information on Captain Kidd. After questioning, VanTuyl was released - his deposition is stored in the Library of Congress. Uncle Otto decided to give up his pirate ways and took a job as the captain of the Castle Del Key. On 12/17/1704 his ship ran aground in Sandy Hook New York during a winter storm. Though they were visible from shore, rescuers were unable to reach the ship until December 21st by which time VanTuyl and 131 of his 145 men had either drowned or froze to death.

Hey Mad Dog, thanks for sharing that story! You know, working in a pirate history and artifact museum I hear just about everyone and their brother tell me that they are related to a pirate; it's as obnoxious as working at the Plimouth Plantation where every guest thinks that they had a relative on the Mayflower (there must have been thousands of people on the Mayflower!). But your story sounds really good. At least, my eyes didn't begin watering from pain while reading it. Mad Dog, you may be happy to know that Barry Clifford, who found the pirate ship Whydah, also just recently found five pirate shipwrecks at Ile St. Marie (the "St Mary's Island" that you mentioned) - and YES, that includes Culliford's ship, which sank there! We currently have a HISTORY CHANNEL 8-part documentary series airing called "Pirate Treasure of the Knights Templar" that tells all about these ships we found. And we have a few artifacts from each of those ships at our main Whydah Pirate Museum in Provincetown on Cape Cod (Massachusetts). We're open every year from May to October 31st, so you should come visit some time. We have the very items that were held and used by your uncle's crew - maybe even by your uncle himself! Our diver & archaeologist Chris Macort is also well versed on Culliford; maybe we could arrange a meeting for you and he could share some things with you if you ever visit.

[ Edited by: Bellamy 2015-10-23 18:30 ]

Post #753043 by Bellamy on Fri, Oct 23, 2015 6:23 PM