What is latest on Whydah Artifacts

[Gentleman of Fortune]

I was searching the net (and the Whydah site) to see if there was any more information or pictures of the artifacts available. I read where their were 73? buckles found, a bunch of Grenades, and other neat objects....

Are they posting any info on this or am I being teased into going to the Museum or buying a book?

GoF

[blackjohn]

Having been twice, I can say the museum is worth the trip if you are really into pirates. As for books... as I've lamented in the past, the archaeologist's report is not in print, and Clifford's book on the Whydah is of marginal use to anyone wanting to re-enact pirates. It's great in that it has a nice big list of artifacts, but lousy if you are looking for images of said artifacts. But buy the book anyway, buy all of Clifford's books!!! Help keep him in business. He seems a decent fellow, as do his minions (hi Ken), and, honestly... I actually enjoyed reading the one about him searching for the remains of the bucaneering fleet off of... Islas de Las Aves(sp?). or

C'mon Corsair... speak up... lets hear some good news on forthcoming pdfs!

[corsair2k3]

One of the problems of the Whydah Project is that it doesn't sell artifacts.

As a consequence, income is always [unfortunately] an issue--especially since the Museum is only open from April through October.

As a consequence, the project's website has--and probably always will have--a commercial component. Unfortunately, it appears that website sales are not going to be a meaningful component of Project income.

Priority over the past few months has therefore been placed on the creation of a volume of historical source material. It's hoped that said volume will be done by mid-May.

Once that's out, work will resume on the artifact gallery. This material will be either uploaded to the site or sold as a CD--possibly multi-media in Powerpoint.

Owing to a variety of technical reasons, the other two Final Report (First Phase) archaeological volumes are going to take awhile to convert to pdf.

Regards,

The Corsair

[JoshuaRed]

Anyone who can make it to P-town should go see this museum. It blew me away. WELL worth the drive alllll the way around the Cape. :)

[corsair2k3]

And, with luck, the Project might well acquire a larger, and less desolate, location in the future...

Regards,

The Corsair

[Gentleman of Fortune]

Weren't they going to build a replica of the Whydah at one time... till the NAACP nixed the idea?

Sadly, for me though, coming from Germany... its hard to include (read: convince the wife) that a trip to an out of the way place to visit a museum is the best use of limited time....

Oh well.

GoF

[corsair2k3]

Greetings,

Greetings

>Weren't they going to build a replica of the Whydah at one time... till the NAACP nixed the idea?

It was a little more complicated than that, but you are, in essence, correct. A major facility including a replica was planned for Tampa

>Sadly, for me though, coming from Germany... its hard to include (read: convince the wife) that a trip to an out of the way place to visit a museum is the best use of limited time....

Ironically, just prior to 9-11, we were in negotiations with a German firm for a tour of our travelling exhibit Europe--including several sites in Germany. So perhaps the Whydah may yet come to you!

>Oh well.

>We will see what we can do digitally in the meantime.

The Corsair

Who enjoyed our exhibit in Bremen immensely

GoF

[corsair2k3]

...while I am thinking of it:

Should it happen that we keep the artifact gallery presently on the site, is the info/format useful to re-enactors. Or, for example, would additional technical information about the artifacts be desired?

The Corsair

[Hawkyns]

I understand about not selling the artifacts (not happy about it but I understand it ). I've been to the museum a couple of times in the past year and a half or so. I think my biggest disappointment in the store is that it seems so targeted at the average 7 year old. Tshirts, toys, and kids books, in my opinion works against you. Sure, you'll pick up the catchpenny tourist money, but in doing so, I think you lessen the image of a serious archeological endeavor. I understand the work needed to produce the books neccesary, but why does it all have to be in one or two large hardbound volumes? How about something more like the Royal Armouries Monographs, 60 or 70 pages, softbound, dealing with a particular group of items. The pottery, for example, or the firearms finds. The Mary Rose Trust does quite a nice job marketing and selling single sheets, about 11x17 on stiff paper, that are the archeological drawings of a particular item, with a brief description and history.

Suffice it to say that yes, I want more than just a photo of an artifact with a one line description. Photo, line drawing, dimensions, materials info, and anything else known about the artifact are what I'm looking for.. I have noted that the published archeologists notes seem to be much more common and popular in Europe than in the US. I can go to just about any museum over there and find softbound books on most of the finds pertaining to that museum and similar ones in the country. That seems to be decidedly lacking over here.

Hawkyns

[corsair2k3]

Hawkyns wrote:

I understand about not selling the artifacts (not happy about it but I understand it ).

I've been to the museum a couple of times in the past year and a half or so. I think my biggest disappointment in the store is that it seems so targeted at the average 7 year old. Tshirts, toys, and kids books, in my opinion works against you.

>Believe me, what's in there causes me to cringe as well...When we first opened we had only books and a couple of souvenir shirts. And found we were rapidly going broke...

Sure, you'll pick up the catchpenny tourist money, but in doing so, I think you lessen the image of a serious archeological endeavor.

>Unfortunately, there's a sort of Gresham's Law in effect at the P-Town location (it probably applies to other touristy places as well). Bad Stuff is preferred over the Good Stuff. The number of times when I've seen people buy 4 pieces of crap totalling 20 bucks instead of something half decent for $10 is uncountable.

And the serious scholarly stuff simply does not sell at a rate that justifies the space it takes up--although we carry some of it anyway. Personally, I'm mortified by the fact that we have yet to sell a copy of Arms&Armour in Colonial America, Villains at Sea, The Pirate-Hunter to name a few.

I understand the work needed to produce the books neccesary, but why does it all have to be in one or two large hardbound volumes? How about something more like the Royal Armouries Monographs, 60 or 70 pages, softbound, dealing with a particular group of items.

>Well that might be a thought. The costs of doing such monographs used to be horrific, but, with self-publishing, are getting more reasonable. And the website offers a wide enough exposure that we might actually sell a few. That's something we will consider. Thanks for the suggestion!

The pottery, for example, or the firearms finds. The Mary Rose Trust does quite a nice job marketing and selling single sheets, about 11x17 on stiff paper, that are the archeological drawings of a particular item, with a brief description and history.

>That's another idea. What do they sell for?

Many Thanks!

The Corsair

[JoshuaRed]

When I went I took many detailed pics of the artifacts for my records. They're very generous in allowing cameras in.

Sure, the giftshop was the standard mix of piratey-tourist swag, but I did drop about a hundred bucks there in many hard to find books, including a stellar book on colonial life in the Mass Bay Colony that is stuffed with great info culled from original sources.

Corsair, I wonder if one possible option would be to one day merge the collection with Pirate Soul in Key West? They've got the bucks and Class A presentation platform, you've got the real deal stuff and loads of it. What a duo!

[corsair2k3]

Was that YOU?

The Corsair

[Gentleman of Fortune]

Should it happen that we keep the artifact gallery presently on the site, is the info/format useful to re-enactors. Or, for example, would additional technical information about the artifacts be desired?

I looked all over the site for a link to the artifact gallery and couldn't find it... is it down?

But, forging ahead with your above question... which is basically "What do re-enactors want?"

We want technical information, we want pictures of close up details (done with PROFESSIONAL MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY, we want line drawings, more pictures and as much other info as you can cram in.

The reason is that we are going to try to make our own copies of the items in your museum, and the more information you can provide us, the more accurate those copies are going to be.

AND

This all really ties into the gift shop conundrum. I understand that you got to have those impulse buys (eye patch and wooden sword for the kids) but the dedicated amateur pirate historian that visits your museum is going to have most of the pirate books anyway so they probably wont buy one. The books we will buy on impulse is something that we have not seen before and is so esoteric that we can’t resist… i.e. Josh and his book purchase.

The problem there is that you sink a lot of money in books that you might only sell 1 or 2 of a year. And that is not good business sense.

Solutions?

Hawkins has some good ones. Most museums in Europe have a 8 X 11 color catalogue of all the exhibits on display in the museum plus a good amount that they do not have on display. They have couple of paragraphs about the item, its history (more information than is on the plaque next to the item on display). You certainly can fluff up the catalogue with info on Pirates in general, shipwrecks, the history of the Whydah, and famous pirates. This is the kind of thing that everyone buys because it’s the perfect keepsake and reference for the museum visit.

You have some amazing things from the pirate wreck. I too understand that you don’t want to sell them. But why not sell copies for the items?

Here is an example. If someone wants to buy an exact replica of a cartridge box used by pirates in the GAOP, where do you get one?

You guys have an original, with line drawings and the hole shooting match! I can believe you guys have not found a sweat shop in Pakistan to crank those things out at $2 a piece. I guarantee you Hawkins and Josh would not have walked to the parking lot without one in their bag if they were in your gift shop for $29.95!

Buttons… you guys must have a bunch of original buttons too. When we want to get our buttons, we usually buy them from GG Godwin or the like and they are probably F&I period buttons. You get some replica pirate buttons and I am putting in my order tomorrow!

You will probably do more business with us via the internet than walk throughs from summer tourist, but you can keep your e-store open all year.

Find the niche, use what you have, copy it, and shlock it to us baby!

Lastly

Q: What do the Maryland Maritime Heritage Festival, the Chicagoland Re-enactors Fest!, the 225th Anniversary of the Invasion of Charleston, the Pirates in Paradise festival, the Hampton Blackbeard Festival, and Fort Frederick’s 11th Annual 18th Century Market Fair all have in common?

A: They are places where representatives of the Whydah museum should be but aren’t! These are all pirate and/or 18th Century festivals (where people who would be interested in the Whydah museum are but may not even know you exist. This pirate thing is hot, (and will only get hotter with the release of POTC2) and folks are flying in from all over the US to take part. Take a small museum (fill up a van with stuff and hit the road!) to the people to get the word out. Have a table of stuff to sell…. Buttons and Cartridge boxes? And you will work wonders.

GoF

[corsair2k3]

Many good things to ponder in these postings...

The last time we did an exhibits catalog we lost our shirts--in one respect it was not mass-market enough, but, from another POV it was TOO mass-market.

Staff time resources and cash are in short supply at museums around the country. In order to make a case to my superiors for the kind of efforts talked about, I have to show interest/feasibility.

To that end, I'm going to post a couple of artifact report/replica polls at this site, and the Whydh's, to get some gauge of actual interest.

I encourage all reenactors and other scholars to participate

Thanks for the input,

Ken