Whydah Artifact Replica Survey

[corsair2k3]

Greetings,

The first pirate shipwreck ever discovered and authenticated was the pirate ship Whydah, Captain Sam Bellamy, which went down in a storm in 1717 off Cape Cod.

[see www.whydah.com for more info]

The wreck was discovered by underwater explorer Barry Clifford in 1984 and an estimated 200,000 artifacts have been recovered to date in an ongoing archaeological excavation.

In lieu of selling artifacts, the Project is considering the sale of artifact replicas as a means of funding its future work.

This thread is intended to gauge what artifacts, or artifact categories, are of most interest to potential customers--whether as souvenirs, or for purposes of re-enactment.

Please list as many as are of interest to you, but it would obviously make the survey more "scientific" if you mention each artiact only once.

If you mention more than one artifact or artifact type in a post, we'd be grateful if you would list them in order of interest. For example:

Shot pouch (#1)

buttons

buckle

grenade

Many thanks!

[JoshuaRed]

Personal Items:

Bottles

Pewterware

Clothing

Buttons

Pouches

Inkwells

Personal Seal (the one with two birds)

Specie

Dice

Belt Buckles

Shoe Buckles

Jewelry, rings...etc

Small Arms:

Grenadoes

Musket Parts

Pistol Parts

Shot & Tools

Sword Pommel

Cartridge Box

Ship:

Cleats/Deadeyes

Nails & Hardware

Hinges, etc.

Cannon

Swivel Guns

Shot

[corsair2k3]

Good!

This is exactly the kind of feedback that I was looking for--the more responses we get like this, the better the chances of getting actual production!

Again,

Thank you!

[Gentleman of Fortune]

Josh has the benefit of having acutally been to the museum so he knows what you have and could possibly reproduce.

Having not really seen much more than what is in the Nat' Geographic its hard to say....

Firearms are going to be difficult. To make a replica firearm that a serious re-enactor is going to want to buy is going to take a lot of legwork, time, and money.

Your best bet would be contacting one of the indian/pakistani companies that are making the flintlock rifles and pistols that are then being modified by other retailers/companies and have them make them for you. That would be the cheapest route for you. You really have to sit on the guys though to make sure they get the details right.

There is not a lot of competition in this area though as most folks who want guns get the few that are available from Loyalist Arms or the Queen Anne kit from Padersoli(?)

Swords would be great, the same would probably apply as the firearms though (having them made in India or ?) But you have said that there is very little to go by as most of the swords have dissolved or whatever.... shame

Clothing items.... was there any recovered? That is interesting. I would like to see/hear more about that.

Shoes.... definately. If you can get these reproduced correctly to sell at about $125 that would be a tremendous thing. But the problem with shoes is that you need to have several sizes.... I have a shoe fetish anyway so put me down for a pair!

I think that you are best served by going for some small things made that would be cheap and easy to get started.

Buttons

Shoe and Breeches buckles

Coins that were cheap enough to buy a lot of

Any personal equipment like the cartridge box

ribbons for tieing pistols together

Grenadoes would be good.... But I plan on beating you to the punch on that one!

Sailcloth.... can't buy period sailcloth anywhere.

Belaying pins

A decent Boarding axe (where any found?)

GoF

[Patrick Hand]

Not sure if this is what you were asking for.....

Somehow selling reproductions of anything too complex, would only have limited consumers..... (it would be cool, but could you sell enough to make any money at it...? )

BUT what I think would be great is something like the "Mountainman Sketchbooks" or "Sketchbook 76" detailed diagrams, and information on the artifacts. casual tourist could buy the book to look at the pirate stuff, and reenactors could use the book as a reference to make thier own stuff, that is authentic.

[JoshuaRed]

Exactly. :)

[Fox]

The Mary Rose Trust sells replicas of artefacts recovered from the wreck in their shop, and I've also seen them in other shops so they presumably have some sort of arrangement with other suppliers.

Most of what they do (and it's a pretty limited range) is stuff with what one might call "personal" interest. They sell replicas of a couple of the pewter plates, a pepper grinder, and sundial hidden in a draughts piece, that sort of thing. In addition though they also sell a lot of stuff which is "based on" finds, such as a jewellery set (earrings, pendant, maybe a ring) based on a ring which was found, or earrings copied from a button.

They've ben selling that stuff for years so it obviously has a market.

Personally though, if you were to sell Whydah replicas I'd be particularly interested in copies of navigational or other scientific instruments found. I have a great interest in navigation myself, I know how hard it is for re-enactors to get decent quality replica for a decent price, but perhaps most importantly there would be another market for them as I suspect they'd also make great desk ornaments/toys for businessmen.

FWIW, my wishlist:

Navigation instruments.

Personal artefacts (ie, those connected with the people rather than the ship or the "pirates"; inkwells, tankards and goblets, knives and forks, shoe buckles etc.)

Games (found any chess-men or dice?) - these would probably sell pretty well I'd imagine.

A replica Whydah (OK, this should be top of the list, but I doubt I could afford it)

[JoshuaRed]

Foxe you should see the replica Whydah on display at the museum...it's gorgeous and overflowing with detail. Wait a minute...I've got a picture! (Feel like a proud papa pulling pics of the kids out of his wallet to show everyone at work)

Click the thumbs...

[Hawkyns]

Well, that cartridge box would be at the top of my list, that's for sure.

Beyond that, I think the 'ditty bag' items would be the best.

Buttons, buckles and seals are always on my 'acquire' list. Personal items like pocket knives, pipe tools, gun tools, and game pieces would be useful. The sword hilt pieces would be interesting, especially if you seel them as individual pieces instead of complete weapons. Very few places sell the parts to let you assemble your own edged weapons.

I don't see the firearms as being practical, there being a number of people already doing good repro's of period pieces. Clothing likewise, you'd have to maintain a huge stock.

I'd love the ship, but I'd need to get the one from the museum, since no way do I have the patience to do the planking and rigging.

Hawkyns

[Captain Midnight]

I would be interested in any replicas from the Whydah, but most especially the cartridge box and the shoes. I have made a replica of the cartridge box, except for the wooden insert, which I have not seen yet. Does anyone know whether the insert was a thin wooden box (the diagram of the cartridge box pieces seems to support this idea), or was it a simple block drilled with holes to hold the cartridges? I made mine with a block drilled with eight holes, but unless I am badly mistaken, I think the original had a thin wooden tray-like box made up of several pieces which slid into the leather box. I just made the block type for lack of being able to see proper details of the original. Can anyone else elaborate a bit on this topic?

[hitman]

First off let me say that as a firearms FREAK I hate to see the idea of them put down even if those wiser than I are the ones that reccomend such. As for me the list would look something like this,

Firearms

Patrick Hands idea for a sketch book type deal

navagation/scientific instruments

gun tools

bottles

cartridge box

pocket knives

buttons

Ship Models (both advanced and begginer)

Hawkyns idea for sword hilts

flags (not just of a pirate nature but other nautical flags likely to be aboard.)

Now in all honesty if all of these items were on the market today the first that I would purchase would be the gun tools followed by the sketch book. Also I would like to apologize if the list is rather oddly compiled as I tried to stick with the idea of what I most wanted top to bottom.

[MadMike]

Something along the lines of "The Collector's Illustrated Encyclopedia of the American Revolution" would be great.

Yours, Mike