NO LIMITS

15 June 2018: There have many stories of toy ships set off upon the sea to see where they wind up; we have posted many of them here. But this one, to us, is the capper! From the aptly named, Oddity Central:
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Children usually launch their toy pirate ships in their pool or bathtub, but two Scottish brothers decided they wanted their toy ship to tackle the high seas. They launched it from Peterhead, in Scotland, last May, and it has been sailing the world’s seas and oceans ever since.
Ollie Ferguson (8) and his brother Harry (5), launched their Playmobil pirate ship into the North Sea as part of a bucket list of adventures that they put together.

Their parents were more than happy to help out, preparing the ship for its maiden voyage. They toy ship had a counterweight added, to help it stay afloat, and its hull was filled with polystyrene to improve its buoyancy.

But despite these modifications, no one expected it to still be sailing almost a year after being launched from Peterhead. It’s currently passing by Guyana, in South America.

Named “Adventure” by the two Scottish brothers, the toy pirate ship originally sailed hundreds of miles from Peterhead, in Scotland, all the way to Denmark, where a family found it and set it on its way again. It then reached Sweden and Norway, and every time it reached a shore, someone would find it and launch it again. The Adventure carries a written message asking anyone who finds it to launch it back into the sea.


After being launched from the Norwegian shoreline, last year, the Adventure was taken aboard  the Christian Radich, a Norwegian full-rigged ship, and transported to a larger body of water that it could explore. Late last year, the Playmobil ship was launched off the coast of Mauritania, in the Atlantic Ocean, and it’s been continuing its exciting adventure ever since. 

It’s hard to imagine anyone anticipating that the Adventure would last so long at sea, but Ollie and Harry’s father did find the idea of tracking the toy boat on its voyage exciting, so before launching it into the North Sea, he partnered up with a leading GPS tracking company to have it equipped with a state-of-the-art transmitter. So they’ve been able to keep an eye on the Adventure’s location ever since the beginning.
“The boys love it,” their father, MacNeill Ferguson, said. “When they come home from school they ask if there is there any news about the ship.”
They’ve also set up a Facebook page where they document the ship’s progress and post photos and news about its incredible sailing adventure. Believe it or not, there’s now an international community following this page and even helping the Fergusons by keeping an eye on the toy boat should it be sailing past their location.


It’s been quite a journey for the toy pirate ship, but last week, it seemed to have come to an end. On “The Days Are Just Packed” Facebook page the Fergusons announced that the Adventure had not been transmitting its location twice a day, as it usually did. It had missed several pings, and everyone feared that its Atlantic voyage may have finally come to an end. However, yesterday, just when it looked like the voyage was over, the Adventure starting transmitting off the coast of South America.

So I guess the Adventure’s epic adventure continues. And the icing on the cake is that the little pirate ship is actually heading for the Bahamas, home of the most famous pirates in history.
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And to add a touch of reality to this great story, here is a link where you can see for yourself where "Adventure" is in real time! Or could, had her batteries not run out. Click here:


 https://track-adventure.squarespace.com/

We will probably not be posting about "Adventure" going forward, as her onboard GPS seems to have failed sending her position. Last position (per the chart - See link above) was near Barbados in May.

And to those you who qualify, happy Father's Day! (Sunday)

Until next time, 
                                   Fair Winds,
                                       Old Salt 

NOT BLACK SAM BELLAMY

9 JUNE 2018: A few weeks ago - maybe a couple of months? - we posted a piece about finding a human bone near where Black Sam Bellamy's ship Whydah went ashore on Cape Cod back in the 18th century. The question raised was obviously, "was it Bellamy's bone?" Well, after a bunch of forensic tests including DNA from relatives of the pirate captain living in the UK, it has been determined - well, read it for yourself below in this FOXNEWS/AP piece by J Rogers.

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A mysterious human bone recovered from Cape Cod’s Whydah shipwreck does not belong to a notorious English pirate, experts have confirmed.

The Whydah Pirate Museum in Yarmouth, Mass. announced Thursday that the bone is not from infamous pirate Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy. 

The museum had enlisted forensic scientists at the University of New Haven to extract DNA and compare it with DNA from a living Bellamy descendant in the U.K.

The testing determined that the bone was from a male with general ties to the Eastern Mediterranean area, but was not Bellamy.

The Whydah sank in a storm in 1717, with the loss of 102 lives. Bellamy's body was among the 40 that were never found or identified. The wreck was discovered in 1984.

The museum publicly displayed the mystery bone in February. The bone, thought be a femur, was found near what's believed to be Bellamy's pistol.
The bone had been extracted from a 3,600-pound “concretion” — a large chunk of hardened sand and artifacts taken from the wreck a number of years ago, the Cape Cod Times reported.

Over 200 concretions have been located at the wreck site.
Since its discovery, some 20,000 coins have been recovered from the wreck, although most of its treasure is thought to remain on the ocean floor. Coins and precious metals from the wreck have been valued at more than $400 million, according to Coinworld.

Bellamy had seized 54 ships in just over two years prior to the Whydah’s sinking, fueling speculation that the wreck is treasure-laden. Forbes has listed the English pirate as the highest-earning pirate ever, plundering about $120 million worth of treasure in a little over a year.
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So there you have it - it's not Bellamy. Makes you wonder who it is!

Until next time,
                                    Fair Winds, 
                                         Old Salt