The Whydah: A Pirate Ship Feared
The Whydah: A Pirate Ship Feared, Wrecked & Found by Martin W. Sandler
By Shohei Hada, Heven Heard, Angela Huang, and Samantha Jimenez
Book Summary
Author's Biography and Profile
Martin W. Sandler is the author of the book The Whydah: A Pirate Ship Feared, Wrecked, and Found. Sandler wrote several award-winning nonfiction books that focus on historical events throughout history such as Imprisoned, Lincoln Through the Lens, The Dust Bowl Through the Lens, and Kennedy Through the Lens (national book foundation). He has been a finalist for YALSA award which is an award for books that are written for young adult audience. For example, this group's projects book focuses on the history behind the piracy that occurred in the new world which exposes many unknown facts to the audience. Sandler specializes in writing about historical events in the new world and the United States due to his career in teaching history. Other than being an author, Sandler is a professor of American studies and American history at University of Massachusetts and Smith’s college (National book foundation). There are many prestigious awards for author’s literary work and Sandler has won or achieved many well-known awards as an author, historian and screenwriter. Sandler also wrote stories for television which has won 5 Emmy awards. Also, his nonfiction books have been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize (Macmillan). Sandler also wrote about the historical events in the United States which has won an award by the library of congress. Sandler's specialty in history presents that his nonfiction literary work is suitable to a teaching environment for young adults because it presents historical facts that can help with the audience’s knowledge about the historical contexts in the book.
Sources:
Martin W. Sandler | Authors | Macmillan
Martin W. Sandler - National Book Foundation
Review
The Whydah: A Pirate Ship Feared, Wrecked, and Found by Martin W. Sandler encapsulates the journey of a gally ship as it switches owners along with what happens after the ship wreck and how they managed to excavate the very first authenticated pirate ship in the world with both old and new technology. Initially, the Whydah was built as a passenger ship that also dabbled in the trading of enslaved people and precious cargo. It was under the ownership of "one of the most active slave traders of his day," Humphry Morice. Morice would often impose torturous methods upon his hundreds of slaves while exposing them to harsh weather conditions as they were chained to the ship's upper deck. During its voyage homeward, it was captured by pirates in 1717. Those pirates belonged to the crew of "Black" Sam Bellamy, who was nicknamed as such due to his dark hair and complexion. Bellamy originally became a pirate after a voyage where his crew failed to locate sunken treasure, so he turned to a life of piracy to live a life full of riches. All pirates aboard Bellamy's ship conducted themselves according to the "Articles of Agreement," that stated how specific actions were to be taken in different situations with varying repercussions.
The Whydah: A Pirate Ship Feared, Wrecked, and Found is a fantastic read solely for the amount of information it provides on slavery during the early 1700s, pirate customs and rules, and how it goes into great detail in the last third of the book about the excavation of the Whydah in 1984 when it was located off of Cape Cod. There are heavy and gore-ish topics concerning the handling of slaves and the brutality of the pirate's actions. This YA novel would be an exciting way to interact with history without the reader feeling like they are forcing down a large chunk of text stating historical events in a bland and hard-to-read manner. This often results in the majority- if not all- going in one ear and out the other leaving students to block out any new events detailed by the author due to feeling overwhelmed. Unlike most nonfiction text, it has an almost sublime style to it that feels like a fictional story with the intention of entertaining yet remains entirely factual, equipped with the proper historical events to back up any claims made. Sandler's captivating writing style makes it easy to keep the reader's attention as he narrates the chronicles of the owners and residents of the Whydah galley ship. One downside of Sandler's writing style is that while he goes in-depth with the majority of his topics, he sometimes veers in a random direction and gives an obscure description of the history that might need to be further dissected/discussed due to potential author bias.
Instructional Activity
Preview
History students in grades 9-10 will be working the "The Whydah: A Pirate Ship Feared, Wrecked, and Found" by Martin W. Sandler to learn key ideas about life in the early 1700s. Students will be required to determine central ideas and cite specific textual evidence to create their own pirate crew.
Introduction
Begin lessons by asking students what they know about life across the globe in the 1700s, particularly in Europe and the Americas. Expect answers pertaining to the War of Spanish Succession, colonialism, political unrest, child labor, and the slave trade. Guide discussion towards the aforementioned topics. Once discussion begins to die down, ask students to tell what they know about pirates. The goal of this exercise is to gauge student knowledge and get them thinking about how piracy fits into the 18th century.
Lesson
Assign "The Whydah: A Pirate Ship Feared, Wrecked, and Found" by Martin W. Sandler as class reading to be finished in a week. Create and teach from a Powerpoint that covers the following topics:
- Historical Context
- Poverty
- Over half of the population in powerful countries were extremely poor
- Extremely low wages leading to child labor
- Desperate citizens choosing to become sailors in spire of deadly and unfair working conditions
- Tyrannical rulers of Europe
- Concentration of wealth within the ruling classes
- Government programs/laws ineffectively addressing poverty and working conditions
- Why Piracy?
- Money and Power
- Piracy allowed ordinary people to earn the annual income of some of the wealthiest people in the world while the working class tended to struggle to survive due to low income
- Black and white men were seen as equal on pirate ships, allowing black pirates to earn equal income with white pirates
- Positions of power can be achieved by anyone on a pirate ship
- Freedom
- Escape terrible working conditions (sailors, indentured servants, etc.), prisons (criminals, prisoners of war), or government
- Many wanted to be free of their nations and associated social grievances
- Desire to belong only to oneself and have a voice in how one is governed
- Adventure
- Pirate Crews as Organizations
- Law and Order of Pirates
- Articles of Agreement
- Important crew positions, their responsibilities, their compensation for occupying the position
- Spirit of Democracy
- Crew members elected and removed captains and officers by vote
- Everyone entitled to equality in terms of food, sleeping arrangement, and booty
- Workers' Compensation & Life Insurance
- Loss of limb, eye, etc. = compensation
- Loss of life = family compensated
- Unity
- Cruelty was generally outwards facing and crimes against fellow pirates were severely punished
- Unspoken rule of not attacking other pirate ships
