Shipwreck hunters exploring a site in the Mediterranean between Spain and Morocco have unearthed a “heavily armed pirate ship” from the 17th century that experts are calling “a valuable echo of one of the greatest maritime horrors of the western Mediterranean.”
Experts believe the ship, identified as a 17th-century Barbary corsair (or pirate ship), was most likely heading towards the Spanish coast to capture and enslave indigenous people. Live Science To conceal their underhanded attempts, the ship was loaded with Algerian pots and pans to disguise itself as a merchant ship.
The discovery is “the first Algerian pirate found on Barbary soil,” according to Sean Kingsley, the project's researcher and editor-in-chief. Wreckwatch MagazineCovering underwater research.
Researchers identified the 45-foot-long vessel as a tartan, a small boat favored by pirates on the Barbary Coast because it could be easily disguised as a fishing boat. “I've seen tartans described as 'low-level pirate ships,'” Kingsley said. “The wreck fits the profile of a Barbary pirate in location and character. The seas around the Strait of Gibraltar were the pirates' favorite hunting grounds, and a third of all pirate bounties were taken here.”
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Among the wreckage, scientists found a treasure trove of stolen goods and weapons. The ship's arsenal included four large cannons, 10 swivel guns and a large number of rifles for a crew of 20. They also found a rare “binocular” that experts believe was stolen from a European ship, and remains of pottery such as bowls and vases that helped identify the ship as an Algerian pirate.
The ship was first discovered in 2005 during a separate expedition by Florida-based company Odyssey Marine Exploration (OME). Scientists then explored the wreck with the help of a remote-controlled vehicle called Zeus, a “sophisticated robot equipped with archaeological tools.”
“Add to the mix a collection of glass drinking bottles made in Belgium or Germany and tea bowls made in Ottoman Turkey, and the wreck looks pretty suspicious,” explained OME founder and expedition leader Greg Stemm. “This was no normal North African coastal trader.”
“The two defining characteristics of pirate ships are heavy weaponry and a cosmopolitan cultural context, with many prizes taken,” Kingsley explained. He noted that the ship’s arsenal could be quickly assembled to attack the crew in the rigging and on deck if the captain was in trouble.
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Kingsley continued: “Much of the pottery is linked to the kilns excavated at Martyrs' Square in Algiers, strongly suggesting a main port. The collection includes unusual glass drinking bottles made in Belgium or Germany, tea bowls from Ottoman Turkey and a European spyglass.” [means] “The wreck does not resemble any known Mediterranean merchant.”
Lawless pirates ruled the Barbary Coast, which stretches from modern-day Morocco to Libya, for 200 years. They attacked ships and raided unsuspecting towns along the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts, kidnapping people who they then sold for ransom or in the North African slave market.
“The threat of the Algerian pirates was a daily terror for the West. The shipwreck found in deep waters is a precious echo of one of the great maritime horrors of the Western Mediterranean,” Stemm said Newsweek.
The pirates' reign of terror ended in the 19th century, following their defeat in the Barbary Wars by a joint coalition of the United States, Sweden, and the Norman Kingdom of Sicily.
Experts are unsure how long the recently discovered ship was in use or exactly when it was built, but Kingsley believes it sank around 1760. “The Ottoman bowls in the wreck stopped being made in Turkey around 1755. The tightest dating comes from glass bottles blown in 1740-1760 at the latest. So the ship cannot be dated later than 1760,” he explained.