Ghost ship series: Pirate shipwreck
The romantic appeal of the sea has not worn out a bit since the glorious days of flagships and sailing boats. It is no wonder – our language retains all sea superstitions, stories, and beliefs in a form of sayings and expressions that reflect our overall admiration over this powerful element. There is the saying, for example, “what the sea wants, the sea will have", or, "what belongs to the sea must return to the sea." At those times a sailor, who had fallen overboard, could be left adrift for fear of retribution for bringing him back aboard. It was considered a misfortune and even dangerous to allow onboard someone who had possibly tainted their clothing with sea plants.
Also, red sky at night was read as a delight, but red sky in the morning was a sailors’ warning (am I into poetry all of a sudden?). Now, let me ask you a question: do we still have the same piety while looking at a sunset or a sunrise? I think we do.
Every shipwreck is a time capsule, and each artifact can tell us a story. Rest assured, history conceals a lot of pirate stories. Underwater explorer Barry Clifford and his team were able to locate Whydah, the only verified pirate shipwreck, off Cape God in the Pacific Ocean. For the past two decades, they have been recovering and researching her treasures. Whydah, whose captain was legendary Sam Bellamy, is known to have been one of the most advanced ships of her days, originally a slave ship subsequently remade into a pirate vessel. Whydah sank in a storm in 1717 with bounty from over 50 captured ships. To that end, this picture is about the romance of the sea and pirate treasures lost and found, and about sea mysteries solved and unsolved.
Software media: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Autodesk 3ds Max, Photo Stock, Daz Studio, Bryce, Painter X
George Grie, March 2010
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Ghost ship series: Pirate shipwreck | surreal underwater seabed