Musket balls and a burnt hull: evidence of real pirates of the Caribbean found in Bahamas

Exclusive: First shipwrecks found in Nassau harbour on New Providence, once the hideout of Blackbeard and Calico Jack

The first shipwrecks linked to the real pirates of the Caribbean in the Bahamas have been discovered by an international team co-directed by a British marine archaeologist.

Blackbeard and Calico Jack Rackham were among pirates who, between the 1690s and 1720s, turned Nassau on the island of New Providence into a hideout where they plotted their next heists on the high seas and divided up their plunder.

Now, following the first-ever official permission to dive in the closed zone of Nassau harbour, an expedition has found six wrecks, three of which can be traced to the “golden age of piracy”.

Pirates were known to destroy evidence of their crimes by setting fire to ships they had seized, having raided their lucrative cargo, cannon and fittings. The archaeologists discovered a charred wooden hull, still weighed down by a stone ballast pile.

Swivel guns, pivot-mounted cannon, were the pirates’ weapons of choice for sparking panic on enemy decks. The archaeologists found what they described as just such as an example – “a calling card of pirate attacks”, they said – along with an iron cannon and a pile of 25 lead musket balls, and a grinding stone for sharpening swords.

The finds have exceeded expectations, because the seabed had been heavily scooped out by dredging.

Dr Sean Kingsley, a British marine archaeologist and the project’s co-director, told the Guardian: “These finds are the tip of the iceberg. I was shocked at the unexpected survival of a wooden hull – ships were the key tool of pirate terror, after all. There could very well be dozens more shipwrecks in and around the harbour.”