"Hendrick-Quintor"(1692-1717)

A free black man of Dutch & African descent, "went on the account"when the Spanish brigantine he was aboard was captured by French privates in the early 1700s.He was was one of 30 seamen of African descent on board the Whydah,along with 20 more black pirates on the other ships in "Black Sam Bellamy flotilla.Henrick perhaps the son of a sailor,spent most of his time at sea.After joining the pirates of the Whydahearned a reputation as one of the toughest pirates on the ship.Hendrick was not aboard the Whydah,when she sank in 1717.He didn't survive long after.Hendrick was captured in 1717,found guilty of piracy,and was sentenced to death by hanging.The town square was packed near the gallows where he and five other pirates met their death.To the audience,it was entertainment.A mulatto born in Amsterdam.He served proudly aboard the Whydah,a pirate shipwreck site discovered in 1984 by underwater explorer Barry Clifford an his team continue to direct the ongoing excavation of the wreck in a project that has been described by state and federal regulatory agencies as " model for private archaeology." The National Geographic Real Pirates website said "commissioned in London in 1715,the Whydah was originally built to carry slaves from Africa to the New World cramped compartments in the ship's hold were constructed to house human cargo on their journey to Caribbean sugar plantations.As a slave ship,the Whydah's state-of-the art design included a sleek silhouette that made the ship unusually fast and maneuverable,An arsenal of weapons provided defense against attacks by African & European warships-or pirates."
The whydah left on her main voyage in the early 1716,traveling out the English
Channel and into the Atlantic,where she then turned South toward Africa.
Like other save ships,she worked her way around the West Africa coast from
modern Gambia and Senegal to Nigeria and Benin,picking up captives along the way.
Eventually she landed in Quidah (Wee-dah)-the slave port from which the Whydah had taken her name.
On the evening of of April 26,1717,a dense fog rolled in.An arctic gale from Canada
was colliding with a warm front moving northward from the Caribbbean.Their
confluence produced one of the worst storms ever to strike cape cod.The noreastern hit the Whydah full force.The ship ran hard around on a sandbar.The
mainmast and other rigging snapped like twigs,and Whydah rolled over.
The beach was just 500 feet away,the bitter ocean temperatures were
cold enough to kill the strongest swimmer within minutes.
Of the 146 men aboard the Whydah that night,only two survived.Somehow Thomas
Davis,the carpenter,and John Julian,the Miskito pilot,managed to swim to shore and scale the steep sand cliffs.Young John King-the boy who threatened to kill himself if he couldn't join the pirate crew-did not survive.He died pinned to the seabed by a cannon,his leg bone,shoe,and stocking,later discovered by Barry Clifford's Whydah
expedition.