The Whydah Gally Tutorial Pt 1

Today is Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating African-American emancipation from slavery in the US.  I thought it would be fitting to give a sneak peak of my model of the Whydah Galley. The Whydah was a slave ship captured by the pirate Black Sam Bellamy in March of 1717 after a three day, three hundred mile chase through the seas between Cuba and Hispanola. While the Whydah's captain had already sold most of the African captives into slavery, when the pirates arrived there were still fifty slaves onboard (according to some sources). Every one of those African captives, when offered the choice, joined up with Bellamy's crew, which according the they Whydah Pirate Museum was among the most diverse and most democratic of pirate crews.

I've spent the last few weeks diligently working on this model of the Whydah. I hope to have it ready for my art show at the local branch of the library, which will be up for the month of July. I followed the same procedure I used in previous models, though I based it on paintings, engravings, and other models purporting to be of the Whydah, took my time and added a lot more details than I have before. 

Thats all for now, as I said, a quick sneak peak. Next  I'll paint the details, add the rigging and sail. Later, I'll share those updates as well as a full tutorial of how I build this.

Check out the Tutorial Pt 2 to see how I finished this model.

                Down with Slavery, and Up with Freedom!!!

Previous posts which mention the Whydah and Sam Bellamy.

Why Pirates of the Golden Age?

Scratchbuilding the sloop Marianne and the Sultana Galley (Tutorial)