Three men died in the uproar before the ashes had settled to the bottom of the river.The Whydah (pronounced WIH-duh) shipwreck was lost at sea for over 250 years until underwater archaeological explorer Barry Clifford found the remains in 1984. Nonetheless, more fights broke out about town and the second ship was also burned. Savannah officials tried to keep peace, and stationed several armed guards aboard the second Spanish vessel, trying to avoid an international disaster. Gunshots and fights broke out across the town. The visiting pirates didn’t take well to this treatment, and their outrage turned quickly into a riot. According to news reports, they maltreated the Spanish pirates, secretly navigated the ship up the river in the dark of night, put the men on shore, and burned the ship. That night, a half dozen men in disguise boarded the Spanish schooner. To no one’s surprise, a brutal fight broke out in one questionable establishment, when some men from Savannah recognized some of the Spaniards as the privateers they’d fallen victim to on a previous voyage. One day in 1798, two "Spanish privateers" anchored on the river while the men who sailed them enjoyed the patronage of pubs and prostitutes in Savannah. The international mix of men always posed a problem-especially as the brigands poured on shore and filled the grog houses. Among the floating ships there were always a few pirate and privateer vessels. The river was once filled with dozens of sailing vessels, anchored off the river’s bank. The sight of free, armed Africans in this young Southern city had apparently magnified the perceived danger and multiplied the threat in the heads of city leaders. The agitators were indeed corralled and assembled in jail, but the total number after the roundup turned out to be only ten. The city council took action the following day and ordered all the African pirates arrested and thrown into the city jail. The pirates were lurking in the streets long after the curfew drinking, carousing, and gambling. One night in the early 1800s, a pirate ship arrived with "more than 100 free African firebrands wielding firearms and knives." These terrifying bandits marched about town in a brazen fashion. One little -know fact of piracy is that pirate ships were quite democratic and pirate populations very diverse. After the bell tolled each night, no sailors and no one of African descent was to be discovered on the city streets. Another of its uses was to sound the city curfew. This bell dates back to 1802, and it was used to sound any alarm that befell the city, like fire, invasion, potential insurrection or outbreak of a disease. The sight was enough to deter the attackers, and the pirate ship turned course and ended its assault. The pirates could likely see that the entire deck of the Ship Anne was lined with men, armed, loaded and ready to fight. A second shot landed much closer, and these warning shots caused the pirate ship to lower its top sails to back off. The shot fell "about a hundred yards a head" of the ship. The menacing craft charged within reach of the Ship Anne's guns, so the Captain ordered a cannon to be fired across the stem of the vessel. Oglethorpe order'd all our men upon deck, all the women to keep below.” One colonist wrote in his journal: “We were alarmed by a sloop who…bore down upon us looking very suspicious made us conclude that he must either be a pirate or Spanish Guard…and that his intention was to plunder us. Just a few miles off shore, Savannah’s first inhabitants were alarmed to see a mysterious ship closing in on them. Savannah’s pirate history began at the end of the long, treacherous trek across the sea, before the first colonist ever set foot on the city’s sandy shore. Inside the Ships of the Sea Museum, you’ll find a replica of the Ship Anne, which was the three-masted galley that brought the original settlers to the shore of the Savannah river.
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