Researchers are working to use DNA to identify whether a human bone recovered from a Cape Cod shipwreck belongs to the infamous pirate Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy.
The Whydah Pirate Museum in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, on Monday publicly displayed the bone which was found near what is believed to be Bellamy’s pistol.
The objects were pulled from the Whydah Gally shipwreck several years ago.
The museum has enlisted forensic scientists to extract DNA and compare it with DNA from a living Bellamy descendant. Testing will take about a month once it gets the sample.
The Whydah sank in 1717. The wreck was discovered in 1984 and most of its treasure is thought to remain on the ocean floor.
The museum calls it America’s version of King Tut’s tomb.
