The wreck of the Quedagh Merchant: Analysis, interpretation, and management of Captain Kidd's lost ship

The shipwreck of the Quedagh Merchant is an archaeological site that brings to life one of the most romanticized activities in modern popular culture: piracy. Little specific evidence of pirates and their actions exists in the archaeological record and, oftentimes, it is difficult to distinguish the identification and function of certain artifacts and features from being piratical or simply commonplace. In analyzing, interpreting, and managing this shipwreck site, the popular legend of Captain William Kidd as a nefarious pirate can be deconstructed and placed into actual historical context and utilized as an archaeological site accessible to the general public as a marine protected area, or Living Museum in the Sea. Captain Kidd captured the Quedagh Merchant in the Indian Ocean and subsequently abandoned it off of the southeastern coast of Hispaniola in 1699. The investigation and identification of the ship's remains include the analysis of the site's main features, wood samples from the hull, mass spectrometry of sampled ballast stones, and hull construction, the results of which indicate the site being the same ship Kidd abandoned over 300 years ago. Efforts in site interpretation place the ship within its historical context on multiple levels of social interaction within varying scales of size, from individual action to state action utilizing world-systems theory and network theory. Finally a framework for site management describes methods for both preserving and protecting the site, while efforts in public archaeology allow public access and outline what has been accomplished to date.