Real Pirates Salem

Real Pirates Salem is a museum in downtown Salem built around the wreck of the Whydah Gally, the source of what the museum calls the world’s only fully authenticated pirate treasure. Visitors can see and touch real artifacts, including coins, jewelry and weapons recovered from the wreck and last handled by pirates more than 300 years ago. The family-friendly exhibits tell the story through the crew themselves, from the captain to a nine-year-old runaway.

At the center is “Black Sam” Bellamy, who captured the slave ship Whydah and more than 50 other vessels before it sank in a violent nor’easter off Cape Cod in 1717. The museum also tells of Maria Hallett, Bellamy’s love and the so-called Witch of Wellfleet, and of Barry Clifford, who grew up hearing his uncle’s tales of the wreck and went on to find it.

What to Know

• A Director’s Tour offers a personal guided walk-through of the museum with one of its staff pirates.
• Groups can book private events, birthday parties, corporate retreats and school trips.
• The museum has been featured on History Channel’s Beyond Oak Island, in Yankee Magazine and on the front page of the New York Times.
• The space is listed as a special event venue and is tour-group friendly.