When Barry Clifford dove off the coast of Madagascar, he hoped to find yet another pirate shipwreck. “All of a sudden, the ceiling caved in on me and I was hit with a really big object, it nearly knocked me out,” he told the Washington Post. “As I felt the edge of it, I thought: ‘This must be lead.’” Deep in the sea, the pirate-ship hunter found a silver ingot of more than 110 pounds. This was proof that he had found Captain Kidd’s ship -- or so he thought. Yet months later, UNESCO put on the brakes … denying this was proof of the famed ship.

Clifford is an icon, a modern-day Indiana Jones of the sea. The Cape Cod native’s claim to fame -- discovering the 18th century wreck of Whydah Gally, pirate captain “Black Sam” Bellamy’s ship in Wellfleet. The 28-gun vessel carried four and a half tons of stolen treasure, only to be destroyed by a nor’easter in 1717 and lost for centuries. When Clifford unearthed it in 1984, no one could deny it. The discovery is still the only authenticated pirate shipwreck in the U.S.
His team found more than 200,000 artifacts: piles of gold coins (pictured above), canons, handmade weapons, and a leg bone. Yet for Clifford, it’s not about the money. The ship-hunter can’t help but feel the “adventure is always [in] the treasure” but he does not consider himself a treasure hunter. “A treasure hunter sells treasure. All of the artifacts that we’ve excavated and conserved are meant for public display,” he said. “I don’t think you can do really good science when people are breathing down your neck.” While Clifford respects Bob Ballard, who discovered the Titanic, he wonders if the ship’s remains really teach any lessons.
The moral of Clifford’s story: Leads don’t always hit us in the head, but they exist even in the darkest of waters. Even when people doubted him … he stuck to his guns. Such tales are reminders of the hero’s journey. Heroes have potential.