This unit ran July 6 – August 6, 2026 at Collins Middle School, Salem MA. Archived as taught. Not maintained. All 20 days
Pitch Week · Decision by Thursday

Choose Your Project

One person. One format. You commit Thursday, July 30 — and then we build it together.

How this works

Read this once. It's the whole deal.
  1. Your person — someone real from our story. Their cards live in the People tab.
  2. Your format — ONE from the menu below. It's how your person's story gets told at the Showcase on Thursday, August 6.
  3. Your evidence — 3–4 pages from your own Voyage Journal. No journal pages, no project.
  4. Thursday, July 30: you pitch it, the facilitator checks it, and you hand in the commitment form at the bottom of this page. If your project needs supplies, that form is how they get bought. No form, no supplies.

Only two build days (Aug 4 + 5). Pick something you can actually finish. Small and done beats big and half-built — every time.

The cast: whose story will you tell?

Every project needs a PERSON. Twelve good doors into the same shipwreck — full cards live in the People tab.

🏴‍☠️ Sam Bellamy

The captain everyone knows — which is exactly the trap. Can you show the parts of him the legend leaves out?

👦 John King

Boy pirate, age 8–11. CHOSE the pirate life over his mother's ship. His shoe and leg bone came off the wreck. You've seen them.

🧭 John Julian

Ship's pilot, likely Miskito. Steered the Whydah, survived the wreck at ~16 — then was sold into slavery. The record follows him for years.

🪓 Thomas Davis

Welsh carpenter, forced aboard. Survived the wreck, stood trial for piracy in Boston — and had to prove he never chose it.

⛵ Paulsgrave Williams

Bellamy's partner-captain. Middle-aged, wealthy family, chose piracy anyway — and sailed AWAY from the storm that killed his friend. Then vanished.

🌊 "Maria Hallett"

The Cape Cod legend: Bellamy's love, watching the wreck from the dunes. CONTESTED — the record barely knows her. Perfect for a legend-vs-evidence project.

🏝️ Philip Ashton

Marblehead fisherman, seized by pirates, refused to join, escaped, and survived TWO YEARS alone on an island. Came home to a town that thought him dead.

🗺️ Cyprian Southack

The mapmaker who arrived too late to salvage anything — except the wreck's location, in ink. His mark found the Whydah 267 years later.

🤿 Barry Clifford

The Cape Cod diver who believed the legend, read Southack's chart, and in 1984 brought up the bell with the ship's name on it.

💰 Sir Humphrey Morice

The London MP whose money built the Whydah as a slave ship. Never touched a deck. The machine's quietest, most powerful man.

⚖️ John Baker or Robert Auchmuty

A pirate hanged in Boston — or the defense lawyer who resigned in protest at his trial. The courtroom end of the story.

❓ Someone never named

Dozens aboard — including African crew members freed or taken from prizes — left no name in the record. Telling an unnamed person's story honestly is the hardest, bravest pick on this list.

THE PERSON TEST: Do they pull at you? · Are there Journal pages and People-tab evidence to build from? · Can you say one true, specific thing about them right now? Three yeses = your person.

The countdown to Thursday

Where you should be, day by day
  1. Monday (Day 13): read this whole menu once. Write TWO formats you might use on your MY COURSE tracker.
  2. Tuesday (Day 14): circle one person and one format. In pencil.
  3. Wednesday (Day 15 · The Trial): build a small piece of it for real. Write every supply you’d need.
  4. Thursday (Day 16): pitch it, pass the captain's check, ink the commitment form below, hand it to the facilitator.

Meet the people → Project HQ → Try Map Studio →