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All you bilge rats, Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrgh! As you are out and about on September 19th, don't be surprised if people are saying, "Ahoy Matie," "Avast," "Aye, Aye Capt'n," "Land ho!" "Hornpipe," and many other pirate-like phrases, because it's International Talk Like a Pirate Day.While ordering your coffee in the drive-thru, ask if they have change for gold bullion. Try testing your pirate language out at the library when asking for the location of Moby Dick. The pirate language always fares well in rough seas. Settle a debate with "I'm right or I'll walk the plank!"When the boss gives you a new...

At least six pirate skeletons were recently discovered in a shipwreck off the coast of Cape Cod. The remains were unearthed from the wreck site of the Whydah, which sank near the town of Wellfleet in 1717, according to The Boston Globe. Investigators at the Whydah Pirate Museum said the skeletons were identified in several large concretions, or hard masses of minerals, from the wreck site. They are now being examined by a team of archeologists led by underwater explorer Barry Clifford, who discovered the Whydah in 1984, the museum said.

The massive space telescope, featuring a 21 foot mirror, and a tennis court-sized protective cage, is far too large to stick inside a plane. Instead, NASA will have to ship the massive mirror right through the Panama Canal for its eventual launch in French Guiana — and NASA is worried that the journey could attract robbers. The shipping time and location will be hush-hush to ward off any extremely ambitious thieves. All we know is that it will sail off in late summer. It’s an especially harrowing sea passage for a project that has been going on for over two...

Divers in Madagascar have found a silver bar weighing about 50 kilograms (110 pounds) that they believe was part of the treasure of pirate Captain Kidd. The bar was presented to Madagascar's president, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, in a ceremony Thursday on the island of Sainte Marie, near the country's northeast coast. The bar was found in a bay off the island, the diving team said. The team was led by Barry Clifford, an American undersea explorer who has been searching for pirate treasure for many decades. Clifford believes there could be more treasure on the bay floor where he found the...

Underwater explorers in Madagascar say they have found what is thought to be the treasure of notorious Scottish pirate William Kidd. Soldiers on Sainte Marie island have been guarding the 50kg silver bar after divers brought it to shore. Madagascar's president as well as UK and US diplomats received the suspected treasure at a ceremony on the island. Capt Kidd was executed in 1701 for piracy after returning from a voyage to the Indian Ocean.

ATLANTIC BEACH, NC (WECT) – Divers trying to recover cannons from Blackbeard's flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge wreck site off the coast of North Carolina were successful in their efforts Thursday. Bad weather forced the team to scrub the previous two trips, but the conditions were just right the third time around. A group from Cape Fear Community College used inflation bags to float two cannons to the surface. This is the first time the cannons have been out of the water in almost 300 years. According to David Hardin with CFCC, the cannons are estimated to weigh 2,000 pounds...

From historical records scientists had known that by 1720 these Caribbean pirates occupied a settlement called the "Barcadares," a name derived from the Spanish word for "landing place." Located 15 miles (24 kilometers) up the Belize River, in territory controlled by the Spanish, the site was used as an illegal logwood-cutting operation. The records indicate that a good portion of its occupants were pirates taking a pause from life at sea. Their living conditions were rustic to say the least. There were no houses, and the men slept on raised platforms with a canvas over them to keep the mosquitoes...

A group of US archaeologists may have uncovered a section of hull and coral-covered chests that privateer Henry Morgan lost during his 1671 raid of Panama. The team from Texas State University is led by underwater archaeologist Frederick Hanselmann. He led last year's discovery of cannons at the mouth of the Chagres River that may also have belonged to five ships Morgan is believed to have lost. The team have been working slowly to uncover the wreckage of the ship that has been buried in the sand. "When we get to an archaeological site, like a shipwreck that has a...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2008 – Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said he was shocked by the piracy of a Saudi Arabian supertanker 450 nautical miles off the coast of Kenya in the Arabian Sea. Mullen, speaking during a Pentagon news conference today, said the Sirius Star was attacked more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya. News reports indicate the pirates have hijacked the ship and are heading for the Somali port of Eyl. The ship is owned by a Saudi Arabian oil company and flagged in Liberia. Its crew of 25 includes citizens of Croatia, Great Britain, The Philippines,...

The ancient girl with the golden eye: 5,000 year old priestess found Last updated at 14:21pm on 21st February 2007 The body of a strikingly tall 5,000-year-old woman with an artificial golden eye has been discovered in Iran. Archaeologists said the woman was a female soothsayer or priestess and would have transfixed those around her with her eyeball, making them believe she had occult powers and could see into the future. The 25-30-year old Persian woman, who was almost 6 feet tall, was also buried with an ornate bronze hand mirror so she could check her startling appearance. Italian and...

December 20, 2006 4800-Year-Old Artificial Eyeball From the announcement by the Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies, an educational and research group out of UK: Archaeologists in Burnt City announced unprecedented discovery of an artificial eyeball, dated to 4800 years ago, in this historic site. Announcing this news, director of Burnt City archaeology excavation team, Mansur Sajadi, said that this eyeball belongs to a sturdy woman who was between 25 to 30 years of age at the time of death. Skeletal remains of the woman were found in grave number 6705 of Burnt City's cemetery. Regarding the material used to make...

Nearly 200 years after it foundered near Prospect, a British naval ship could spark an international incident if treasure hunters are allowed access to it before archeologists, a Halifax documentary filmmaker says. Earlier this year Nova Scotia issued a treasure trove licence to a group seeking to recover the potential loot raided from the White House in the War of 1812 and sent to the bottom of the sea when a fleet of British ships went down in a storm before it reached the friendly port of Halifax. Arcadia Films producer John Wesley Chisholm has applied to the province for...

By Alison AuldThe Canadian PressHALIFAX (Sep 22, 2006) A stash of loot possibly stolen from the White House in the early 1800s is at the centre of an international dispute over who owns the bounty that now rests in a watery grave off the Nova Scotia coast.A U.S. exploration company has laid claim to the bounty on what it suspects is the HMS Fantome, a navy brig that was loaded with goods British and Canadian soldiers made off with after ransacking the White House and Capitol buildings during the War of 1812.The company, Sovereign Exploration Associates International Inc., has...