Scotty Magoun
Head Diver / Captain
On April 26, 1717 the pirate ship Whydah sank off Marconi beach, Cape Cod Massachusetts. It was a slave ship captured by the pirates.
Barry Clifford grew up on Cape Cod hearing tales of sunken pirate treasure, so he formed Maritime Explorations, assembled a group of investors and divers to find her. The crew included the ex chief of police of Aspen Co., a rodeo rider / jet pilot, a green beret and John Kennedy Jr. The first field season we didn't find anything, but during the second (with more advanced survey gear) we found it on June 19,1984. I was on the magnetometer crew doing the survey. The Today Show was coming out to do a piece on us, so Clifford wanted to make sure we showed them something interesting. So he told us to find the Palomino a fishing boat that sank in 1958 that we found the year before. We couldn't find it. The day before we got some good hits that looked exactly like what we were looking for. So we dropped a buoy and crossed our fingers. The Vast Explorer II showed up soon after.
We helped set up the Vast on a 3 point anchor system and went back to our survey, but a short time later, the Capt. called us on the radio and told us we were thru surveying today. When we got back to the Vast, the Capt. yells " We have 2 cannons in the hole,we found her !
Over the next 8 years all of the divers were finding silver coins, gold dust and small nuggets. I, on the other hand was much luckier. For some reason I found all the large pieces of gold. That's how I earned my nickname on the crew, "Goldfinger ".
The first 2 seasons, the paychecks were sporadic, so Clifford gave us all stock in the company . Years later when pay was intermittent again, Clifford wanted to keep the core of his crew, so he gave us a piece of the treasure. The other divers got silver coins, but since my nickname was
"Goldfinger" and when he wanted to show media or investors treasure he would send his "getting boy ."
Whydah Crew
Scotty talking with Barry
David and Scotty
Media coverage
Dad and Scotty
