Issues → September/October 2008 → Interact → 10 Things to Do →

Barry Clifford Discovers Buried Treasure

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(page 8 of 8)

Once, for a brief moment, he removed his cap and I was surprised to see that he was almost totally bald. Without the cap he looked older, more sedate... "This is not a good time for me," he admitted. "I get so restless when the winter closes in, and everybody goes away."

In an ideal world, Barry Clifford would find the Whydah and dispel any doubt of his greatness. He would find a way to keep the magic going. But as it is, he is spending about a thousand dollars a day and playing a waiting game...Officially the state of Massachusetts does not believe he has found the Whydah... Only time will tell.

But even if the world of Barry Clifford is not ideal, it does still embrace shimmering possibilities. "From the beginning," Clifford reflected soberly, "I've said this thing might take five years to do properly You can't rush it. And also, I've never thought I would get rich off the Whydah. I don't know a treasure hunter who isn't broke. But I do see other possibilities. Good things. We've had so much great publicity.

"I see films and TV coming out of this," he explained, "and books." He told me Jackie Onassis, who is an editor at Doubleday, called him at home one morning at seven and told him she thought his story would make a terrific book. Negotiations followed. "The deal fell through," Clifford told me with a shrug. "They wouldn't give me the control I needed."

He also envisions a museum: an extravaganza you could walk through via interconnecting glass tubes and view the only genuine underwater pirate ship.

He is still a summer boy who misses the warmth and good limes when the crowds vanish. He is almost 40 and his doctor says he should give up diving because the pressure is slowly destroying his hearing. He will dive less, he admitted, and think more about business. The 18-room Cape house he has rented for the winter is in disarray -- files piled up in loose bundles, photographs and clippings to sort through, so much work. "We've got to get organized over the winter," he said. "Before we know it, it will be spring and we can start again after the Whydah."

Barry Clifford smiled engagingly when he said this. He straightened the bill of his cap. He flipped off the camera. In a certain faltering light, he still looks like a linebacker.