Captain Kidd's Ship Found Off Dominican Island

The shattered remnants of a ship abandoned more than 300 years ago by the storied Captain Kidd have been discovered off a tiny island in the Dominican Republic, a U.S. underwater archaeology team announced Thursday.

The barnacled cannons and anchors found stacked beneath just ten feet (three meters) of crystalline coastal waters off Catalina Island are believed to be the wreckage of the Quedagh Merchant, a ship abandoned by the Scottish privateer in 1699, Indiana University researchers say.

When I first looked down and saw it, I couldn't believe everybody missed it for 300 years," said Charles Beeker, a scuba-diving archaeologist who teaches at Indiana University. "I've been on thousands of wrecks and this is one of the first where it's been untouched by looters."

Beeker said the wreckage has been aggressively sought by treasure hunters, including a group with a permit from the Dominican government to scour Catalina for it.

Historians believe the ship was scavenged of treasure and burned shortly after it was abandoned by William Kidd, who was later executed on piracy charges.