The ship of notorious buccaneer Captain William Kidd has been discovered Thursday off the coast of Catalina Island in the Dominican Republic by a U.S. underwater archaeology team.
The cannons and anchors found are believed to be the wreckage of the Quedagh Merchant, a ship abandoned by the Scottish pirate in 1699.
The Dominican government has licensed Indiana University to study the wreckage and convert the sea floor where the cannons and anchors are marooned into an underwater preserve, where it will be accessible to divers and snorkelers.
Many people have aggressively sought to find this wreckage, including treasure hunters.
Kidd had captured the Moorish ship in the Indian Ocean but left it in the Caribbean in 1699 as he traveled to New York to try and clear his name of criminal charges.
Kidd failed to convince authorities of his innocence and was hanged in 1701 in London. His body was suspended in a gibbet, a kind of cage, on the Thames River as a warning to other privateers.
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