WEST YARMOUTH, Mass. — The sprawling former ZooQuarium, which has sat vacant on the banks of Parkers River since its doors closed in 2013, may soon regain its status as a tourist destination, but this time visitors won’t be coming to see wrestling bears, albino alligators, harbor seals and trained sea gulls.

The 12,000-square-foot building on Route 28 may house a museum full of the celebrated booty from the 300-year-old pirate ship Whydah, which sank off the coast of Wellfleet in 1717.

Barry Clifford, the underwater explorer who in 1984 discovered the Whydah buried in several feet of sand and ocean debris, has signed an offer to purchase ZooQuarium.

Clifford said he sold some property on Martha’s Vineyard earlier this week that will provide him with a good chunk of the purchase price, which he refused to disclose. The property is listed for $1.2 million.

This month, the Yarmouth Zoning Board of Appeals voted to grant the project the required special permit and a variance to allow large signs on the building’s exterior.

“It’s the perfect space, and the town has been very receptive,” Clifford said. “We have so much material, and we’re trying to keep it as a permanent collection on Cape Cod.”

Advertisement

The high ceilings in the single-story structure will accommodate larger items in the exhibit, such as Clifford’s scale model of the Whydah, which stands about 30 feet high and may be toured by the public.

The bulk of the exhibit will consist of National Geographic’s “Real Pirates– The Untold Story of the Whydah, From Slave Ship to Pirate Ship,” a collection of artifacts recovered by Clifford and his team, which has traveled the United States and Europe for the past eight years.

The collection includes millions of dollars of treasure, artifacts ranging from cannons and pistols to wooden pulleys, and jewelry such as cuff links. The museum also will include a theater and will feature speakers spinning yarns about the heyday of piracy in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

“Some of the artifacts have never been seen on the Cape,” said Christopher Macort, an underwater field archaeologist who works with Clifford.

What has Clifford and Macort most excited is the plan for a working laboratory that would be set up in the new museum, where the public can watch archaeological experts carefully free coins, small weapons, jewelry and even human bones from the hardened chunks of sand and ocean debris that encase them.

The large laboratory currently in Brewster will remain in use as well, since there are hundreds of thousands of artifacts to be cleaned and catalogued, Macort said. The smaller Whydah Pirate Museum in Provincetown also will remain open, since it’s the team’s headquarters during the diving season, he said.

Advertisement

In the long term, Clifford plans to use the 4,000-square-foot building behind the ZooQuarium as an education center, and he is even thinking of creating an 18th-century village outdoors, similar in concept to Plimoth Plantation.

Arts and Exhibitions International, the group that designed the “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of Pharaohs” exhibit, is due in Yarmouth next week and will be involved in planning the new pirate museum’s layout.

“The exhibit is all about bringing the pirate story to life, and we are looking forward to making Yarmouth a must-see location,” Clifford said.

Yarmouth Economic Development Director Karen Greene has had several meetings with Clifford and his team.

“This use is consistent with Yarmouth’s efforts to encourage year-round family entertainment and it complements the town’s current plans for utilization of the drive-in site across the street as a river walk,” Green said. “It will be great for Route 28.”

Town Planner Kathleen Williams agreed.

Advertisement

“The Whydah Pirate Museum is a wonderful and unique addition to the town of Yarmouth that fits in nicely in the area adjacent to the Parkers River, Pirate’s Cove mini-golf and Captain Parker’s restaurant,” Williams wrote in an email. “Yarmouth is known for family entertainment and a pirate museum is a perfect fit.”

Clifford hopes the museum will be ready to open in July.

“We’re dealing with things like plumbing, electricity and gutting the building,” he said. “The exhibit can be installed in 30 to 45 days.”

Clifford and two developers previously had proposed to open a pirate museum in the former National Guard armory on South Street in Hyannis, but that plan fell apart last year.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.