Long-lost Armenian ship, the stuff of legend, to become a
“living museum”  in the Caribbean

Explorers unravel mystery of the “Quedagh Merchant” hijacked in 1698
by Emil Sanamyan

Published: Friday June 05, 2009

Indiana University’s Charles Beeker (l.) and Fritz Hanselmann collect a sample from what is believed to be the wooden keel of the Quedagh Merchant under a pile of coral-shrouded cannons on June 2. Eleanor Seagle / Published with permission

Near Catalina Island, Dominican Republic - This has been a mystery three centuries in the making.

Burned and scuttled off the coast of this former Spanish colony, an Armenian merchant ship captured by British privateer Captain William Kidd has since become the stuff of legend and an elusive prize for treasure hunters.

Since it was accidentally found in December 2007, the researchers involved have called Quedagh Merchant an unprecedented discovery of its kind in recent history. They are now working on ascertaining the vessel's identity and on the creation of a unique museum.
 

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The Armenian maritime heritage is indeed rather curious, given how we come from a landlocked, mountainous place. The Cilician Armenian kingdom on the Mediterranean is significant in that regard as well, but our institute of merchant ships in early modern times is something few peoples can boast about.Armenian merchants were exempt from the trade wars of the various colonial powers, mainly because we were never a political threat to anyone, and so we enjoyed great freedom in our commerce. Moreover, as I understand it, the ships sailed under an Armenian flag (which depicted, among other things, the Lamb of God). Not bad for a people without a state, far from home.

An international mystery

According to British records, Kidd captured the Quedagh Merchant (also known as Cara Merchant) in January 1698 from Armenian traders near the coast of India and then sailed on it to the Caribbean.

In 1701, after a two-year public trial in London, Kidd was hanged to his death on charges of murder and piracy - charges based in main part on testimony from the Armenian vessel's owners.

Seeking to bury the evidence after looting much of its precious cargo, Kidd's associates set the ship on fire and sunk it in 1699. Subsequent efforts sanctioned by the British Crown to find the vessel and its cargo and compensate the Armenians proved fruitless.

The story of the missing ship became an obsession for numerous historians and explorers in the West. Among Armenians, however, the Quedagh Merchant - like much of the Armenian maritime heritage - has remained virtually unknown.

To this day, few Armenian studies of the subject have been attempted. One of these few was a Russian-language paper by Yuri Barsegov, a Moscow professor with expertise in maritime law, published in an obscure academic journal in 1984.

"When I first heard of this Armenian ship in early 2007, I thought to myself: right, this is just another fable that Armenians like to brag about among themselves," recalled Pavel Galoumian, who together with his wife Isabella Agad, was recognized at the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo on June 1 at an event dedicated to the discovery of the shipwreck.

But after checking British sources, Mr. Galoumian learned that the Armenian provenance of the vessel was well-documented. Having since gone through a mountain of literature on the Quedagh Merchant, he argues that its significance goes far beyond public excitement about pirates and treasures.

"Much sought-after internationally, this vessel represents a highly significant but little-studied chapter of Armenian history," Mr. Galoumian told the Armenian Reporter.

In fact, from the 17th century and well into the 18th, at the dawn of the modern era, Armenian diaspora communities in Iran and India dominated commerce between Asia and Europe that, in its significance for the world economy, can be compared to trade between the United States and China today. (See a forthcoming story on the subject in the Armenian Reporter.)

This memorial plaque will be installed underwater at the Quedagh Merchant’s final resting place when the “living museum” is completed. The Armenian Nautical Association is recognized as one of the effort’s patrons along with USAID, University of Indiana, and area businesses. Flags of Armenia and other countries involved are due to be placed inside the monument.

A search for Armenian treasure

Passion for Armenian history and adventure turned the Galoumians - he a physicist who had worked at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva and she a professional translator - into born-again sea explorers.

Natives of landlocked Armenia and Switzerland, respectively, Mr. and Mrs. Galoumian purchased a yacht and decided to embark on a fresh search for the elusive Quedagh Merchant.

They joined with sea enthusiasts from Yerevan's Ayas Nautical Research Club led by Karen Balayan, who in 2004-6 had sailed around Europe in a replica of the 13th-century Armenian vessel Kilikia.

In a sketch, "The Quest for the Armenian vessel: Quedagh Merchant," prepared in March 2007, Ayas members said that beginning that December they would undertake an expedition to the Caribbean Sea aboard a 46-foot yacht, Anahit, sailing under the flag of the Republic of Armenia.

Mr. Galoumian admits that the chances that their four-person team could find the three-century-old relic underwater were slim.

"But we thought we would ask the local population, focusing primarily on the area between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, specifically the uninhabited islet of Mona, where Quedagh Merchant was known to have been hiding at one point, and see what we could find," Mr. Galoumian remembered.

But just days after the Anahit sailed from the United States came the stunning news reports.

Researchers from University of Indiana (IU), acting on a tip to Dominican officials from a local resident, found what appeared to be the long-lost Quedagh Merchant. (By then, the IU team had been doing archeological work in the waters of the Dominican Republic for 15 years.)

"We felt shock." Mr. Galoumian was candid about his first reaction. "I felt like a dog that lost a bone he didn't know he could have."

But when the Anahit crew made contact with the American team, they began to collaborate. The Armenian Nautical Association has since become one of the main sponsors of the research effort.

Examining the discovery

In the past 18 months, the IU team, led by Professor Charles Beeker, has been examining the wreck. They have identified at least 26 cannons and what may be the vessel's wooden keel. One cannon has since been removed from the water for lab examination.

Evidence gathered so far, the general location of the wreck, and the location of the cannons - which were piled together to force the burning vessel underwater - are consistent with contemporary descriptions of the Quedagh Merchant's last sighting off the coast of the present-day Dominican Republic.