The Pirates Treasure Museum in St Thomas, Virgin Islands offers a hands-on experience of deep sea exploration, extreme weather, shipwrecks, and of course pirates. It showcases authentic artifacts from the Odyssey Marine Exploration and shipwrecks around the Virgin Islands and the world. The interactive design of the museum will capture the attention of visitors of all ages, and you can pick up a souvenir at the gift shop.
Shipwrecks from Around the World
This exhibit features both famous and unidentified wrecks around the world with original artifacts from many of them. You can learn about the recovery of the SS Gairsoppa, which sunk during World War II when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat. The recovery effect was elaborate, due to the fact that the boat lay under three miles of harsh North Atlantic Ocean. Robotics were utilized to cut deep into the boat and recover the treasure in the cargo hold, which turned out to be over 110 tons of silver. The museum is home to an 80-pound ingot of silver from the SS Gairsoppa.
The Shipwrecks from Around the World Exhibit also tells the story of the Civil War era SS Republic, a ship that fell victim to a hurricane while en route to New Orleans and sank with her hold full of precious gold and silver coins.
In this area of the museum, you can expect to find gold and silver coins, ingots, and a Bottle Wall display. The Bottle Wall contains 60 bottles of all kinds from the 18th century, including alcohol, obsolete medicines, and cosmetics. A touchscreen allows you to learn the history of each bottle in the display. You will also find ancient shipping containers and ships bells that date to the 18th and 19th century.
Extreme Weather
Weather played a role in most shipwrecks, as ocean conditions can change drastically and quickly. In this exhibit, you can step into a Hurricane Booth and feel the gale force winds for yourself, or try your hand at virtually steering a ship through a massive storm.
Deep Sea Technology
In this exhibit, you will learn about the sophisticated technology used to locate and recover shipwrecks as well as to explore the depths of the ocean. You can attempt to remotely operate a replica of the ROV ZEUS to pick up a coin, and take ZEUS for a virtual deep sea adventure.
With the Photomosaic Interactive display, you can use a trackball to navigate and zoom in on various parts of the SS Republic wreck. Prior to the recovery effort, thousands of images were taken of the wreck and are now compiled into this display so that you can see exactly what it looks like after 140 years under water.
Pirate Encounter
St Thomas was once a hive of pirate activity. In this exhibit you can check out artifacts from the Barbary Pirate Shipwreck and learn about St Thomas’ most famous pirate, Jean Hamlin. Kids and adults alike can appreciate replica weapons and climb aboard the Poop Deck for a photo, and you might just see some characters from Pirates of the Caribbean around this are