The skeleton of a legendary 18th-century pirate captain dubbed the 'Robin Hood of the Sea' could have been discovered off the coast of Massachusetts

• The skeletal remains of six bodies have been found off the coast of Massachusetts.
• It's thought one of the skeletons is Captain 'Black Sam' Bellamy, the pirate captain of the Whydah.
• The Whydah sank in 1717 and is the only verified pirate shipwreck in the world.

Six skeletons have been discovered off the coast of Massachusetts, with one thought to be the captain of a pirate shipwreck that occurred in 1717.

Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy was the captain of the Whydah, the world's only verified pirate ship, which sank off Cape Cod and was discovered in 1984.

The new remains were found in multiple large concretions (hard, compact masses of matter) by underwater explorer Barry Clifford and are set to be examined by a team of archaeologists, the Whydah Pirate Museum announced in a statement seen by CNN.

Investigators hope to identify the skeletons and potentially link them to descendants living today.

"We hope that modern, cutting-edge technology will help us identify these pirates and reunite them with any descendants who could be out there," Clifford told 7 News Boston.

He continued: "This shipwreck is very sacred ground. We know a third of the crew was of African origin and the fact they had robbed the Whydah, which was a slave ship, presents them in a whole new light. Their benevolent captain, the legendary Samuel 'Black Sam' Bellamy and crew were experimenting in democracy long before the so-called civilized societies had considered such a thing."

In 2018, author and member of the investigative team Casey Sherman found Bellamy's DNA in a descendant in New England, and it's now being tested against the skeletons.

"That bone was identified as a human male with general ties to the Eastern Mediterranean area," said Sherman in a statement sent to 7 News Boston. "These newly found skeletal remains may finally lead us to Bellamy as we now have his DNA."

According to the Whydah Museum website, the shipwreck was one of the worst ever seen on the eastern seabord, with only two of 146 men on board making it to shore.

The Whydah had originally been commissioned as a slave-trading and cargo ship by British merchant Sir Humphry Morice, who was a leading figure of Britain's slave trade, according to the Telegraph.

However, it was commandeered by Bellamy - who called himself the "Robin Hood of the Sea" - and his crew in February 1717, less than a year after first sailing. The museum states that Bellamy was sailing to his lover, plundering various other ships en route, when the Whydah sunk in a severe storm on April 26.