The archaeologists of Indiana University have found the wreckage of the ship lying in 10 ft of water on the seabed off the island of Hispaniola, which is split between Haiti and the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean, the 'ScienceDaily' reported today.

"This is one of the first sites I've been on where I haven't seen any looting.

We've got a shipwreck in crystal clear, pristine water that's amazingly untouched.

We want to keep it that way, so we made the announcement now to ensure the site's protection from looters," IU marine protection authority Charles Beeker was quoted as saying.

Beeker and his team has been licensed to study the wreckage and to convert the site into an underwater preserve, where it will be accessible to the public.

Historians differ on whether Captain Kidd was actually a pirate or a privateer,someone who captured pirates.

After his conviction of piracy and murder charges in a sensational London trial, he was left to hang over the River Thames for two years.

Kidd had captured the Quedagh Merchant, loaded with valuable satins and silks, gold, silver and other East Indian merchandise, but left the ship in the Caribbean as he sailed to New York on a less conspicuous sloop to clear his name of the criminal charges.

Anthropologist Geoffrey Conrad, director of IU Bloomington's Mathers Museum of World Cultures, said the men Kidd entrusted with his ship reportedly looted it, and then set it ablaze and adrift down the Rio Dulce.

Conrad said the location of the wreckage and the formation and size of the canons, which had been used as ballast, are consistent with historical records of the ship.

They also found pieces of several anchors under the cannons.

The find is valuable because of the potential to reveal important information about piracy in the Caribbean and about the legendary Captain Kidd. - DDNEWS