Expedition to ‘real home of the pirates of the Caribbean’ hopes to unearth ships and treasure

Exploration of Bahamas seabed will be first time notorious New Providence hideout has been searched

Pirates of the Caribbean is a $4.5bn swashbuckling film franchise and Blackbeard and Calico Jack Rackham are among marauding buccaneers who have captured imaginations over the centuries.

But almost nothing is known about the life and times of actual pirates.