Arch Pirate Henry Every: Legend Lives On

the goal of every pirate might have been to capture enough treasure to live the rest of their life in comfort but for real pirates that really happened they were much more likely to find death than fortunately for no other reason than if they did manage to capture a large booty then that made them a target for other pirates and for the law but one pirate managed to successfully capture what might have been one of the largest pirate treasures in history and then simply disappeared if there's anything better than a story involving pirates it's a story where the legend lives on and for no other reason than that his fate is lost history henry every the arch pirate deserves to be remembered little is definitely known about every's origins though he used a large number of aliases such as benjamin bridgman called long ben or john avery researchers generally believe he was born henry every in devon england in 1659. one of his crewmates would later say that he was aged about 40 years in 1696 and that his mother lived near plymouth in devon the life and adventures of john avery written by a dutchman who claimed to have been captured by the pirates says that his father was a royal navy captain although the story is considered by the dictionary of national biography to be fiction was scarcely a substratum of fact henry every was the name he used when he first joined the royal navy probably was interested in the sea from a young age and stories abound about his possible early exploits it was said that he served in the british navy during the bombardment of algiers in 1671 and served in the caribbean sea although no records substantiate these stories the first certain record comes from march 1689 at the outbreak of the nine years war between france and the grand alliance including great britain and the holy roman empire every was then serving as a midshipman aboard hms rupert his record suggests that he regularly consigned his pay to his family including a wife back in devon later that year rupert was involved in the capture of a large french convoy and every was promoted to a master's mate he was likely also involved in the disastrous battle of beachy had which briefly gave the french control over the english channel it was discharged in august 1689. likely looking for fast money he next entered the atlantic slave trade officially the royal african company held a monopoly over the english slave trade and it was illegal to sell slaves without a license though dangerous it could be lucrative in 1693 an agent of the royal african company mentioned every in a journal while on the guinea coast writing i have nowhere upon the coast met the locals so shy is here which makes me fancy that they had tricks played upon them by such blades as long ben alias every in 1693 every joined an ambitious finger put together by london-based investors to invigorate the english economy four warships were assembled the seventh son dove james and charles ii meant to sail to the spanish west indies and raid french trade the pay was promised to be good guaranteed monthly wages were to be paid every six months every was made first mate aboard the charles the expedition quickly floundered the captain of the flagship died before they left england a two-week journey from london to corona spain somehow stretched to five months and the ships got stuck at cronia waiting paperwork they remained stranded for months and the sailors weren't unpaid the captains refused to pay the crew as it likely would have meant immediate desertion the sailors seemed to have grown concerned at this point that they had actually been sold into slavery by the spanish and were being held captive when the fleet finally prepared to leave the crew again demanded their pay when they refused to begin planning their mutiny every was an enthusiastic supporter going up and down from ship to ship and persuading men to come on board with him he was a natural choice as the leader of a mutiny he had a lot of sailing experience was of low social rank which encouraged others to believe that he was trustworthy on monday may 7 1694 the conspirators made their move they rushed aboard the charles the second at around at 9 00 pm capturing the crew and its bedridden captain without bloodshed one account says a longboat from the james came alongside to join and ask is the drunken bows in the board they agreed upon password the captain of the change is said to have called out that the men were deserting in every answer that he knew that perfectly well james opened fired on charles ii and every was forced to beat a hasty retreat into the open ocean once safe every gave the non-conspirators an opportunity to join them if you have a mind to make one of us we will receive you if not here's a boat and you shall be set on shore allegedly he even offered the captured captain his position back if he was willing to turn pirate the captain refused and he and several others were sent ashore every was unanimously elected captain and convinced the crew to sail to the indian ocean to try their hands at piracy he renamed the ship fancy and they set sail for the cape good hope they rubbed their first ships at cape verde taking provisions and supplies from three english merchant men and accepting new crew members the crew now numbered about 94. on the african coast they cut away some of the ship's superstructure which promised to make it one of the fastest ships in the ocean they captured two danish privateers next taking on ivory and gold they reached the indian ocean in 1695 taking on supplies at madagascar and capturing another ship his crew grew to nearly 150 men every wrote a letter to english ship captains claiming falsely that he had never as yet wronged any english or dutch nor ever intended to and told english captains to send him a particular signal to avoid being attacked whatever his true intentions the letter does seem to have kept the fancy from being pursued the east india company's ships were the greatest threat in the indian ocean every and his crew sailed to the red sea where they plan to wait for an indian fleet they knew would be passing by soon the fleet was easily one of the richest prices in asia and possibly the world it was the fleet of the grand mughal emperor of india origzeb returning from its annual pilgrimage to mecca every joins forces with five other pirate captains at the edge of the red sea thomas two was captain of the amity and already famed for an enormous holly had raided in the area the year before the other ships were the portsmouth adventure the dolphin the pearl and susanna every was elected admiral of the fleet a convoy of 25 indian ships were soon spotted including the gang isawai meaning exceeding treasure a dao with 80 gods along with its escort fatah muhammad the mughal fleet slipped past them in the nigh but the pirates gave chase the dolphin proved too slow and was burned with crew joining every aboard the fancy the first ship they caught was the fatah muhammad two and the amity reached it first but early in the fighting two was killed reportedly by canon shot when fancy reached the ship the muhammad surrendered quickly the pirates now sailed after the gangai sawai the amity abandoned only three ships close on the dao the ship commanded by muhammad ibrahim had nearly twice as many guns as the fancy with 46 guns and had 400 musket armed guards along with 600 other passengers what promised to be a fearsome fight was evened in every opening broadside which took out the dow's main mast every ship drew alongside but the pirates were held back by withering musket fire then one of the indian cannons exploded killing many and sending the demoralized musketeers below deck the ship was also now a fire every crew clamored aboard and the pearl took heart to join them the portsmouth adventure never engaged the ensuing fight took several hours and contemporary indian historians are critical of ibrahim's leadership when account claims that he armed the slave girls to fight the pirates while another says that christians are not bold in the use of the sword and there were so many weapons on board the royal vessel that if the captain had made any resistance they must have been defeated what is certain is that the pirates were still severely outnumbered ibrahim would later defend himself claiming that many of the enemy were sent to hell the exact number of pirate casualties are uncertain every may have only lost several men or more than a hundred indian historian kaffi khan reports that after the ship was captured the pirates subjected the survivors to severe brutality torturing men who had hidden treasure aboard and driving some of the women to suicide while the tales were sometimes dismissed as sensationalism captured members of the crew would later corroborate the horror one wrote later that the inhuman treatment and merciless tortures inflicted on the poor indians and their women still afflicted his soul the governor of bombay also reported on the horrors also writing that a relative the emperor was abused very much later reports also claimed that every found something more pleasing than jules aboard considered to be the emperor's daughter or granddaughter although there's no evidence that either was actually a board however testimony for one of the crew captured suggests every never went aboard the treasure ship the ship held an enormous amount of treasure including half a million gold and silver pieces the most reliable sources from the time say that the pearl shares were confiscated by everest crew after an exchange of coins that had been clipped parts of them shaved off to decrease the coin's value they gave the pearl a token prize and parted company each crew member received about a thousand british pounds of treasure with a value of roughly ninety three thousand two hundred twenty eight thousand pounds today more than most sailors made in a lifetime the exact value of the treasure isn't known contemporary estimates range from about three hundred thousand pounds to six hundred thousand based on the estimates of the east india company and the mughal insurance claim both of which had reasons to under or overestimate the value the modern value could be as much as 90 million pounds the take is possibly the greatest ever captured by pirates though other raids may have been greater the crew knew they were now a target many left the ship on the island of bourbon and every purchased some 90 slaves on the island to run the ship and to be traded for currency as they fled thus avoiding the use of their indian treasure they sailed for the bahamas the raid had enormous geopolitical consequences the east india company was recovering from a war in india and the attack threatened its very existence the crimes are considered unforgivable violations of the muslim pilgrimage in india and english subjects were arrested all over the country emperor arungzeb closed english factories and nearly ordered an attack on bombay the east india company agreed to pay reparations while parliament declared every of the pirates enemies of the human race a 500 pound bounty was put on every head and a global manhunt began every's crew of 113 men bribed governor nicholas trott of providence in the bahamas who may also have seen the ship as a benefit to defense with the threat of the french in the still ongoing nine years war every handed the ship over to the governor fancy was destroyed possibly on trot's orders she may have been trying to rid himself of evidence eventually trot who must have known beforehand who the pirate was was forced to put a warrant out for every arrest but he tipped off the crew first and the 113 men vanished his last words to his crew were a series of conflicting stories over where he planned to go every was never certainly seen again one british author claims that every return to england where he died in poverty after being cheated out of his wealth although there's no supporting evidence and no one ever collected on his bounty which would have represented more money than most men could make in a lifetime in 1781 a customs collector had a meeting with a descendant of every who claimed that every died in poverty in distress and was buried a popper yet another unlikely claim was that he lived as the king of a pirate utopia in madagascar none of the sightings in the following decade or sources of his fate have ever been firmly proven most of every crew sheltered in the american colonies where it was easy to bribe local governors seven were tried in colonial america but none convicted a number of ancient coins from the famed raid have been recovered in the united states in england 24 were eventually rounded up and six convicted five of those were executed henry evry became a legend among pirates he was called the arch pirate and the king of pirates and fictional and semi-biographical accounts abounded one of the most influential was the life and adventures of captain john avery which was published anonymously in 1709 but he was made characters in plays he was the league character in daniel defoe's 1720 novel the king of pirates a ballad that was purportedly written by him was published and in in that legend it transformed him from this man who was purportedly tortured women to sort of a robin hood a noble pirate that went on to inspire some of those famous pirates of the golden age his escapades occurred during the childhoods of captains like blackbeard and black sam bellamy and calico jack his audacious raid his escaping justice despite the huge price on his head and one of the largest international manhunts in history it's one of those stories where fact is simply more interesting than fiction and his ultimate fate is an enduring mystery of history i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short snippets have forgotten history between 10 and 15 minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that thumbs up button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section i will be happy to personally respond be sure to follow the history guy on facebook instagram twitter and check out our merchandise on teespring.com and if you'd like more episodes on forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe you

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 87,935

Rating: 4.9850545 out of 5

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, henry every, john avery, pirates, king of pirates, arch pirate

Id: D6C7I2KxF8c

Length: 13min 8sec (788 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 19 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Omega-Molecule]

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/apr/01/arabian-coins-found-in-us-may-unlock-17th-century-pirate-mystery