Henry Every
Encyclopedia
Henry Every, also Avery or Avary, (c. 1653/59 – after 1696), sometimes given as John Avery, was an English pirate who operated in the Atlantic
and Indian Ocean
s in the mid-1690s. He likely used several aliases throughout his career, including Benjamin Bridgeman, and was known as Long Ben to his crewmen and associates. The most notorious pirate of his time, Every is most famous for being one of the few major pirate captains to retire with his loot without being arrested or killed in battle, and also for being the perpetrator of what has been called the most profitable pirate raid in history.
Every is thought to have been born sometime between c. 1653 and c. 1659 in Devon
, England, or the surrounding area. Little is known about his early life, but he likely began his career as a slave trader
active along the West African coast in the early 1690s. In May 1694, Every was serving as first mate
aboard the privateer
Charles II, hired by the Spanish to prey on French vessels in Martinique
. Following repeated payment delays most of the crew mutinied while the ship was docked in Corunna
, renaming the ship to Fancy and electing Every as the new captain. With a course set for Madagascar, the Fancy captured three English merchantmen at the Cape Verde
islands, later robbing two Danish vessels near São Tomé and Príncipe
in October, the first acts of piracy by Every and his crew.
By September 1695 the Fancy had reached the Arabian Sea
, where the treasure-laden Grand Mughal
ship Ganj-i-Sawai
and its escort, the Fateh Muhammed, were making their annual pilgrimage from Mecca
. Joining forces with several nearby pirate vessels, Every found himself in command of a small pirate squadron, including a sloop
captained by English pirate Thomas Tew
. As the pirates gave chase, the smaller pirate vessels gradually fell behind, and at some point Tew was killed in an engagement with a Mughal vessel. Every had more success, however, overtaking the Ganj-i-Sawai and snapping its mainmast in a cannonball volley. Following several hours of ferocious hand-to-hand combat on deck, the pirates emerged victorious. Although "many" pirates were reportedly killed, the payoff was astonishing—Every had captured up to £600,000 in precious metals and jewels, making him the richest pirate in the world.
In response to Every's attack on the Mughal convoy, a combined bounty of £1,000 (considered massive by the standards of the time) was offered for his capture by the Privy Council
and East India Company
, leading to the first worldwide manhunt
in recorded history. Nevertheless, Every eluded capture. He briefly sheltered in New Providence
, a known pirate haven, before sailing to Ireland and disappearing from all records in 1696; his whereabouts and activities after this period are unknown. Unconfirmed accounts state he may have changed his name and retired, quietly lived out the rest of his life in either Britain or an unidentified tropical island, dying sometime after 1696. While Every's career as a pirate lasted only a few years, his exploits captured the public's imagination and were written about by many contemporary authors, including Daniel Defoe
.
under Admiral Robert Blake
. Several subsequent accounts of Every's life, most prominently Daniel Defoe's The King of Pirates (1720), have made reference to the earlier 1709 work, but it is of questionable veracity and has been described by the Dictionary of National Biography
as "fiction, with scarcely a substratum of fact." Nevertheless, 1653 remains a commonly cited date.
Recent scholarship has suggested that Every was born on 23 August 1659 in the village of Newton Ferrers
, about 9.7 kilometres (6 mi) southeast of Plymouth
. He may have been the son of John Evarie (spelling uncertain) and his wife, Ann (maiden name unknown). According to the deposition of William Phillips, a member of Every's crew who gave a "voluntary confession" after his capture, in August 1696 Every was "aged about 40 years," his mother lived "near Plymouth," and his wife was a periwig
seller who lived "in Ratcliffe Highway." (Parish records indicate that Every may have married his wife, one Dorothy Arther, at St James Duke's Place
in London on 11 September 1690.) Another suggested year for Every's birth is 1665, but this is at odds with the most commonly accepted dates and would contradict evidence suggesting that Every may have been baptized in 1659.
While it has been postulated that Every's birth name may have actually been Benjamin Bridgeman (especially in light of his nickname "Long Ben"), and that "Henry Every" was in fact an alias, this is generally considered false. It is accepted by historians that "Henry Every" was the pirate's real name, given that he used this name when he entered the Royal Navy and when he joined the Spanish Expedition. Because this was prior to him having turned pirate, he would have had no need for an alias; Every only used the name "Bridgeman" after committing piracy. While Every is not believed to have been a member of the well-known Every family
of Derbyshire, this cannot be proven conclusively.
Every was probably a sailor from his youth, serving on various Royal Navy ships. Accounts of uncertain veracity place him aboard the English fleet bombarding Algiers
in 1671, buccaneering in the Caribbean Sea
, and captaining a logwood freighter in the Bay of Campeche
. However, it is known that in 1689, shortly following the breakout of the Nine Years' War, Every was working as a midshipman
aboard the English battleship HMS Rupert, then under the command of Captain Francis Wheeler. In late 1689, the HMS Rupert helped capture a large enemy French fleet. This victory gave Every an opportunity to better his fortunes and he was soon promoted to Master's Mate, although he would likely have been the most junior of HMS Rupert's three Master's Mates. He was invited to join Captain Wheeler on a new ship, the HMS Albemarle, in the summer of 1690, but this employment was short-lived. In all, Every is known to have served aboard the HMS Rupert and HMS Albermarle between 1689 and 1690.
By the early 1690s, Every had entered the Atlantic slave trade
. According to the memoirs of Peter Henry Bruce, a West Indian merchant who wrote several decades after Every's disappearance, from 1690 to 1692 Every was illegally slave trading under the protection then-governor of the Bahamas, Cadwallader Jones. In 1693, Every is identified in a journal prepared an agent of the Royal African Company
, Captain Thomas Phillips of the Hannibal, then on a slaving mission on the Guinea
coast, who writes: "I have no where upon the coast met the negroes so shy as here, which makes me fancy they have had tricks play'd them by such blades as Long Ben, alias Avery, who have seiz'd them and carry'd them away." (Every was known to lure potential slave traders onto his ship by flying friendly English colors, then seize the slave traders themselves and chain them in his ship's hold alongside their former captives.)
Captain Phillips, who according to his own writings had come across Every on more than one occasion (and may have even known him personally), also alluded to Every as slave trading under a commission from Issac Richier, the unpopular Bermudian governor who was later removed from his post for his carousing and criminal behavior. However, Every's slave trading employment is relatively undocumented. In any case, by all accounts Every was a dedicated family man who sent the greatest part of his earnings home to support his wife.
puts it in his 1983 book The Pyrates
, "the single richest crime in history." His short piratical career has been described as being "more profitable than any before or since," and his exploits were considered so harmful to England's interests that he was determined to be beyond pardon.
aboard the 46-gun
privateer Charles II (sometimes erroneously given as Duke), initially captained by John Strong, and, following his death while in port, his replacement, Captain Charles Gibson. The Charles II was one of several privately owned ships that made up the Spanish Expedition Shipping venture, the others being the Dove, James, and Seventh Son. The Spanish Expedition Shipping was funded by several London-based investors led by Sir James Houblon, a wealthy merchant hoping to reinvigorate the stagnating English economy. Following Spain's granting of a license to trade and recover treasure under the terms of the Treaty of Madrid
, Houblon had the Charles II named after Charles II of Spain
.
In spring 1694, Charles II, the flagship, was anchored at Spain's northwestern port city of Corunna
. Every had been employed in 1693 to accompany Gibson and three other ships on a mission to the Spanish West Indies
. The goal of the voyage was to supply the Spanish with arms and then to recover treasure from wrecked Spanish ships while plundering the French possessions
in the area. The four ships were commanded by the admiral Sir Arturo O'Byrne, an Irishman nobleman who had previously served in the Spanish Navy Marines. This was an odd occurrence at the time and many people thought it boded ill for an Irishman to control an English fleet. Indeed, the voyage was soon in trouble, as it experienced significant delays while waiting for government approval. During this time, the sailors on board experienced eight months without wages, although all wages up to 1 August 1693 were paid on that date.
In addition to this misfortune, the sailors were virtually prisoners in Corunna for the entire period before the voyage was approved, being able neither to send their wages home to support their families, nor to find alternate sources of employment. After a few months in port, the men petitioned their captain for the pay they should have received since their employment began. If this request had been granted, the men would no longer have been tied to the ship and could easily have left, so predictably their petition was denied. After a similar petition to James Houblon by the men's wives had also failed, many of the sailors became desperate, believing that they had been sold into slavery under the Spanish king. Many historians argue that these conditions forced some of the men to mutiny, which they believed was a patriotic act, but others sources say that Every and many of the other men had planned the mutiny before even signing on to work under Houblon.
On 1 May, as the fleet was finally preparing to leave Corunna, the men demanded their six months of pay or threatened to strike. Houblon refused to acquiesce to these demands, but O'Byrne, seeing the seriousness of the situation, wrote to England asking for the money owed to his men. However, before his letter even reached England, some of the men had already approached Every and asked him to lead a mutiny, which he eventually agreed to do. Every then went to another of the ships, the James, and persuaded another sixteen men to join the mutiny on the Charles II. Since Every had a great deal of experience and was also born in a lower social rank, he was a natural choice to command the mutiny, as the crew believed he would have their best interests at heart.
On the night of 7 May or 8 May, Admiral O'Byrne was scheduled to sleep ashore, which gave the men the opportunity they were looking for. At approximately 9:00 p.m., Every and about 25 other men rushed aboard the Charles II and surprised the men on board. Captain Gibson was bedridden at the time, so the mutiny was relatively bloodless. There is also a story that the extra men from the James pulled up in a longboat beside the ship and gave the password, saying, "Is the drunken boatswain on board?" before joining in the mutiny. Captain Humphreys of the James is also said to have called out to Every that the men were deserting, to which Every calmly replied that he knew perfectly well. The James then fired on the Charles II, alerting the Spanish Night Watch, and Every was forced to make a run to the open sea, quickly vanishing into the night.
After sailing far enough for safety, Every gave the non-conspirators a chance to go ashore, and generously offered to let Captain Gibson command the ship if he would join their cause. The captain declined. Every and a few fellow conspirators had succeeded in a well-planned mutiny
and were able to set Captain Gibson ashore. All of the men left on board unanimously elected Every captain of the ship. Some reports say that Every was much ruder in his dealings with the captain, but agree that he at least offered him the position of second mate. In either case, Every exhibited an amount of gentility and generosity in his operation of the mutiny that in many historians' opinions show his motives were not mere adventure, but to provide for his family.
At the end of 8 May, Every had control of a ship with approximately eighty-five men, as many as sixty-five of whom had participated in the mutiny. Every was easily able to convince the men to sail to the Indian Ocean as pirates since their original mission had greatly resembled piracy and Every was renowned for his powers of persuasion. The crew quickly settled the subject of payment by deciding that each member would get one share of the treasure, and the captain would get two. Then, Every renamed the ship the Fancy, a name which reflected both the crew's renewed hope in their journey and the quality of the ship, and sailed for the Cape of Good Hope
. And with that, first mate Every of the ship Charles II was transformed into the pirate captain Henry Every, of the ship the Fancy.
At the Cape Verde
islands, Every committed his first piracy, robbing three English merchantmen. Nine of the men from these ships were quickly persuaded to join Every's crew. There is also a story about him capturing the Portuguese governor of the islands and holding him for ransom, but this is unconfirmed. Every then sailed to the Guinea Coast, where he tricked a local chieftain on board the Fancy, under the false pretense of trade and forcibly took his and his men's wealth, leaving them slaves. These slaves were reportedly given to the Portuguese government to regain their goodwill. In October 1694, the Fancy captured two Danish privateers near the island of Príncipe
, stripping the ships of their valuables and welcoming approximately 17 defecting Danes aboard.
In early 1695, the Fancy reportedly rounded the Cape of Good Hope, stopping in Madagascar to restock her supplies, likely in the area of St. Augustine's Bay. The Fancy next stopped at the island
of Johanna
in the Comoro Islands
. Here Every had the Fancy careened
and razee
d her, cutting away some of her superstructure
to improve her speed. With this modification, the Fancy became one of the fastest ships then sailing in the Indian Ocean. Every promptly exploited his new speed advantage to capture a passing French pirate ship, looting the vessel and recruiting some forty of the crew to join his own company. His total strength was now possibly 150 men.
From Johanna, Every wrote a letter addressed to the English ship commanders in the Indian Ocean, falsely stating that he had not attacked any English ships, describing a signal English skippers could use to identify themselves so he could avoid them, and warning them that he might not be able to restrain his crew from plundering their ships if they failed to use the signal. However, it is unclear whether this document was true, or was some ploy by Every to attempt to avoid capture or pursuit by the English navy. Either way, the letter was unsuccessful in preventing the English from pursuing him.
to wait for the Indian fleet that would be passing soon. In August 1694, Every and the Fancy reached the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb
, where he teamed up with five other pirate captains: Thomas Tew
on the Amity; Joseph Farrell alias Faro, on the Portsmouth Adventure; William Want on the Dolphin; William May on the Pearl; and Thomas Wake on the Susannah, all of whom were carrying privateering commissions that implicated almost the entire Eastern Seaboard of North America
. (The Indian fleet made annual voyages to Mecca
, so the knowledge of the approximate time the pilgrims would be returning home may have been readily available.) Every was elected admiral of the new pirate flotilla despite the fact that Captain Tew had arguably more experience, and it was now under his command the pirates lay in wait for the Indian fleet to pass by. A 25-ship Mughal
convoy, including the treasure-laden Ganj-i-Sawai
and its escort, the Fateh Muhammed, were spotted passing the straits en route to Surat
. Although the convoy had managed to elude the pirate fleet during the night, the pirates gave chase and caught up with the Fateh Muhammed four or five days later. Perhaps intimidated by the Fancy's 46 guns or weakened by an earlier battle with Tew, the Fateh Muhammeds crew put up little resistance; Every's pirates then sacked the ship, which had belonged to one Abdul Ghaffar, reportedly Surat's wealthiest merchant, for £50,000 to £60,000 worth of treasure. However, once the treasure was shared out among the whole pirate fleet, Every's crew received only small shares.
Every now sailed in pursuit of the second Mughal ship, the Ganj-i-Sawai (meaning "Exceeding Treasure", and often Anglicized as Gunsway), overtaking her a few days after the attack on the Fateh Muhammed, about eight days after leaving the Straits of Bab-el-Mandab. The rest of the pirate captains had put Every in command of the battle because most of the fleet could not keep up with the newly trimmed Fancy. Only Every, William Mays, and Joseph Farrell's crews were present for the actual battle. Tew's sloop, which was unable to keep up and fell behind, apparently engaged a Mughal ship at some point, and Tew was killed in the attack. However, the location and time of Tew's attack are not known.
The Ganj-i-Sawai, captained by one Muhammad Ibrahim, was a fearsome opponent, mounting 62 guns and a musket-armed guard of four to five hundred, as well as six hundred other passengers. But the opening volley evened the odds, as one of the Indian ship's cannons exploded, killing three or four gunners and causing great confusion and demoralization among the crew, while Every's broadside
shot his enemy's mainmast by the board. Despite this, the crew of the Mughal's ship withstood Every for two or three hours before he could board the ship. Muhammad Hashim Khafi Khan, a contemporary Indian historian who was in Surat at the time, wrote that, as Every boarded the ship, the Ganj-i-Sawai's captain ran below decks where he armed the slave girls and sent them up to fight the pirates. (Khafi Khan's accounts were translated by H. M. Elliot
and John Dowson
and appeared in Volume 7 of The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians.) The Fancy drew alongside the Ganj-i-Sawai and the pirates clambered aboard.
A ferocious hand-to-hand battle ensued, lasting two to three hours. Witnessed report that Every's outnumbered crew lost "many" men, perhaps suffering up to 110 pirate casualties, although these figures are uncertain. However, the superior Indian force was let down by its leader, Ibrahim Khan, who rushed below and hid among his concubines
. After two hours of fierce but leaderless resistance, the ship surrendered. Accounts of how the Indian people on board were treated after the capture vary, but Khafi Khan reported that Every's crew ravished and killed many of the women. According to these accounts, the victorious pirates subjected their captives to several days of horror, raping and murdering prisoners at will, and using torture to force them to reveal the location of the ships' treasure. Some of the women committed suicide to avoid violation or humiliation. Those women who did not kill themselves or die from the pirates' brutality were taken aboard the Fancy.
While the stories of brutality by the pirates are largely unconfirmed, they are mostly corroborated by the depositions
of several of Every's crewmen following their capture. One of the captured men, John Sparkes, testified in his Last Dying Words and Confession that "the inhuman treatment and merciless tortures inflicted on the poor Indians and their women still affected his soul," and that, while apparently unremorseful for his acts of piracy, which were of "lesser concern," was nevertheless repentant for the "horrid barbarities he had committed, though only on the bodies of the heathen." Another captured member of Every's crew, Philip Middleton, testified in August 1696 that "they put several to the torture" and that "several of the Indian women on board were, by their habits and jewels, of better quality than the rest." Furthermore, in a letter sent to the Privy Council by Sir John Gayer
, then governor of Bombay and head of the East India Company
, Gayer claims that "it is certain the Pyrates...did do very barbarously by the People of the Gunsway and Abdul Gofors [Abdul Ghaffar's] Ship, to make them confess where their Money was." At any rate, the other survivors were left aboard their emptied ships, which the pirates set free to continue on their voyage back to India.
The Ganj-i-Sawai was enormously wealthy and, according to contemporary East India Company sources, was carrying a "relative" of the Grand Mughal
, though there is no evidence to suggest that it was his daughter and her retinue
. The loot from the Ganj-i-Sawai totaled between £325,000 and £600,000, including 500,000 gold and silver pieces, and may have been the richest ship ever taken by pirates (see Career wealth below). In addition to this, the ship itself was reported to be the greatest in the Muslim fleet. All these things combined made Every officially the richest pirate in the world. Although it is sometimes reported that Every used his phenomenal skills of persuasion to convince the other captains to leave the treasure in his care, quickly slipping away into the night with the entire haul, this comes from Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates
, an unreliable account. More reliable sources indicate that there was an exchanged of clipped coins
between the crews of the Pearl and Fancy, with Every's outraged crew confiscating the Pearl's treasure. Every then gave the Pearl 2,000 pieces of eight (presumably an approximate sum as the treasure captured would have been in Indian and Arabian coins of a different denomination) to buy supplies, and then parted company. There are also some accounts that say that Every and the surviving pirate captains set sail for Bourbon
, where they shared out £1,000 and some additional gemstones
to every man in the crew.
in the Bahamas. Every took 90 slaves along the way. At São Tomé
he stopped to take on supplies, defrauding the Portuguese sellers. The Fancy's next stop was St. Thomas, where the pirates sold some of their booty. The Fancy arrived at New Providence
in the Bahamas in March 1696. Having finally reached Nassau, the island's largest city and capital, they bribed Governor Nicholas Trott to give them refuge. However, before long the crew found themselves disappointed with the Bahamas; the islands were sparsely populated, meaning that there was virtually no place to spend the money they had pirated. For the next several months the pirates spent most of their time living aboard Fancy in relative boredom. The ship was eventually given to Governor Trott as part of a bribe with the pirates, although it was apparently lost after being violently driven against some rocks, perhaps deliberaltely on the orders of Trott. Every's crew soon left New Providence.
Meanwhile, in England, Every's capture of the Great Mughal's ship was threatening to put an end to English trade with India. In desperation, the English government put a reward on Every's head of £500 and offered to pardon any pirate who disclosed his whereabouts. The East India Company later doubled that reward. This led to the first worldwide manhunt in recorded history. The governor of New Providence, Nicholas Trott, was forced to either put a warrant out for Every's arrest or, failing to do so, effectively disclose his association with the pirate. Preferring the former choice for sake of his reputation, Trott alerted the authorities as to pirates' whereabouts, but was able to tip off Every and his crew before the authorities arrived. Every's 113-person crew made their escape, vanishing from the island with only 12 men ever captured, six of whom were executed. Every himself was never seen again.
It has been suggested that because Every was unable to buy a pardon from Trott or from the governor of Jamaica
, Every's crew split up, some heading to North America
, while the majority, including Every, some returned to Britain aboard the sloop Isaac whilst Every, his coxwain Dann and other sailed in the sloop Sea Flower to Ireland towards the end of June 1696 with about 20 men. They aroused suspicions while unloading their treasure, and two of the men were subsequently caught. Every, however, was able to escape once again. There is also some dispute that Every managed to successfully hide in London, and did not stay in Ireland, but there is no proof of this. The female prisoners were not aboard, and it is unknown whether they escaped, were released, or were murdered, assuming these accounts were true. Although 24 of his men were caught, many soon after disembarking, Every was never seen again. His last words to his men were a litany of conflicting stories of where he planned to go, doubtless intended to throw pursuers off his trail.
In total, the Fancy's cruise lasted two years, during which time Every proved himself an admirable commander. The total number of casualties his crew suffered is not known. Every is known to have lost one crew member when attacking an Arab vessel near Johanna, and the casualties resulting from the taking of the Ganj-i-Sawai are uncertain. Nevertheless, most of his crew are thought to have returned to England with about £1,000, or roughly equal to £93,300 today. £1,000 would have been an amount greater than most working sailors could earn in a lifetime. Every himself is thought to only have kept about two to three thousand pounds.
British author and pirate biographer Charles Johnson suggested that Every died in poverty in Devon, after being cheated out of his wealth by Bristol
merchants; it is, however, unclear how Johnson could have discovered this. Some have suggested that after Every changed his name, he settled in Devon
and lived out the rest of his life peacefully, dying on 10 June 1714; however, the source for this information is The History and Lives of All the Most Notorious Pirates and their Crews (London, 1732), considered an unreliable (and slightly expanded) reprint of Johnson's General History.
The six defendants—Joseph Dawson, 39 years old, from Yarmouth; Edward Forseith, 45, from Newcastle on Tyne; William May, 48, from London; William Bishop, 20, from Devon; James Lewis, 25, from London; and John Sparkes, 19, from London—were indicted on charges of committing piracy on the Ganj-i-Sawai, with the trial beginning on 19 October 1696 at the Old Bailey
. Presiding over the trial was by Admiralty Court
Judge Sir Charles Hedges
, with the grand jury finding "Billa vera against Henry Every, tried in absentia
, and his captured crewmen. Other than Joseph Dawson and James Lewis, all of the pirates pleaded not guilty. Despite considerable pressure on the jury to find the defendants guilty, with Judge Advocate of the Admiralty Dr. Thomas Newton, reminding the jury that the consequences of an acquittal would be "the destruction of [those] innocent English" who were engaged in trading, as well as "the total loss of the Indian trade, and thereby the impoverishment of this kingdom." To the court's shock, however, the pirates were found not guilty.
Following their acquittal, the court rushed through another indictment, and twelve days later the pirates were tried on a different set of charges, this time on account of conspiring to steal the Charles II with piratical intent. Once again the court continually impressed the need for the pirates' conviction on the jury. Consequently, the new hand-picked jury found them all guilty. The pirates were then given one last chance to try and show why they should be spared from execution, with most simply claiming ignorance and asking for mercy. May argued that, being "a very sickly man," he had "never acted in all the voyage," while Bishop reminded the court that he was "forced away," and, being only 18 years of age during the 1694 mutiny, desired mercy. Nevertheless, the pirates' pleas for mercy and claims of ignorance failed to sway the jury, who were unconvinced that the pirates were unable to leave the ship or refuse to participate in piracy.
Sparkes was the only pirate to publicly express some regret, but not for piracy, which was of "lesser concern"—instead, he was repentant for the "horrid barbarities he had committed, though only on the bodies of the heathen," implying that he had participated in the violation of the women aboard the Mughal ships. On 25 November 1696, the pirates were hanged at Execution Dock
, approximately one year after the September 1695 plundering of the Ganj-i-Sawai.
John Dann (Every's Coxswain) escaped the hangman by turning Kings Witness. However he remained in England. because , a few years later on August 9th 1698, an ‘Order for one Dann, lately Every's mate but pardoned, to attend the Board to-morrow’. This he did on the 11th August at East India House, giving details of his voyage and plunder on board the Fancy. In 1699 he married Eliza Noble and the following year became a partner to John Coggs a well established Goldsmith Banker -creating Coggs and Dann , at the sign of the Kings Head in the Strand, London. The bankers (particularly Dann) were duped by Thomas Brerewood
, one of their clients and the bank became insolvent in 1710. Dann died in 1722.
and Olivier Levasseur
may have perpetrated an even more profitable raid with their April 1721 capture of the Portuguese galleon Nossa Senhora do Cabo ("Our Lady of the Cape"). The 700-ton Cabo, bound to Lisbon
from the Portuguese colony of Goa
, had been damaged in a storm and was undergoing repairs at the French island of Réunion
when the pirates struck. Reportedly carrying the retiring the Count of Ericeira
, His Excellency Dom Luís Carlos Inácio Xavier de Meneses, the galleon was laden with silver, gold, diamonds, gems, as well as pearls, silks, spices, works of art, and church regalia belonging to the Patriarch of the East Indies
. The total value of the treasure on board has been estimated as being anywhere from £100,000 to £875,000 (£500,000 in diamonds and gold, and £375,000 in other cargo), all of which was divided among the 240 pirates who took part in the raid. If the latter number is correct, it would far eclipse Every's haul.
Historian Jan Rogoziński has estimated the value of the Nossa Senhora do Cabo's treasure as being "more than $400 million," while the East India Company's comparatively conservative estimate of £325,000 for the value of the Ganj-i-Sawai goods equal "at least $200 million." If the larger estimate of £600,000 is taken, this would be equivalent to $400 million, approximately rivaling the raid committed by Taylor and Levasseur. Another point of consideration is whether the testimony of members of Every's crew describing how the crew of the Pearl were cheated of their share is true, in which case the Ganj-i-Sawai's wealth would have been divided among far fewer hands. In any case, if one accepts the East India Company's estimate of £325,000, Rogoziński writes that even then "only two or three times in history did criminals take more valuable loot."
It has been suggested that the East India Company may have deliberately used the lowest estimate feasible, with its president choosing the most conservative estimate in order to pay as little for the damage as possible. Others have argued that the Mughal authorities chose a larger number of £600,000 in order to improve their compensation from the English. While some historians have argued that £325,000 was probably closer to the true value, which was also the amount estimated by Scottish merchant Alexander Hamilton
, then stationed in Surat, others have criticized those making these assumptions for failing to provide convincing reasons for why this must be so.
's treasure ship had serious consequences for the English East India Company. The furious Mughal emperor closed four of the company's factories in India and imprisoned their officers, blaming them for their countryman's depredations. To appease Emperor Aurangzeb, Parliament
exempted Every from all of the Acts of Grace (pardons) and amnesties it would subsequently issue to other pirates.
During his career, the media in England portrayed Every as a notorious criminal, but his exploits captivated the public's imagination. To some he was a gallant luminary, a sort of maritime Robin Hood
antihero-type exemplifying the working class idea that rebellion and piracy were acceptable ways to fight back against unfair captains and societies. Every's story doubtlessly inspired many other men to take up piracy, including the infamous Captain Kidd
, and Every's life also inspired a number of accounts, including The Life and Adventures of Captain John Avery (c. 1709); a 1712 play, The Successful Pyrate
by Charles Johnson
, which ran into several editions and was acted at the Theatre Royal
in Drury Lane; and a 1724 book by Daniel Defoe
, The King of Pirates, Being An Account of the famous Enterprises of Captain Avery. Another of Defoe's works, Captain Singleton
, is thought to have been partly based on Every's life. Furthermore, Every's career inspired, very loosely, that of Captain Ben Avery, the hero of George MacDonald Fraser
's 1983 spoof novel The Pyrates
.
These books offer a very different picture than the reality of Every's life. For example, in Johnson's book Life and Adventures of Captain John Avery, Every is depicted as both a treacherous pirate and a romantic lover. After he raids the Mughal's ship, in this story, he runs off with and marries his daughter. They then flee the Mughal's army to Saint Mary's Island
where Every sets up an enormous pirate kingdom. Although this story was greatly believed to be based on fact by the general public of England, it was almost entirely fictional.
In addition to the books and play written about Henry Every, a ballad
was also printed in England during his career that was reportedly written by the man himself. Titled "A Copy of Verses, Composed by Captain Henry Every, Lately Gone to Sea to seek his Fortune," it was first published as a broadside
sometime between May and July 1694 by the London printer Theophilus Lewis. Consisting of thirteen stanzas
set to the tune of the 1686 ballad "The Success of Two English Travellers; Newly Arrived in London", it was subsequently collected by Samuel Pepys
and added to the Pepys Library
. At least nine different reprints the ballad, of varying similarity to the original published by Lewis, were printed between 1694 and 1907. More recently, the ballad has been featured in The Oxford Book of Sea Songs by Roy Palmer (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1986).
"A Copy of Verses" contains a few specific claims—such as Every declaring to have formerly been "part-owner" to land near Plymouth—that were later corroborated by William Philips, the captured crewmember with whom Every had once shared information about his family and estate. Despite this, most historians believe that Every did not write the verses. A more likely scenario is that one of the approximately eighteen loyal sailors who refused to join the mutiny had shared their knowledge of Every after returning to England, where it was quickly turned into a ballad. A slightly modified copy was delivered to the Privy Council of England
by Sir James Houblon on 10 August 1694, where it was used as evidence during the inquiry on the mutiny. By announcing Every's supposed intentions of becoming pirate even before execution of the mutiny, the ballad may have served to strengthen the Council's convictions that the mutinous crew harbored piratical intentions from the onset. It is possible, therefore, that the ballad may have actually been written and distributed as a way to convict Every. In any case, the strength of the ballad likely played a role in the government's outlawing of Every nearly two years before he had become known as the most successful pirate of his time.
. Although red was a popular color for pirate flags of the time, the meaning of the four chevrons is not certain; it may be an attempt (justified or not) to link Every with the West-Country gentry clan of Every/Avery whose coats-of-arms showed varying numbers of chevrons, red on gold or vice versa (cf. Visitation of Somerset 1623). However, there is no reliable evidence that Every actually flew such a flag.
At some point long after Every's disappearance, another flag was ascribed to him: a white skull in profile wearing a kerchief and an earring, above a saltire
of two white crossed bones, on a black field (see image at right). The original source in which this flag first appears is not known, but it does not appear in publications until the 1920s and 30s. If the flag is genuine, it contradicts the generally accepted belief that Emanuel Wynn
was the first pirate to use the skull and crossbones motif, in 1700. Furthermore, earrings and bandanas were not associated with pirates until the artwork of Howard Pyle in the 1880s, so it is almost certain that this flag is a 20th century invention.
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
and Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
s in the mid-1690s. He likely used several aliases throughout his career, including Benjamin Bridgeman, and was known as Long Ben to his crewmen and associates. The most notorious pirate of his time, Every is most famous for being one of the few major pirate captains to retire with his loot without being arrested or killed in battle, and also for being the perpetrator of what has been called the most profitable pirate raid in history.
Every is thought to have been born sometime between c. 1653 and c. 1659 in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
, England, or the surrounding area. Little is known about his early life, but he likely began his career as a slave trader
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the trans-atlantic slave trade, refers to the trade in slaves that took place across the Atlantic ocean from the sixteenth through to the nineteenth centuries...
active along the West African coast in the early 1690s. In May 1694, Every was serving as first mate
Chief Mate
A Chief Mate or Chief Officer, usually also synonymous with the First Mate or First Officer , is a licensed member and head of the deck department of a merchant ship...
aboard the privateer
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...
Charles II, hired by the Spanish to prey on French vessels in Martinique
Martinique
Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
. Following repeated payment delays most of the crew mutinied while the ship was docked in Corunna
Corunna
Corunna is the traditional English name of the city of A Coruña in Spain and the surrounding province A Coruña .Battles*Battle of Corunna, fought near Corunna in 1809*Battle of the Corunna Road, fought near Madrid in 1936–37...
, renaming the ship to Fancy and electing Every as the new captain. With a course set for Madagascar, the Fancy captured three English merchantmen at the Cape Verde
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
islands, later robbing two Danish vessels near São Tomé and Príncipe
São Tomé and Príncipe
São Tomé and Príncipe, officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, is a Portuguese-speaking island nation in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa. It consists of two islands: São Tomé and Príncipe, located about apart and about , respectively, off...
in October, the first acts of piracy by Every and his crew.
By September 1695 the Fancy had reached the Arabian Sea
Arabian Sea
The Arabian Sea is a region of the Indian Ocean bounded on the east by India, on the north by Pakistan and Iran, on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, on the south, approximately, by a line between Cape Guardafui in northeastern Somalia and Kanyakumari in India...
, where the treasure-laden Grand Mughal
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
ship Ganj-i-Sawai
Ganj-i-Sawai
The Ganj-i-Sawai or Gang-i-Sawai was a heavily armed trading ship belonging to the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb which, along with its escort the Fateh Muhammed, was captured on 7 September 1695 by the English pirate Henry Every en route from present day Mocha, Yemen to Surat, India.In August 1695,...
and its escort, the Fateh Muhammed, were making their annual pilgrimage from Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
. Joining forces with several nearby pirate vessels, Every found himself in command of a small pirate squadron, including a sloop
Sloop
A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....
captained by English pirate Thomas Tew
Thomas Tew
Thomas Tew , also known as the Rhode Island Pirate, was a 17th century English privateer-turned-pirate. Although he embarked on only two major piratical voyages, and met a bloody death on the latter journey, Tew pioneered the route which became known as the Pirate Round. Many other famous pirates,...
. As the pirates gave chase, the smaller pirate vessels gradually fell behind, and at some point Tew was killed in an engagement with a Mughal vessel. Every had more success, however, overtaking the Ganj-i-Sawai and snapping its mainmast in a cannonball volley. Following several hours of ferocious hand-to-hand combat on deck, the pirates emerged victorious. Although "many" pirates were reportedly killed, the payoff was astonishing—Every had captured up to £600,000 in precious metals and jewels, making him the richest pirate in the world.
In response to Every's attack on the Mughal convoy, a combined bounty of £1,000 (considered massive by the standards of the time) was offered for his capture by the Privy Council
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
and East India Company
East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
, leading to the first worldwide manhunt
Manhunt (law enforcement)
In law enforcement, a manhunt is a search for a dangerous fugitive involving the use of all available police units and technology and sometimes help from the public....
in recorded history. Nevertheless, Every eluded capture. He briefly sheltered in New Providence
New Providence
New Providence is the most populous island in the Bahamas, containing more than 70% of the total population. It also houses the national capital city, Nassau.The island was originally under Spanish control following Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World, but the Spanish government showed...
, a known pirate haven, before sailing to Ireland and disappearing from all records in 1696; his whereabouts and activities after this period are unknown. Unconfirmed accounts state he may have changed his name and retired, quietly lived out the rest of his life in either Britain or an unidentified tropical island, dying sometime after 1696. While Every's career as a pirate lasted only a few years, his exploits captured the public's imagination and were written about by many contemporary authors, including Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson,...
.
Early life
There is considerable uncertainty surrounding Henry Every's early life, but he is believed to have been born sometime between in 1653 and 1659. The former date is given in The Life and Adventures of Captain John Avery (London: J. Baker, 1709), perhaps the earliest biographical account of Every's life. The memoir's Dutch author, who wrote his account a little over a decade after the pirate had vanished, uses the name Adrian van Broeck, but this is probably a pseudonym. The account tells of van Broeck's short captivity by Every's crew aboard the Fancy, and also claims that Every's father was a trading captain who had served in the Royal NavyRoyal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
under Admiral Robert Blake
Robert Blake (admiral)
Robert Blake was one of the most important military commanders of the Commonwealth of England and one of the most famous English admirals of the 17th century. Blake is recognised as the chief founder of England's naval supremacy, a dominance subsequently inherited by the British Royal Navy into...
. Several subsequent accounts of Every's life, most prominently Daniel Defoe's The King of Pirates (1720), have made reference to the earlier 1709 work, but it is of questionable veracity and has been described by the Dictionary of National Biography
Dictionary of National Biography
The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...
as "fiction, with scarcely a substratum of fact." Nevertheless, 1653 remains a commonly cited date.
Newton Ferrers
Newton Ferrers is a village in the civil parish of Newton and Noss in the English county of Devon, located about south-east of Plymouth on the River Yealm estuary. It lies within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.-History:...
, about 9.7 kilometres (6 mi) southeast of Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
. He may have been the son of John Evarie (spelling uncertain) and his wife, Ann (maiden name unknown). According to the deposition of William Phillips, a member of Every's crew who gave a "voluntary confession" after his capture, in August 1696 Every was "aged about 40 years," his mother lived "near Plymouth," and his wife was a periwig
Wig
A wig is a head of hair made from horsehair, human hair, wool, feathers, yak hair, buffalo hair, or synthetic materials which is worn on the head for fashion or various other aesthetic and stylistic reasons, including cultural and religious observance. The word wig is short for periwig and first...
seller who lived "in Ratcliffe Highway." (Parish records indicate that Every may have married his wife, one Dorothy Arther, at St James Duke's Place
St James Duke's Place
St James Duke's Placewas an Anglican parish church in the eponymous City of London precinct from 1622 until 1874. It replaced the ruined Priory of the Holy Trinity when the area was settled by poor workmen.They found St Katherine Cree "uncongenial" and sought permission from the king to build a...
in London on 11 September 1690.) Another suggested year for Every's birth is 1665, but this is at odds with the most commonly accepted dates and would contradict evidence suggesting that Every may have been baptized in 1659.
While it has been postulated that Every's birth name may have actually been Benjamin Bridgeman (especially in light of his nickname "Long Ben"), and that "Henry Every" was in fact an alias, this is generally considered false. It is accepted by historians that "Henry Every" was the pirate's real name, given that he used this name when he entered the Royal Navy and when he joined the Spanish Expedition. Because this was prior to him having turned pirate, he would have had no need for an alias; Every only used the name "Bridgeman" after committing piracy. While Every is not believed to have been a member of the well-known Every family
Every Baronets
The Every Baronetcy, of Egginton in the County of Derby, is a title in the Baronetage of England. It was created on 26 May 1641 for Simon Every, Member of Parliament for Leicester in 1640 and a supporter of the Royalist cause in the Civil War. Originally of Chardstock, Dorset, he married Anne,...
of Derbyshire, this cannot be proven conclusively.
Every was probably a sailor from his youth, serving on various Royal Navy ships. Accounts of uncertain veracity place him aboard the English fleet bombarding Algiers
Algiers
' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...
in 1671, buccaneering in the Caribbean Sea
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean located in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles....
, and captaining a logwood freighter in the Bay of Campeche
Bay of Campeche
The Bay of Campeche is the southern bight of the Gulf of Mexico. It is surrounded on three sides by the Mexican states of Campeche, Tabasco and Veracruz. It was named by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba and Antonio de Alaminos during their expedition in 1517...
. However, it is known that in 1689, shortly following the breakout of the Nine Years' War, Every was working as a midshipman
Midshipman
A midshipman is an officer cadet, or a commissioned officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Kenya...
aboard the English battleship HMS Rupert, then under the command of Captain Francis Wheeler. In late 1689, the HMS Rupert helped capture a large enemy French fleet. This victory gave Every an opportunity to better his fortunes and he was soon promoted to Master's Mate, although he would likely have been the most junior of HMS Rupert's three Master's Mates. He was invited to join Captain Wheeler on a new ship, the HMS Albemarle, in the summer of 1690, but this employment was short-lived. In all, Every is known to have served aboard the HMS Rupert and HMS Albermarle between 1689 and 1690.
By the early 1690s, Every had entered the Atlantic slave trade
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the trans-atlantic slave trade, refers to the trade in slaves that took place across the Atlantic ocean from the sixteenth through to the nineteenth centuries...
. According to the memoirs of Peter Henry Bruce, a West Indian merchant who wrote several decades after Every's disappearance, from 1690 to 1692 Every was illegally slave trading under the protection then-governor of the Bahamas, Cadwallader Jones. In 1693, Every is identified in a journal prepared an agent of the Royal African Company
Royal African Company
The Royal African Company was a slaving company set up by the Stuart family and London merchants once the former retook the English throne in the English Restoration of 1660...
, Captain Thomas Phillips of the Hannibal, then on a slaving mission on the Guinea
Guinea
Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
coast, who writes: "I have no where upon the coast met the negroes so shy as here, which makes me fancy they have had tricks play'd them by such blades as Long Ben, alias Avery, who have seiz'd them and carry'd them away." (Every was known to lure potential slave traders onto his ship by flying friendly English colors, then seize the slave traders themselves and chain them in his ship's hold alongside their former captives.)
Captain Phillips, who according to his own writings had come across Every on more than one occasion (and may have even known him personally), also alluded to Every as slave trading under a commission from Issac Richier, the unpopular Bermudian governor who was later removed from his post for his carousing and criminal behavior. However, Every's slave trading employment is relatively undocumented. In any case, by all accounts Every was a dedicated family man who sent the greatest part of his earnings home to support his wife.
Piratical career
Every only made one voyage in his capacity as a pirate captain, but in that single journey, which lasted a total of two years, he succeeded in committing, as George MacDonald FraserGeorge MacDonald Fraser
George MacDonald Fraser, OBE was an English-born author of Scottish descent, who wrote both historical novels and non-fiction books, as well as several screenplays.-Early life and military career:...
puts it in his 1983 book The Pyrates
The Pyrates
The Pyrates is a comedic novel by George MacDonald Fraser, published in 1983. Written in arch, ironic style and containing a great deal of deliberate anachronism, it traces the adventures of a classic hero , multiple damsels in distress, and the six captains who lead the infamous Coast Brotherhood...
, "the single richest crime in history." His short piratical career has been described as being "more profitable than any before or since," and his exploits were considered so harmful to England's interests that he was determined to be beyond pardon.
Mutiny and ascension to captaincy
In early 1694, Every was serving as first mateChief Mate
A Chief Mate or Chief Officer, usually also synonymous with the First Mate or First Officer , is a licensed member and head of the deck department of a merchant ship...
aboard the 46-gun
Naval artillery in the Age of Sail
Naval artillery in the Age of Sail encompasses the period of roughly 1571-1863: when large, sail-powered wooden naval warships dominated the high seas, mounting a bewildering variety of different types and sizes of cannon as their main armament. By modern standards, these cannon were extremely...
privateer Charles II (sometimes erroneously given as Duke), initially captained by John Strong, and, following his death while in port, his replacement, Captain Charles Gibson. The Charles II was one of several privately owned ships that made up the Spanish Expedition Shipping venture, the others being the Dove, James, and Seventh Son. The Spanish Expedition Shipping was funded by several London-based investors led by Sir James Houblon, a wealthy merchant hoping to reinvigorate the stagnating English economy. Following Spain's granting of a license to trade and recover treasure under the terms of the Treaty of Madrid
Treaty of Madrid (1670)
The Treaty of Madrid adopted in 1670 was a treaty between England and Spain. Under the terms of the treaty, Spain recognized English possessions in the Caribbean Sea: "all those lands, islands, colonies and places whatsoever situated in the West Indies." England took formal control of Jamaica and...
, Houblon had the Charles II named after Charles II of Spain
Charles II of Spain
Charles II was the last Habsburg King of Spain and the ruler of large parts of Italy, the Spanish territories in the Southern Low Countries, and Spain's overseas Empire, stretching from the Americas to the Spanish East Indies...
.
In spring 1694, Charles II, the flagship, was anchored at Spain's northwestern port city of Corunna
Corunna
Corunna is the traditional English name of the city of A Coruña in Spain and the surrounding province A Coruña .Battles*Battle of Corunna, fought near Corunna in 1809*Battle of the Corunna Road, fought near Madrid in 1936–37...
. Every had been employed in 1693 to accompany Gibson and three other ships on a mission to the Spanish West Indies
Spanish West Indies
The Spanish West Indies was the contemporary name for the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean...
. The goal of the voyage was to supply the Spanish with arms and then to recover treasure from wrecked Spanish ships while plundering the French possessions
French West Indies
The term French West Indies or French Antilles refers to the seven territories currently under French sovereignty in the Antilles islands of the Caribbean: the two overseas departments of Guadeloupe and Martinique, the two overseas collectivities of Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy, plus...
in the area. The four ships were commanded by the admiral Sir Arturo O'Byrne, an Irishman nobleman who had previously served in the Spanish Navy Marines. This was an odd occurrence at the time and many people thought it boded ill for an Irishman to control an English fleet. Indeed, the voyage was soon in trouble, as it experienced significant delays while waiting for government approval. During this time, the sailors on board experienced eight months without wages, although all wages up to 1 August 1693 were paid on that date.
In addition to this misfortune, the sailors were virtually prisoners in Corunna for the entire period before the voyage was approved, being able neither to send their wages home to support their families, nor to find alternate sources of employment. After a few months in port, the men petitioned their captain for the pay they should have received since their employment began. If this request had been granted, the men would no longer have been tied to the ship and could easily have left, so predictably their petition was denied. After a similar petition to James Houblon by the men's wives had also failed, many of the sailors became desperate, believing that they had been sold into slavery under the Spanish king. Many historians argue that these conditions forced some of the men to mutiny, which they believed was a patriotic act, but others sources say that Every and many of the other men had planned the mutiny before even signing on to work under Houblon.
On 1 May, as the fleet was finally preparing to leave Corunna, the men demanded their six months of pay or threatened to strike. Houblon refused to acquiesce to these demands, but O'Byrne, seeing the seriousness of the situation, wrote to England asking for the money owed to his men. However, before his letter even reached England, some of the men had already approached Every and asked him to lead a mutiny, which he eventually agreed to do. Every then went to another of the ships, the James, and persuaded another sixteen men to join the mutiny on the Charles II. Since Every had a great deal of experience and was also born in a lower social rank, he was a natural choice to command the mutiny, as the crew believed he would have their best interests at heart.
On the night of 7 May or 8 May, Admiral O'Byrne was scheduled to sleep ashore, which gave the men the opportunity they were looking for. At approximately 9:00 p.m., Every and about 25 other men rushed aboard the Charles II and surprised the men on board. Captain Gibson was bedridden at the time, so the mutiny was relatively bloodless. There is also a story that the extra men from the James pulled up in a longboat beside the ship and gave the password, saying, "Is the drunken boatswain on board?" before joining in the mutiny. Captain Humphreys of the James is also said to have called out to Every that the men were deserting, to which Every calmly replied that he knew perfectly well. The James then fired on the Charles II, alerting the Spanish Night Watch, and Every was forced to make a run to the open sea, quickly vanishing into the night.
After sailing far enough for safety, Every gave the non-conspirators a chance to go ashore, and generously offered to let Captain Gibson command the ship if he would join their cause. The captain declined. Every and a few fellow conspirators had succeeded in a well-planned mutiny
Mutiny
Mutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...
and were able to set Captain Gibson ashore. All of the men left on board unanimously elected Every captain of the ship. Some reports say that Every was much ruder in his dealings with the captain, but agree that he at least offered him the position of second mate. In either case, Every exhibited an amount of gentility and generosity in his operation of the mutiny that in many historians' opinions show his motives were not mere adventure, but to provide for his family.
At the end of 8 May, Every had control of a ship with approximately eighty-five men, as many as sixty-five of whom had participated in the mutiny. Every was easily able to convince the men to sail to the Indian Ocean as pirates since their original mission had greatly resembled piracy and Every was renowned for his powers of persuasion. The crew quickly settled the subject of payment by deciding that each member would get one share of the treasure, and the captain would get two. Then, Every renamed the ship the Fancy, a name which reflected both the crew's renewed hope in their journey and the quality of the ship, and sailed for the Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
. And with that, first mate Every of the ship Charles II was transformed into the pirate captain Henry Every, of the ship the Fancy.
At the Cape Verde
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
islands, Every committed his first piracy, robbing three English merchantmen. Nine of the men from these ships were quickly persuaded to join Every's crew. There is also a story about him capturing the Portuguese governor of the islands and holding him for ransom, but this is unconfirmed. Every then sailed to the Guinea Coast, where he tricked a local chieftain on board the Fancy, under the false pretense of trade and forcibly took his and his men's wealth, leaving them slaves. These slaves were reportedly given to the Portuguese government to regain their goodwill. In October 1694, the Fancy captured two Danish privateers near the island of Príncipe
Príncipe
Príncipe is the northern and smaller of the two major islands of the country of São Tomé and Príncipe lying off the west coast of Africa. It has an area of 136 km² and a population of approximately 5,000. The island is a heavily eroded volcano over three million years old, surrounded by other...
, stripping the ships of their valuables and welcoming approximately 17 defecting Danes aboard.
In early 1695, the Fancy reportedly rounded the Cape of Good Hope, stopping in Madagascar to restock her supplies, likely in the area of St. Augustine's Bay. The Fancy next stopped at the island
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
of Johanna
Anjouan
Anjouan is an autonomous island, part of the Union of Comoros. The island is located in the Indian Ocean. Its capital is Mutsamudu and its population as of 2006 is about 277,500. The total area of the island is 424 sq. kilometers Anjouan (also known as Ndzuwani or Nzwani) is an autonomous island,...
in the Comoro Islands
Comoro Islands
The Comoros Islands form an archipelago of volcanic islands situated off the south-east coast of Africa, to the east of Mozambique and north-west of Madagascar. They are divided between the sovereign state of Comoros and the French overseas department of Mayotte...
. Here Every had the Fancy careened
Careening
Careening a sailing vessel is the practice of beaching it at high tide. This is usually done in order to expose one side or another of the ship's hull for maintenance and repairs below the water line when the tide goes out....
and razee
Razee
A razee or razée is a sailing ship that has been cut down to reduce the number of decks. The word is derived from the French vaisseau rasé, meaning a razed ship.-Sixteenth century:...
d her, cutting away some of her superstructure
Superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships...
to improve her speed. With this modification, the Fancy became one of the fastest ships then sailing in the Indian Ocean. Every promptly exploited his new speed advantage to capture a passing French pirate ship, looting the vessel and recruiting some forty of the crew to join his own company. His total strength was now possibly 150 men.
From Johanna, Every wrote a letter addressed to the English ship commanders in the Indian Ocean, falsely stating that he had not attacked any English ships, describing a signal English skippers could use to identify themselves so he could avoid them, and warning them that he might not be able to restrain his crew from plundering their ships if they failed to use the signal. However, it is unclear whether this document was true, or was some ploy by Every to attempt to avoid capture or pursuit by the English navy. Either way, the letter was unsuccessful in preventing the English from pursuing him.
Taking the Fateh Muhammed and Ganj-i-Sawai
Every then sailed to the volcanic island of PerimPerim
Perim is a volcanic island strategically located in the Strait of Mandeb at the southern entrance into the Red Sea, off the southwestern coast of Yemen, at . It has a surface area of 13 square kilometers and rises to an altitude of 65 meters. The island has a natural harbour on its southwestern...
to wait for the Indian fleet that would be passing soon. In August 1694, Every and the Fancy reached the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb
Bab-el-Mandeb
The Bab-el-Mandeb meaning "Gate of Grief" in Arabic , is a strait located between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula, Djibouti and Eritrea, north of Somalia, in the Horn of Africa, and connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden...
, where he teamed up with five other pirate captains: Thomas Tew
Thomas Tew
Thomas Tew , also known as the Rhode Island Pirate, was a 17th century English privateer-turned-pirate. Although he embarked on only two major piratical voyages, and met a bloody death on the latter journey, Tew pioneered the route which became known as the Pirate Round. Many other famous pirates,...
on the Amity; Joseph Farrell alias Faro, on the Portsmouth Adventure; William Want on the Dolphin; William May on the Pearl; and Thomas Wake on the Susannah, all of whom were carrying privateering commissions that implicated almost the entire Eastern Seaboard of North America
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
. (The Indian fleet made annual voyages to Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
, so the knowledge of the approximate time the pilgrims would be returning home may have been readily available.) Every was elected admiral of the new pirate flotilla despite the fact that Captain Tew had arguably more experience, and it was now under his command the pirates lay in wait for the Indian fleet to pass by. A 25-ship Mughal
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
convoy, including the treasure-laden Ganj-i-Sawai
Ganj-i-Sawai
The Ganj-i-Sawai or Gang-i-Sawai was a heavily armed trading ship belonging to the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb which, along with its escort the Fateh Muhammed, was captured on 7 September 1695 by the English pirate Henry Every en route from present day Mocha, Yemen to Surat, India.In August 1695,...
and its escort, the Fateh Muhammed, were spotted passing the straits en route to Surat
Surat
Surat , also known as Suryapur, is the commercial capital city of the Indian state of Gujarat. Surat is India's Eighth most populous city and Ninth-most populous urban agglomeration. It is also administrative capital of Surat district and one of the fastest growing cities in India. The city proper...
. Although the convoy had managed to elude the pirate fleet during the night, the pirates gave chase and caught up with the Fateh Muhammed four or five days later. Perhaps intimidated by the Fancy's 46 guns or weakened by an earlier battle with Tew, the Fateh Muhammeds crew put up little resistance; Every's pirates then sacked the ship, which had belonged to one Abdul Ghaffar, reportedly Surat's wealthiest merchant, for £50,000 to £60,000 worth of treasure. However, once the treasure was shared out among the whole pirate fleet, Every's crew received only small shares.
Every now sailed in pursuit of the second Mughal ship, the Ganj-i-Sawai (meaning "Exceeding Treasure", and often Anglicized as Gunsway), overtaking her a few days after the attack on the Fateh Muhammed, about eight days after leaving the Straits of Bab-el-Mandab. The rest of the pirate captains had put Every in command of the battle because most of the fleet could not keep up with the newly trimmed Fancy. Only Every, William Mays, and Joseph Farrell's crews were present for the actual battle. Tew's sloop, which was unable to keep up and fell behind, apparently engaged a Mughal ship at some point, and Tew was killed in the attack. However, the location and time of Tew's attack are not known.
The Ganj-i-Sawai, captained by one Muhammad Ibrahim, was a fearsome opponent, mounting 62 guns and a musket-armed guard of four to five hundred, as well as six hundred other passengers. But the opening volley evened the odds, as one of the Indian ship's cannons exploded, killing three or four gunners and causing great confusion and demoralization among the crew, while Every's broadside
Broadside
A broadside is the side of a ship; the battery of cannon on one side of a warship; or their simultaneous fire in naval warfare.-Age of Sail:...
shot his enemy's mainmast by the board. Despite this, the crew of the Mughal's ship withstood Every for two or three hours before he could board the ship. Muhammad Hashim Khafi Khan, a contemporary Indian historian who was in Surat at the time, wrote that, as Every boarded the ship, the Ganj-i-Sawai's captain ran below decks where he armed the slave girls and sent them up to fight the pirates. (Khafi Khan's accounts were translated by H. M. Elliot
Henry Miers Elliot
Sir Henry Miers Elliot was an Indian civil servant and historian.Elliot was the third son, one of the fifteen children, of John Elliot, colonel commandant of the Westminster volunteers, by a daughter of John Coakley Lettsom, M.D...
and John Dowson
John Dowson
John Dowson M.R.A.S. was a British orientalist. A noted scholar of Hinduism he taught in India for much of his life. His book Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology remains one of the most comprehensive and authoritative works on the topic....
and appeared in Volume 7 of The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians.) The Fancy drew alongside the Ganj-i-Sawai and the pirates clambered aboard.
A ferocious hand-to-hand battle ensued, lasting two to three hours. Witnessed report that Every's outnumbered crew lost "many" men, perhaps suffering up to 110 pirate casualties, although these figures are uncertain. However, the superior Indian force was let down by its leader, Ibrahim Khan, who rushed below and hid among his concubines
Concubinage
Concubinage is the state of a woman or man in an ongoing, usually matrimonially oriented, relationship with somebody to whom they cannot be married, often because of a difference in social status or economic condition.-Concubinage:...
. After two hours of fierce but leaderless resistance, the ship surrendered. Accounts of how the Indian people on board were treated after the capture vary, but Khafi Khan reported that Every's crew ravished and killed many of the women. According to these accounts, the victorious pirates subjected their captives to several days of horror, raping and murdering prisoners at will, and using torture to force them to reveal the location of the ships' treasure. Some of the women committed suicide to avoid violation or humiliation. Those women who did not kill themselves or die from the pirates' brutality were taken aboard the Fancy.
While the stories of brutality by the pirates are largely unconfirmed, they are mostly corroborated by the depositions
Deposition (law)
In the law of the United States, a deposition is the out-of-court oral testimony of a witness that is reduced to writing for later use in court or for discovery purposes. It is commonly used in litigation in the United States and Canada and is almost always conducted outside of court by the...
of several of Every's crewmen following their capture. One of the captured men, John Sparkes, testified in his Last Dying Words and Confession that "the inhuman treatment and merciless tortures inflicted on the poor Indians and their women still affected his soul," and that, while apparently unremorseful for his acts of piracy, which were of "lesser concern," was nevertheless repentant for the "horrid barbarities he had committed, though only on the bodies of the heathen." Another captured member of Every's crew, Philip Middleton, testified in August 1696 that "they put several to the torture" and that "several of the Indian women on board were, by their habits and jewels, of better quality than the rest." Furthermore, in a letter sent to the Privy Council by Sir John Gayer
John Gayer
Sir John Gayer was a governor of Bombay for the East India Company. He assumed the office on 17 May 1694; he officially left office on November 1704...
, then governor of Bombay and head of the East India Company
East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
, Gayer claims that "it is certain the Pyrates...did do very barbarously by the People of the Gunsway and Abdul Gofors [Abdul Ghaffar's] Ship, to make them confess where their Money was." At any rate, the other survivors were left aboard their emptied ships, which the pirates set free to continue on their voyage back to India.
The Ganj-i-Sawai was enormously wealthy and, according to contemporary East India Company sources, was carrying a "relative" of the Grand Mughal
Grand Mughal
Grand Mughal or Mogul is a title coined by Europeans for the ruler of the Mughal Empire in India. It is especially associated with the third in the line, Akbar the Great . The Mughals themselves used the title Padishah....
, though there is no evidence to suggest that it was his daughter and her retinue
Retinue
A retinue is a body of persons "retained" in the service of a noble or royal personage, a suite of "retainers".-Etymology:...
. The loot from the Ganj-i-Sawai totaled between £325,000 and £600,000, including 500,000 gold and silver pieces, and may have been the richest ship ever taken by pirates (see Career wealth below). In addition to this, the ship itself was reported to be the greatest in the Muslim fleet. All these things combined made Every officially the richest pirate in the world. Although it is sometimes reported that Every used his phenomenal skills of persuasion to convince the other captains to leave the treasure in his care, quickly slipping away into the night with the entire haul, this comes from Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates
A General History of the Pyrates
A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates is a 1724 book published in Britain, containing biographies of contemporary pirates. Influential in shaping popular conceptions of pirates, it is the prime source for the biographies of many well known pirates...
, an unreliable account. More reliable sources indicate that there was an exchanged of clipped coins
Coin clipping
Coin debasement is the act of decreasing the amount of precious metal in a coin, while continuing to circulate it at face value. This was frequently done by governments in order to inflate the amount of currency in circulation; typically, some of the precious metal was replaced by a cheaper metal...
between the crews of the Pearl and Fancy, with Every's outraged crew confiscating the Pearl's treasure. Every then gave the Pearl 2,000 pieces of eight (presumably an approximate sum as the treasure captured would have been in Indian and Arabian coins of a different denomination) to buy supplies, and then parted company. There are also some accounts that say that Every and the surviving pirate captains set sail for Bourbon
Réunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
, where they shared out £1,000 and some additional gemstones
Gemstones
Gemstones is the third solo album by Adam Green, released in 2005. The album is characterised by the heavy presence of Wurlitzer piano, whereas its predecessor relied on a string section in its instrumentation.-Track listing:#Gemstones – 2:24...
to every man in the crew.
Return and disappearance
Every and the Fancy would have parted from their allies at Bourbon. However, this enormous victory had essentially made Every and his crew marked men, and there was a great deal of dispute among the crew about the best place to sail. They set course, after some dissension, for NassauNassau, Bahamas
Nassau is the capital, largest city, and commercial centre of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The city has a population of 248,948 , 70 percent of the entire population of The Bahamas...
in the Bahamas. Every took 90 slaves along the way. At São Tomé
São Tomé
-Transport:São Tomé is served by São Tomé International Airport with regular flights to Europe and other African Countries.-Climate:São Tomé features a tropical wet and dry climate with a relatively lengthy wet season and a short dry season. The wet season runs from October through May while the...
he stopped to take on supplies, defrauding the Portuguese sellers. The Fancy's next stop was St. Thomas, where the pirates sold some of their booty. The Fancy arrived at New Providence
New Providence
New Providence is the most populous island in the Bahamas, containing more than 70% of the total population. It also houses the national capital city, Nassau.The island was originally under Spanish control following Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World, but the Spanish government showed...
in the Bahamas in March 1696. Having finally reached Nassau, the island's largest city and capital, they bribed Governor Nicholas Trott to give them refuge. However, before long the crew found themselves disappointed with the Bahamas; the islands were sparsely populated, meaning that there was virtually no place to spend the money they had pirated. For the next several months the pirates spent most of their time living aboard Fancy in relative boredom. The ship was eventually given to Governor Trott as part of a bribe with the pirates, although it was apparently lost after being violently driven against some rocks, perhaps deliberaltely on the orders of Trott. Every's crew soon left New Providence.
Meanwhile, in England, Every's capture of the Great Mughal's ship was threatening to put an end to English trade with India. In desperation, the English government put a reward on Every's head of £500 and offered to pardon any pirate who disclosed his whereabouts. The East India Company later doubled that reward. This led to the first worldwide manhunt in recorded history. The governor of New Providence, Nicholas Trott, was forced to either put a warrant out for Every's arrest or, failing to do so, effectively disclose his association with the pirate. Preferring the former choice for sake of his reputation, Trott alerted the authorities as to pirates' whereabouts, but was able to tip off Every and his crew before the authorities arrived. Every's 113-person crew made their escape, vanishing from the island with only 12 men ever captured, six of whom were executed. Every himself was never seen again.
It has been suggested that because Every was unable to buy a pardon from Trott or from the governor of Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
, Every's crew split up, some heading to North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, while the majority, including Every, some returned to Britain aboard the sloop Isaac whilst Every, his coxwain Dann and other sailed in the sloop Sea Flower to Ireland towards the end of June 1696 with about 20 men. They aroused suspicions while unloading their treasure, and two of the men were subsequently caught. Every, however, was able to escape once again. There is also some dispute that Every managed to successfully hide in London, and did not stay in Ireland, but there is no proof of this. The female prisoners were not aboard, and it is unknown whether they escaped, were released, or were murdered, assuming these accounts were true. Although 24 of his men were caught, many soon after disembarking, Every was never seen again. His last words to his men were a litany of conflicting stories of where he planned to go, doubtless intended to throw pursuers off his trail.
In total, the Fancy's cruise lasted two years, during which time Every proved himself an admirable commander. The total number of casualties his crew suffered is not known. Every is known to have lost one crew member when attacking an Arab vessel near Johanna, and the casualties resulting from the taking of the Ganj-i-Sawai are uncertain. Nevertheless, most of his crew are thought to have returned to England with about £1,000, or roughly equal to £93,300 today. £1,000 would have been an amount greater than most working sailors could earn in a lifetime. Every himself is thought to only have kept about two to three thousand pounds.
British author and pirate biographer Charles Johnson suggested that Every died in poverty in Devon, after being cheated out of his wealth by Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
merchants; it is, however, unclear how Johnson could have discovered this. Some have suggested that after Every changed his name, he settled in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
and lived out the rest of his life peacefully, dying on 10 June 1714; however, the source for this information is The History and Lives of All the Most Notorious Pirates and their Crews (London, 1732), considered an unreliable (and slightly expanded) reprint of Johnson's General History.
Capture and trial of Avery's crew
On 30 July 1696, John Dann (Every's Coxwain) was arrested for suspected piracy at his home in Rochester, Kent. He had sewn approximately £1,000 (about £93,300 today) into his waistcoat, which was discovered by his maid who reported the discovery to the town's mayor, collecting a £500? reward in the process. In order to avoid the possibility of execution, on 3 August Dann agreed to testify against other captured members of Every's crew, joining Phillip Middleton who had given himself up to authorities a few weeks prior. As piracy was a capital crime, and the death penalty could only be handed down if there were eyewitnesses, the testimony of Dann and Middleton was crucial.The six defendants—Joseph Dawson, 39 years old, from Yarmouth; Edward Forseith, 45, from Newcastle on Tyne; William May, 48, from London; William Bishop, 20, from Devon; James Lewis, 25, from London; and John Sparkes, 19, from London—were indicted on charges of committing piracy on the Ganj-i-Sawai, with the trial beginning on 19 October 1696 at the Old Bailey
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...
. Presiding over the trial was by Admiralty Court
Admiralty court
Admiralty courts, also known as maritime courts, are courts exercising jurisdiction over all maritime contracts, torts, injuries and offences.- Admiralty Courts in England and Wales :...
Judge Sir Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
Sir Charles Hedges , of Compton Bassett, Wiltshire, an English lawyer and politician, was a judge in Admiralty Court who later served as one of Queen Anne's Secretaries of State.-Life:...
, with the grand jury finding "Billa vera against Henry Every, tried in absentia
In absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...
, and his captured crewmen. Other than Joseph Dawson and James Lewis, all of the pirates pleaded not guilty. Despite considerable pressure on the jury to find the defendants guilty, with Judge Advocate of the Admiralty Dr. Thomas Newton, reminding the jury that the consequences of an acquittal would be "the destruction of [those] innocent English" who were engaged in trading, as well as "the total loss of the Indian trade, and thereby the impoverishment of this kingdom." To the court's shock, however, the pirates were found not guilty.
Following their acquittal, the court rushed through another indictment, and twelve days later the pirates were tried on a different set of charges, this time on account of conspiring to steal the Charles II with piratical intent. Once again the court continually impressed the need for the pirates' conviction on the jury. Consequently, the new hand-picked jury found them all guilty. The pirates were then given one last chance to try and show why they should be spared from execution, with most simply claiming ignorance and asking for mercy. May argued that, being "a very sickly man," he had "never acted in all the voyage," while Bishop reminded the court that he was "forced away," and, being only 18 years of age during the 1694 mutiny, desired mercy. Nevertheless, the pirates' pleas for mercy and claims of ignorance failed to sway the jury, who were unconvinced that the pirates were unable to leave the ship or refuse to participate in piracy.
Sparkes was the only pirate to publicly express some regret, but not for piracy, which was of "lesser concern"—instead, he was repentant for the "horrid barbarities he had committed, though only on the bodies of the heathen," implying that he had participated in the violation of the women aboard the Mughal ships. On 25 November 1696, the pirates were hanged at Execution Dock
Execution Dock
Execution Dock was used for more than 400 years in London to execute pirates, smugglers and mutineers that had been sentenced to death by Admiralty courts. The "dock", which consisted of a scaffold for hanging, was located near the shoreline of the River Thames at Wapping...
, approximately one year after the September 1695 plundering of the Ganj-i-Sawai.
John Dann (Every's Coxswain) escaped the hangman by turning Kings Witness. However he remained in England. because , a few years later on August 9th 1698, an ‘Order for one Dann, lately Every's mate but pardoned, to attend the Board to-morrow’. This he did on the 11th August at East India House, giving details of his voyage and plunder on board the Fancy. In 1699 he married Eliza Noble and the following year became a partner to John Coggs a well established Goldsmith Banker -creating Coggs and Dann , at the sign of the Kings Head in the Strand, London. The bankers (particularly Dann) were duped by Thomas Brerewood
Thomas Brerewood
Thomas Brerewood , was a 'Gentleman Entrepreneur & Fraudster'. He was deeply involved in the "Pitkin Affair" of 1705, a bankruptcy fraud that was only surpassed in scale by the South Sea Bubble of 1720...
, one of their clients and the bank became insolvent in 1710. Dann died in 1722.
Career wealth
Although Every's capture of the Ganj-i-Sawai has been cited as piracy's greatest exploit, it is possible that pirates John TaylorJohn Taylor (pirate)
John Taylor was a pirate who lived in the early 18th century.At Reunion Island in April 1721, he together with Olivier Levasseur captured the most valuable prize in pirate history, variously described as "Nostra Senora della Cabo", "Nostra Senhora do Cabo", or "Nossa Senhora do Cabo" .-Further...
and Olivier Levasseur
Olivier Levasseur
Olivier Levasseur , was a pirate, nicknamed La Buse or La Bouche in his early days, called thus because of the speed and ruthlessness with which he always attacked his enemies.-History:...
may have perpetrated an even more profitable raid with their April 1721 capture of the Portuguese galleon Nossa Senhora do Cabo ("Our Lady of the Cape"). The 700-ton Cabo, bound to Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
from the Portuguese colony of Goa
Portuguese Goa State
Main article:Portuguese IndiaPortuguese Goa State refers to the rule of Portugal in the Indian state of Goa. The government started in 1505, six years after the discovery of sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, with the nomination of the first Viceroy Francisco de Almeida, then settled at Kochi...
, had been damaged in a storm and was undergoing repairs at the French island of Réunion
Réunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
when the pirates struck. Reportedly carrying the retiring the Count of Ericeira
Count of Ericeira
Count of Ericeira ' was a title created by King Philip III of Portugal, through a 1 March 1622 letter in favour of Diogo de Menezes .Titulars include:*Diogo de Menezes ; 1st Count of Ericeira...
, His Excellency Dom Luís Carlos Inácio Xavier de Meneses, the galleon was laden with silver, gold, diamonds, gems, as well as pearls, silks, spices, works of art, and church regalia belonging to the Patriarch of the East Indies
Patriarch of the East Indies
The Titular Patriarch of the East Indies in the Catholic hierarchy is the title of the Archbishop of Goa and Damão in India; another title of his is that of the Primate of the East. Unlike the patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Churches sui juris, the Patriarch of the East Indies enjoys a purely...
. The total value of the treasure on board has been estimated as being anywhere from £100,000 to £875,000 (£500,000 in diamonds and gold, and £375,000 in other cargo), all of which was divided among the 240 pirates who took part in the raid. If the latter number is correct, it would far eclipse Every's haul.
Historian Jan Rogoziński has estimated the value of the Nossa Senhora do Cabo's treasure as being "more than $400 million," while the East India Company's comparatively conservative estimate of £325,000 for the value of the Ganj-i-Sawai goods equal "at least $200 million." If the larger estimate of £600,000 is taken, this would be equivalent to $400 million, approximately rivaling the raid committed by Taylor and Levasseur. Another point of consideration is whether the testimony of members of Every's crew describing how the crew of the Pearl were cheated of their share is true, in which case the Ganj-i-Sawai's wealth would have been divided among far fewer hands. In any case, if one accepts the East India Company's estimate of £325,000, Rogoziński writes that even then "only two or three times in history did criminals take more valuable loot."
It has been suggested that the East India Company may have deliberately used the lowest estimate feasible, with its president choosing the most conservative estimate in order to pay as little for the damage as possible. Others have argued that the Mughal authorities chose a larger number of £600,000 in order to improve their compensation from the English. While some historians have argued that £325,000 was probably closer to the true value, which was also the amount estimated by Scottish merchant Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (sailor)
Alexander Hamilton was a Scottish sea captain, privateer and merchant.-Biography:In his early years he travelled widely through Europe, the Barbary coast, the West Indies, India and South-east Asia...
, then stationed in Surat, others have criticized those making these assumptions for failing to provide convincing reasons for why this must be so.
Legacy
The plunder of AurangzebAurangzeb
Abul Muzaffar Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir , more commonly known as Aurangzeb or by his chosen imperial title Alamgir , was the sixth Mughal Emperor of India, whose reign lasted from 1658 until his death in 1707.Badshah Aurangzeb, having ruled most of the Indian subcontinent for nearly...
's treasure ship had serious consequences for the English East India Company. The furious Mughal emperor closed four of the company's factories in India and imprisoned their officers, blaming them for their countryman's depredations. To appease Emperor Aurangzeb, Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
exempted Every from all of the Acts of Grace (pardons) and amnesties it would subsequently issue to other pirates.
During his career, the media in England portrayed Every as a notorious criminal, but his exploits captivated the public's imagination. To some he was a gallant luminary, a sort of maritime Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
antihero-type exemplifying the working class idea that rebellion and piracy were acceptable ways to fight back against unfair captains and societies. Every's story doubtlessly inspired many other men to take up piracy, including the infamous Captain Kidd
William Kidd
William "Captain" Kidd was a Scottish sailor remembered for his trial and execution for piracy after returning from a voyage to the Indian Ocean. Some modern historians deem his piratical reputation unjust, as there is evidence that Kidd acted only as a privateer...
, and Every's life also inspired a number of accounts, including The Life and Adventures of Captain John Avery (c. 1709); a 1712 play, The Successful Pyrate
The Successful Pyrate
The Successful Pyrate is a play by Charles Johnson, first performed 1712, published 1713, dealing with the life of the pirate Henry Avery....
by Charles Johnson
Charles Johnson (writer)
Charles Johnson was an English playwright, tavern keeper, and enemy of Alexander Pope's. He was a dedicated Whig who allied himself with the Duke of Marlborough, Colley Cibber, and those who rose in opposition to Queen Anne's Tory ministry of 1710 - 1714.Johnson claimed to be trained in the law,...
, which ran into several editions and was acted at the Theatre Royal
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
in Drury Lane; and a 1724 book by Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson,...
, The King of Pirates, Being An Account of the famous Enterprises of Captain Avery. Another of Defoe's works, Captain Singleton
Captain Singleton
The Life, Adventures and Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton is a novel by Daniel Defoe. It is believed to have been partly inspired by the exploits of English pirate Henry Every....
, is thought to have been partly based on Every's life. Furthermore, Every's career inspired, very loosely, that of Captain Ben Avery, the hero of George MacDonald Fraser
George MacDonald Fraser
George MacDonald Fraser, OBE was an English-born author of Scottish descent, who wrote both historical novels and non-fiction books, as well as several screenplays.-Early life and military career:...
's 1983 spoof novel The Pyrates
The Pyrates
The Pyrates is a comedic novel by George MacDonald Fraser, published in 1983. Written in arch, ironic style and containing a great deal of deliberate anachronism, it traces the adventures of a classic hero , multiple damsels in distress, and the six captains who lead the infamous Coast Brotherhood...
.
These books offer a very different picture than the reality of Every's life. For example, in Johnson's book Life and Adventures of Captain John Avery, Every is depicted as both a treacherous pirate and a romantic lover. After he raids the Mughal's ship, in this story, he runs off with and marries his daughter. They then flee the Mughal's army to Saint Mary's Island
Île Sainte-Marie
Île Sainte-Marie, known as Nosy Boraha , is an island off the east coast of Madagascar. The main town is Ambodifotatra. The city covers an area of 222 km2, and had a population estimated at 16,325 in 2001.- City :...
where Every sets up an enormous pirate kingdom. Although this story was greatly believed to be based on fact by the general public of England, it was almost entirely fictional.
In addition to the books and play written about Henry Every, a ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
was also printed in England during his career that was reportedly written by the man himself. Titled "A Copy of Verses, Composed by Captain Henry Every, Lately Gone to Sea to seek his Fortune," it was first published as a broadside
Broadside (music)
A broadside is a single sheet of cheap paper printed on one side, often with a ballad, rhyme, news and sometimes with woodcut illustrations...
sometime between May and July 1694 by the London printer Theophilus Lewis. Consisting of thirteen stanzas
Ballad Stanza
In poetry, a Ballad stanza is the four-line stanza, known as a quatrain, most often found in the folk ballad. This form consists of alternating four- and three-stress lines. Usually only the second and fourth lines rhyme . Assonance in place of rhyme is common...
set to the tune of the 1686 ballad "The Success of Two English Travellers; Newly Arrived in London", it was subsequently collected by Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
and added to the Pepys Library
Pepys Library
The Pepys Library of Magdalene College, Cambridge, is the personal library collected by Samuel Pepys which he bequeathed to the college following his death in 1703....
. At least nine different reprints the ballad, of varying similarity to the original published by Lewis, were printed between 1694 and 1907. More recently, the ballad has been featured in The Oxford Book of Sea Songs by Roy Palmer (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1986).
"A Copy of Verses" contains a few specific claims—such as Every declaring to have formerly been "part-owner" to land near Plymouth—that were later corroborated by William Philips, the captured crewmember with whom Every had once shared information about his family and estate. Despite this, most historians believe that Every did not write the verses. A more likely scenario is that one of the approximately eighteen loyal sailors who refused to join the mutiny had shared their knowledge of Every after returning to England, where it was quickly turned into a ballad. A slightly modified copy was delivered to the Privy Council of England
Privy Council of England
The Privy Council of England, also known as His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, was a body of advisers to the sovereign of the Kingdom of England...
by Sir James Houblon on 10 August 1694, where it was used as evidence during the inquiry on the mutiny. By announcing Every's supposed intentions of becoming pirate even before execution of the mutiny, the ballad may have served to strengthen the Council's convictions that the mutinous crew harbored piratical intentions from the onset. It is possible, therefore, that the ballad may have actually been written and distributed as a way to convict Every. In any case, the strength of the ballad likely played a role in the government's outlawing of Every nearly two years before he had become known as the most successful pirate of his time.
Every's flag
There are no reliable contemporary accounts of Every's flag. According to the ballad A Copy of Verses, Composed by Captain Henry Every, Lately Gone to Sea to Seek his Fortune, Henry Every's pirate flag was red with four gold chevronsChevron (insigne)
A chevron is an inverted V-shaped pattern. The word is usually used in reference to a kind of fret in architecture, or to a badge or insignia used in military or police uniforms to indicate rank or length of service, or in heraldry and the designs of flags .-Ancient history:The chevron occurs in...
. Although red was a popular color for pirate flags of the time, the meaning of the four chevrons is not certain; it may be an attempt (justified or not) to link Every with the West-Country gentry clan of Every/Avery whose coats-of-arms showed varying numbers of chevrons, red on gold or vice versa (cf. Visitation of Somerset 1623). However, there is no reliable evidence that Every actually flew such a flag.
At some point long after Every's disappearance, another flag was ascribed to him: a white skull in profile wearing a kerchief and an earring, above a saltire
Saltire
A saltire, or Saint Andrew's Cross, is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross or letter ex . Saint Andrew is said to have been martyred on such a cross....
of two white crossed bones, on a black field (see image at right). The original source in which this flag first appears is not known, but it does not appear in publications until the 1920s and 30s. If the flag is genuine, it contradicts the generally accepted belief that Emanuel Wynn
Emanuel Wynn
Emanuel Wynn was a French pirate of the 18th century, and is often considered the first pirate to fly the Jolly Roger. His design incorporated an hourglass beneath the bones to represent that time was running out....
was the first pirate to use the skull and crossbones motif, in 1700. Furthermore, earrings and bandanas were not associated with pirates until the artwork of Howard Pyle in the 1880s, so it is almost certain that this flag is a 20th century invention.
In popular culture
- Every is remembered in the shantymanSea shantyA shanty is a type of work song that was once commonly sung to accompany labor on board large merchant sailing vessels. Shanties became ubiquitous in the 19th century era of the wind-driven packet and clipper ships...
song "The Ballad of Long Ben":
In '94 we took the Charles and set Gibson ashore
And set a course for southern seas, to sail for evermore
Round the Cape in a hurricane with the devil on our beam
And clear to Newgate London Town you could have heard us scream:
Here's to gentlemen at sea tonight, and a toast to all free men
And when the devil comes to take us home, we'll drink
To old Long Ben!
Now off the coast of Hindoostan we spied a musselman
She'd 60 guns and musket men, but still away she ran
"Ho!", cried Ben and ran the grinning skull atop the mast
"I'll wager half my share me lads, there's not a ship this fast!"
Here's to gentlemen at sea tonight and a toast to all free men
And when the devil comes to take us home, he'll drink
With old Long Ben!
We ran her down off Malabar as she lay becalmed
And there beneath the burning sun stood Al Ibrahim Khan
He twirled his 'stache and raised his sword and gave a might roar
Then cowered like a dog below and hid amongst his whores
Here's to...
We turned the Fancy from the wind and ran out 40 guns
And soon the sky was filled with smoke that hid us from the sun
Then up and down the ship we fought, until the decks ran red
And when the fight was done we drank and this is what we said:
Here's to...
For thirteen days aboard the Ganj, we made a merry sport
A thousand pounds of Mughal gold, and whisky, rum and port
Some men we shot and some we walked and some of them did hang
And while we made free with the girls, well this is what we sang:
Here's to...
- Henry Every was portrayed by American actor Guy StockwellGuy StockwellGuy Harry Stockwell was an American actor who appeared in nearly 30 movies and 250 television series episodes....
in the 1967 adventure film The King's PirateThe King's PirateThe King's Pirate is a 1967 American pirate film directed by Don Weis and starring Doug McClure, Jill St. John and Guy Stockwell. It is a remake of the 1952 film Against All Flags. A British naval officer volunteers for a dangerous mission to infiltrate the base of pirates who threaten shipping off...
, a remake of 1952's Against All FlagsAgainst All FlagsAgainst All Flags is a 1952 American pirate film starring Errol Flynn as Brian Hawke, Maureen O'Hara as Prudence "Spitfire" Stevens and Anthony Quinn as Roc Brasiliano...
. Although Every was not featured in the original, he appears as one of the main characters in the remake.
- A pirate captain named "Avery" is repeatedly mentioned in the 1966 Doctor WhoDoctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
serial The SmugglersThe SmugglersThe Smugglers is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 10 September to 1 October 1966.-Plot:...
; the plot centres on the search for Avery's treasure.
- The 2011 Doctor Who episode "The Curse of the Black SpotThe Curse of the Black Spot"The Curse of the Black Spot" is the third episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by Stephen Thompson, and directed by Jeremy Webb, the episode was first broadcast on 7 May 2011 on BBC One in the United Kingdom and on BBC America in the...
," also features a pirate captain named Henry Avery, played by Hugh BonnevilleHugh BonnevilleHugh Richard Bonneville Williams, known professionally as Hugh Bonneville , is an English stage, film, television and radio actor.-Education:...
. Although the programme itself does not explicitly connect the character with his historical namesake, a reviewer for SFX did. The fictional Avery is depicted as having started his career in the Royal Navy before turning pirate, being dedicated to his wife and children, and having captured a great treasure from an Indian Mughal. It also provides a fictional aetiology for his disappearance. In a "prequel" released by the BBC prior to the episode, the fictional Avery names his vessel as "the good ship Fancy". Four episodes later, in "A Good Man Goes to WarA Good Man Goes to War"A Good Man Goes to War" is the seventh episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was first broadcast on BBC One on 4 June 2011...
", the Doctor recruits Avery and son in their new capacity as space pirateSpace pirateSpace pirates are a type of stock characters from science fiction. They operate as pirates in outer space and travel by spacecraft; as opposed to the more traditional pirates on the high seas of Earth, who travel by boat...
s to assist him at the Battle of Demon's Run.
See also
- Pirate RoundPirate RoundThe Pirate Round was a sailing route followed by certain Anglo-American pirates, mainly during the late 17th century. The course led from the western Atlantic, around the southern tip of Africa, stopping at Madagascar, then on to targets such as the coast of Yemen and India. The Pirate Round was...
- Saint Mary's IslandÎle Sainte-MarieÎle Sainte-Marie, known as Nosy Boraha , is an island off the east coast of Madagascar. The main town is Ambodifotatra. The city covers an area of 222 km2, and had a population estimated at 16,325 in 2001.- City :...
- Golden Age of PiracyGolden Age of PiracyThe Golden Age of Piracy is a common designation given to one or more outbursts of piracy in maritime history of the early modern period. In its broadest accepted definition, the Golden Age of Piracy spans from the 1650s to the 1730s and covers three separate outbursts of piracy:the buccaneering...
- Bristol slave tradeBristol slave tradeBristol is a city in the South West of England. It is located on the River Avon which flows into the Severn Estuary. Because of Bristol’s position on the River Avon, it has been an important location for marine trade for centuries...
External links
.- The Tryals of Joseph Dawson [et al.
] — 1696 government-sanctioned report on the trial of Henry Every's crew, available in page view and PDF at the Library of Congress Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and... - Notable Pirates: Henry Every — short biography of Henry Every at the Pirate Soul MuseumPirate Soul MuseumThe Pirate Soul Museum is a museum dedicated to pirates artifacts.The museum was located at 524 Front Street, Key West, Florida, United States. It was announced in February of 2010 that the museum is being moved to St Augustine, Florida. It reopened there on December 8, 2010...