Henry Every

Henry Every
A woodcut from A General History of the Pyrates (1725) showing an enslaved man escorting Captain Every.
Piratical career
Nickname	Long Ben The Arch Pirate
Type	Pirate
Allegiance	None
Years active	1694–1696
Rank	Captain
Base of operations	Indian Ocean and along the Pirate Round, also the Atlantic Ocean
Commands	Fancy, formerly Charles II

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 Oceans 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 Every captured the Grand Mughal ship Ganj-i-Sawai and its escort, the Fateh Muhammed. The Mughal convoy had repelled an earlier flotilla of several pirate vessels, including a sloop commanded by English pirate Thomas Tew and his crew, killing Tew in the process. However, Every had more success, 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 several of Every's men were seriously wounded, the payoff was astonishing—he 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.

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 Navy 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.

An 18th century depiction of Henry Every, with the Fancy shown engaging its prey in the background

It has alternatively been suggested that Every was born in August 1659 in the village of Newton Ferrers, about 9.7 kilometres (6.0 mi) southeast of Plymouth. Some scholarship suggests that Every may have been the son of John Evarie (spelling uncertain) and his wife, Anne (maiden name unknown). Another suggested year of birth is 1665, but this is at odds with the most commonly accepted dates and would contradict evidence suggesting Every may have been baptized in 1659. It has further 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, but this remains only speculation.

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 Chief First Mate. 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.

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 by an agent of the Royal African Company, Captain Thomas Phillips of the Hannibal, who writes: "I have no where upon the [Guinea] coast met the negroes so shy as here, which makes me fancy they have had [kidnapping] tricks play'd them by such blades as Long Ben, alias Every. (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 and children.

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 Fraser 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.

Mutiny and ascension to captaincy

In early 1694, Every was serving as first mate 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, and it is reported that Every himself had waited almost two years to be paid.

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.

The facts surrounding the mutiny itself are nearly as murky as Henry Every's past. While it is agreed that the mutiny took place sometime in May 1694, the supposed dates vary from 8 May to 30 May. 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.

An 1837 woodcut from The Pirates Own Book by Charles Ellms depicting Henry Every receiving three chests of treasure on board his ship, the Fancy

On 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 at Adam Baldridge's post. The Fancy next stopped at the island of Johanna in the Comoro Islands. Here Every had the Fancy careened and razeed 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.

Taking the Fateh Muhammed and Ganj-i-Sawai

Every then sailed to the volcanic island of Perim to wait for the Indian fleet that would be passing soon. In August 1694, Every and the Fancy reached the Strait of Mandeb, where he teamed up with four other pirate ships, including Thomas Tew's sloop Amity. (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.) The enormous pirate fleet was made up of Captains Want, Wake, Farrell, Mays, and Tew, all of whom were carrying privateering commissions that implicated almost the entire Eastern Seaboard of North America. Every joined forces with them to lay in wait for the Indian fleet to pass by. Although a 25-ship Mughal convoy bound for India eluded the pirate fleet during the night, the following day they encountered the greatest ship in Aurangzeb's fleet, the Ganj-i-Sawai (meaning "Exceeding Treasure"), and its escort, Fateh Muhammed; both ships were passing the straits en route to Surat. Every and his men attacked the Fateh Muhammed first, which had earlier repulsed an attack by the Amity, killing Captain Tew. Perhaps intimidated by the Fancy's 46 guns or weakened by their earlier battle with Tew, the Fateh Muhammed's 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.

Declaration of Henry Every to English Commanders

At Johanna February 28th, 1694

To all English Commanders,

Let this satisfie, That I was riding here at this instant in the Ship Fancy Man of War, formerly the Charles of the Spanish Expedition, who departed from Croniae [Coruña] the 7th of May 1694 Being (and am now) in a Ship of 46 Guns, 150 Men, and bound to Seek our Fortunes. I have never as yet wronged any English or Dutch, nor ever intend whilst I am Commander. Wherefore as I commonly speak with all Ships, I desire whoever comes to the perusall of this to take this Signall, That if you, or any whom you may inform, are desirous to know what wee are at a distance, Then make your Ancient [i.e., ensign, flag] up in a Ball or Bundle and hoist him at the Mizenpeek, the Mizen being furled. I shall answer with the same and never molest you, for my Men are hungry, Stout, and resolute, and should they exceed my Desire I cannot help myself. As yet an Englishmans Friend,

Henry Every

Every now sailed in pursuit of the second Mughal ship, overtaking her about eight days out of Surat. The rest of the pirate captains put him 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. Up close, the target ship resembled a Dutch East India ship, so Every was reluctant to attack. When the crew became mutinous, however, Every sailed closer and saw that the ship was flying the colors of the Grand Mughal Aurangzeb and was called the Ganj-i-Sawai (often Anglicized as Gunsway).

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, in which Every's outnumbered crew may have lost 20 men, although this figure has been challenged. 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 was said to be carrying the Grand Mughal's 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. However, he quickly realized that if the wealth were split amongst the entire pirate fleet, Every's crew would once again only receive a diluted share. To get around this difficulty, Every used his phenomenal skills of persuasion to convince the other captains to leave the treasure in his care until it could be carried to land, and the next night, slipped off with the entire haul. 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 gemstones 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 Nassau 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 crew mutinied during the Atlantic crossing, but Every somehow managed to put down the rebellion with only twenty men on his side. 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. At some point the ship was lost, apparently in a storm which violently drove the Fancy against some rocks, and it was decided by the crew to leave 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.

Avary sells his Jewels, an engraving by Howard Pyle which appeared in the September 1887 issue of Harper's Magazine

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, returned to Britain aboard the sloop Isaac. Every is widely thought to have gone to Ireland after leaving New Providence, but it is unclear what became of him thereafter. He reportedly entered Ireland in June 1696 with about twenty men, but 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. Only two or three of his men were killed in battle and none were lost to illness while on board. Almost all of the original 85 men are thought to have returned to England with about £1,000, or roughly equal to $250,000 today according to an estimate by historian Angus Konstam. £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.

In 1967, during the reconstruction of a temple dedicated to a local sea god at a fishermen's settlement opposite Fort Colaba (near Alibaug, 100 kilometres (62 mi) south of what was then Bombay - now called Mumbai - on the Arabian Sea coast), a plaque was found inscribed "Henry Every - County Donegal, Ireland - Death 1699," written in either the Indian vernacular language, Moḍī, or the 17th century Marathi dialect. Unfortunately, the same settlement had been rebuilt after being destroyed a number of times: by natural forces, by the Siddis of Janjira, in various civil wars, and as punitive action taken jointly by the East India Company with the help of the Prime Minister of the Maratha Confederacy, Peshwa.

It cannot be determined whether the stone plaque (which is available in the Mumbai museum) is a grave stone or a memorial stone marking the spot where Henry Every was cremated. Maratha naval history acknowledges the services of European privateers (French, Irish, Portuguese, Dutch, and English), buccaneers, and African and Arab pirates. Persian, Gujarati, Jewish, and Malabari sailors had also been hired to modernize the Maratha navy. These freebooters served in the Maratha navy, training Maratha sailors, building ships, and procuring cannons, muskets and ammunition from Europe. Nor can it be confirmed that this marker is for the same famous Henry Every or to some namesake. Still, 50 years along, "Henry" and "Every" are popular names in the Alibaug fishermen community.

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. Authors George Francis Dow and John Henry Edmonds suggest that after Every had changed his name, he settled in Devon and lived out the rest of his life peacefully, dying on 10 June 1714; however, once again the actual sources for this specific date, or by what methodology this date was arrived at, are unclear.OMG he was a slave trader!

Capture and trial of Avery's crew

On 30 July 1696, John Dann 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 title page of the government report issued following the trial of some of Henry Every's captured crewmen.

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, not yet taken [tried in absentia]," and his captured crewmen. Other than James Dawson, 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 two years after they had plundered the Ganj-i-Sawai.

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 Taylor and Olivier Levasseur may have perpetrated an even more profitable raid with their April 1721 capture of the Portuguese galleon Nostra Senhora do Cabo, which was reportedly carrying the Count of Ericeira as passenger. The total value of the treasure on board has been variously 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 Nostra 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, others have criticized those making these assumptions for failing to provide convincing reasons for why this must be so.

Legacy

The plunder of Aurangzeb'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. It was partly the hope of catching Every that motivated several of England's most powerful Whigs to commission Captain William Kidd to hunt down pirates in the Indian Ocean. Although Kidd was commissioned to apprehend pirates in general — along with enemy French vessels — he was commissioned to pay special attention to four pirates in particular: Thomas Tew, John Ireland, Thomas Wake, and William Maze. Tew and Wake had both been former associate's of Every's, and news of Tew's death during the attack on the Mughal convoy had apparently failed to reach either Kidd or the English authorities. (Ironically, upon his return to England, Kidd himself would be prosecuted for piracy by Sir John Hawles and his legal team, the same lawyer who had led the case against captured member's of Every's crew.)

A woodcut from The Pirates Own Book showing the Fancy engaging the Ganj-i-Sawai

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; 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 later reprinted almost a century later under the name Bold Captain Every. However, most historians believe that Every did not write the verses, and it has been proposed that the ballad was actually written and distributed as a way to convict Every for the crime of piracy against England. The ballad's verses are as follows:

"Come all you brave Boyes whose Courage is Bold

Will you venture with me and I'le glut you with Gold

Make hast into Coruna a Ship you will find

Now called the Fancy which will pleasure yr minde.

Capt. Every is in her he Calls Her his owne

H'eel Box her about before he has done

French Spaniards the Portugueses, the Heathens likewise

Hee has made a Warr with until he dies"

Every's flag

A common depiction of Henry Every's Jolly Roger.

A common depiction of Henry Every's Jolly Roger.

According to contemporary observers, Henry Every's pirate flag was red with four gold chevrons. 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).

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. 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.

In popular culture

Henry Every was portrayed by American actor Guy Stockwell in the 1967 adventure film The King's Pirate, a remake of Against All Flags (1952). Although Every was not featured in Against All Flags, he appears as one of the main characters in the remake.

Every is remembered in the Shantyman 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...

• A pirate captain named "Avery" is repeatedly mentioned in the 1966 Doctor Who serial The Smugglers; the plot centres on the search for Avery's treasure.
• The 2011 Doctor Who episode "The Curse of the Black Spot," also features a pirate captain named Henry Avery, played by Hugh Bonneville. 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".

See also

• Pirate Round
• Saint Mary's Island
• Golden Age of Piracy
• Bristol slave trade

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

• Baer, Joel H. (1995). "Bold Captain Avery in the Privy Council: Early Variants of a Broadside Ballad from the Pepys Collection". Folk Music Journal. 7 (1). English Folk Dance and Song Society: 4–26. ISSN 0531-9684.
• Baer, Joel (2005). Pirates of the British Isles. London: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 9780752423043.
• Botting, Douglas (1978). The Pirates. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books. ISBN 9780809426508.
• Breverton, Terry (2004). Black Bart Roberts: The Greatest Pirate of Them All. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing. ISBN 1589802330.
• Bruce, Peter Henry (1782). Memoirs of Peter Henry Bruce, Esq. London: T. Payne, and Son, Mewsgate. Retrieved 1 July 2010.
• Burgess, Douglas R. (2009). The Pirates' Pact: The Secret Alliances Between History's Most Notorious Buccaneers and Colonial America. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 9780071474764.
• Cobbett, William, ed. (1816). A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanors from the Earliest Period to the Year 1783. Vol. 13. London. pp. 451–484. Retrieved 26 June 2010. {{cite book}}: |editor2-first= missing |editor2-last= (help)
• Davis, Ralph (1962). The Rise of the English Shipping Industry in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. London: Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 9780905555201.
• Dow, George Francis (1996). The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630–1730. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications. ISBN 9780486290645. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Fraser, George MacDonald (1983). The Pyrates. London: William Collins & Sons. ISBN 0330283901.
• Gosse, Philip (1924). The Pirates' Who's Who. New York, NY: Burt Franklin.
• Grey, Charles (1933). Pirates of the Eastern Seas (1618–1723). London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Ltd.
• Jameson, John Franklin (1923). "Case of Henry Every". Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents. New York, NY: Macmillan Publishers. pp. 153–188. Retrieved 19 June 2010.
• Johnson, Charles (1980) [1709]. The Life and Adventures of Capt. John Avery. University of California, Los Angeles: The Augustan Reprint Society.
• Konstam, Angus (2008). Piracy: The Complete History. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 9781846032400.
• Marley, David F. (2010). Pirates of the Americas. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781598842012.
• McCarthy, Tom, ed. (2006). Incredible Pirate Tales: Fourteen Classic Stories of Outlaws on the High Seas. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press. ISBN 9781592282845.
• Phillips, Thomas (1732), "A Journal of a Voyage Made in the Hannibal of London", in Churchill, Awnsham; Churchill, John (eds.), A Collection of Voyages and Travels, Some Now first Printed from Original Manuscripts, Others Now first Published in English. In Six Volumes, vol. 6, London, pp. 171–239
• Pringle, Patrick (2001) [1953]. "Jolly Roger: The Story of the Great Age of Piracy". Mineola, NY: Dover. ISBN 0486418235. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Rogoziński, Jan (2000). Honor Among Thieves: Captain Kidd, Henry Every, and the Pirate Democracy in the Indian Ocean. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. ISBN 9780811715294.
• Saletore, Rajaram Narayan (1978). Indian Pirates: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day. Delhi: Concept Publishing.
• Travers, Tim (2007). Pirates: A History. London: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 9780752439365.
• Woodard, Colin (2007). The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down. Orlando, FL: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 970151013029. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help)

Further reading

• Baer, Joel H. (2007). British Piracy in the Golden Age: History and Interpretation 1660–1730. London: Pickering & Chatto Publishers. ISBN 9781851968459.
• Cordingly, David (2006). Pirates: Terror on the High Seas—From the Caribbean to the South China Sea. North Dighton, MA: World Publications. ISBN 9781572152649.
• Earle, Peter (2006). The Pirate Wars. Newy York, NY: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 9780312335809.
• Fox, E. T. (2008). King of the Pirates: The Swashbuckling Life of Henry Every. London: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 9780752447186.

External links

• "Avery, Henry". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/924. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.). The first edition of this text is available at Wikisource: "Avery, John" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
• Notable Pirates: Henry Every — short biography of Henry Every at the Pirate Soul Museum
• Proclamation for the Capture of Pirate Henry Every — transcribed historical document at the Pirate Soul Museum

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