Henry Every & history's largest pirate treasure

How did an English sailor carry out the most lucrative pirate heist in human history, trigger the world's first global manhunt, and vanish into thin air with millions in gold?
​
In this episode, we set sail for the legend of Henry Every (also known as Long Ben or Benjamin Bridgeman), the 17th-century pirate captain who pulled off the ultimate score. From his mutiny aboard the Charles II to the daring raid on the Grand Mughal’s treasure ship, the Ganj-i-Sawai, Every became the most wanted man on Earth.

​We explore:
​How Henry Every led a bloodless mutiny to start his pirate career
​The high-seas capture of the Mughal Emperor’s flagship and its massive fortune
​The political crisis that nearly destroyed the East India Company
​Henry's disapperance and a possible explanation.

​Whether you’re a history buff, a true crime fan, or love golden age pirate lore, this is the unbelievable true story of the pirate king who beat the system.
​
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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:16

In sixteen ninety-five, every navy on the planet had a singular desperate goal: find Henry Every, because Henry wasn't just a pirate, he was a full-blown global crisis. In a single afternoon Henry Every and his crew pulled off the richest haul in the history of piracy and triggered the world's first international manhunt.

Speaker 1 0:24

But while his peers ended up swinging from the gallows or rotting in Davy Jones's locker, Henry did the one thing a pirate is never supposed to be able to do. Today, we're sailing in the wake of the man who outran the British Empire, outsmarted the East India Company and then... simply stepped off the map. This is the story of the pirate who eluded the world.

Speaker 1 0:27

 I'm Steve. He's Neil. And this is...

Speaker 1 0:27 Speaker 1 0:24 Speaker 1 0:24

Honourable Mentions Hello Listener How are your timbers? I hope they are well and truly shivered. Today we're talking pirates and swashbuckling adventures on the high seas. But before we get into all that, close your eyes and imagine the salty spray on your lips because here he is. He may not have a parrot on his shoulder, but he has a tiny woodcock. Hello Neil Don't like the thought of salty lips. You don't like salty lips, but you're happy with your tiny woodcock.

Speaker 2 2:01

Yeah, I can go with that. Hello everybody. I'm Neil.

Speaker 1 2:06

So, Neil. Henry Every.

Speaker 2 2:10

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 2:10

What do you know about Henry Every, please, if you'd like to tell the listener?

Speaker 2 2:14

What was his name again? Some Every.

Speaker 1 2:15

Yeah.

Speaker 2 2:16

What's his first name, please? Henry. Henry Every. Uh I haven't got clue, but I'll guess he made batteries.

Speaker 1 2:23

Oh no.

Speaker 2 2:24

No.

Speaker 1 2:25

Henry Every was a man with many aliases.

Speaker 2 2:30

Ooh. How about he got one?

Speaker 1 2:32

What's your alias?

Speaker 2 2:34

No, he goes to the toilet that one of them.

Speaker 1 2:36

That's an anus. Henry Avery was a man with many aliases. He had Henry Avery.

Speaker 4 2:44

Oh, nice.

Speaker 1 2:46

John Avery. Benjamin Bridgman.

Speaker 4 2:52

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 2:53

And of course, Dale Winton.

Speaker 2 2:55

Oh, interesting.

Speaker 1 2:57

When it went on, his little spell representing Supermarket Sweep. Supermarket Sweep. To his crew and closest friends, he was simply Long Ben.

Speaker 2 3:08

Long Ben. That seems a good nickname to have in it. What'd they call you Long Ben? Well, say no more.

Speaker 1 3:16

He was simply Long Ben. But first and foremost, he was King of the Pirates.

Speaker 4 3:22

Was he?

Speaker 1 3:22

A man who would go on to inspire many other adventurers to follow in his footsteps. Yet today he remains the most famous pirate you've never heard of.

Speaker 2 3:33

Well, if his name was Long Ben, someone came along later on to be called Long John Silver, didn't they?

Speaker 1 3:38

Long John Silver wasn't real. What? He was a made-up character in literature.

Speaker 2 3:43

Sorry?

Speaker 1 3:45

Long John Silver wasn't real. He was a made-up character in literature.

Speaker 2 3:50

So you're gonna tell me now that Winnie the Pooh's not real either. He's gonna be because I've seen him.

Speaker 1 3:55

Not all books are fiction. Some books are based on fact. For example, the dictionary. That's factual. Doesn't mean everything you read in a dictionary's been made up. You're happy now between the difference between fact and fiction?

Speaker 2 4:10

Yes, thank you, thank you very much.

Speaker 1 4:12

Okay. So long John Silver. Fiction. The Oxford English Dictionary fact. See?

Speaker 2 4:26

I think so.

Speaker 1 4:27

Okay, ask any questions as we go on now.

Speaker 2 4:29

What about the Star Wars book? They're fact, aren't they?

Speaker 1 4:31

Star Wars is, because it happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Speaker 2 4:35

That's right.

Speaker 1 4:36

So it's a reporting on what's already happened, isn't it?

Speaker 2 4:39

That's right.

Speaker 1 4:40

He was born, this is now Henry Every. I'm not talking Luke Skywalker or anything. He was born on the 20th of August, 1659, just before five o'clock in the afternoon, before you said it, in the village of Newton Ferris, about six miles or nine point seven kilometres southeast of the seafaring city of Plymouth, in Devon, England.

Speaker 2 5:06

Was he? So he's English, near Plymouth.

Speaker 1 5:09

Near Plymouth. Parish records suggest that he was the son of John Every, spelt E V A R I E.

Speaker 2 5:18

Right.

Speaker 1 5:19

And his wife Anne spelt A N N E.

Speaker 2 5:23

Anne Avery, Avery.

Speaker 1 5:24

Yes, Every, he spelt his name. Because those days it wasn't standardised spelling.

Speaker 2 5:29

Did he walk past a birdcage and went, oh, there's Anne Avery?

Speaker 1 5:45

Finished showing off?

Speaker 4 5:47

No.

Speaker 1 5:48

Those days there wasn't standardised spelling, so Henry was E V E R Y. By the time we got round to him. Anyway, the Henry family of Devon was quite established at the time, and it is likely he was some relation to the well-to-do Every's of Wycroft Castle.

Speaker 4 6:08

Oh.

Speaker 1 6:09

Hell yeah! Everies of Wycroft Cause and Dutchine here. We know that Henry wed Dorothy Arthur. Well that was a surname, but I think it was a middle name. We know that Henry wedd Dorothy Arthur at St James Duke's Place, London, on the 11th of September 1690, when he was but thirty-one.

Speaker 2 6:33

Thirty-one years old.

Speaker 1 6:35

When a chap called William Phillips, a member of Every's crew, was captured in August 1696. So this is jumping forward six years on from when he got married in 1690. So by now he had his pirate career was in the middle of it. He gave a voluntary confession in inverted commas saying every he was aged about 40 years. So that ties in. His mother lived near Plymouth, and his wife was a periwig seller who lived in the notorious London thoroughfare of Ratcliffe Highway, known for its sailors, taverns and dangerous reputation. Dangerous reputation. What's a periwig, please, Neil, if you could tell the listener.

Speaker 2 7:25

That's a bird.

Speaker 1 7:26

No. Was that the owl in Harry Potter?

Speaker 2 7:30

No. No either.

Speaker 1 7:32

I don't know either. I think it might be. Periwigs were those big white fancy powdered wigs people wore back then. The bigger your wig, the more money you had, or the more important you were. And that's where we get the term big wig from.

Speaker 2 7:47

Oh, so he's a big wig? Or she's a big wig. Let's not just categorize it.

Speaker 1 7:52

No, let's not be census there, Neil. But yes, that's where that phrase big wig comes from. And they used to wear the powdered wigs because there was a lot of problems with there was no shampoo then, Neil.

Speaker 2 8:02

Ah, I wonder why they were powdered, please.

Speaker 1 8:04

So say yes, they used to wear them used to crop their hair very short to ward off your lice and things, and then put a big wig on top of your head of the powdered white variety.

Speaker 2 8:17

You wouldn't want to walk behind him in the wind, would you?

Speaker 1 8:19

If you are a foreigner to the claims of Blight here, Great Britain, then you may not know that even to this very day in the twenty first century, if you were to be brought up before the courts of justice, then you will probably find even today barristers and judges wearing versions of the Perry Week in the courtroom.

Speaker 2 8:40

Never been.

Speaker 1 8:41

You liar.

Speaker 2 8:42

Well, I got let off.

Speaker 1 8:44

Me and you, when we were younger, we got done for stealing some batteries and fireworks, didn't we? Whereas you stole the batteries and you got charged, but I stole the fireworks and I got let off. The Nine Years War, Neil. Yeah. The Nine Years War involved England fighting in a grand alliance with the Dutch Republic, Bavaria, Saxony, Spain, and parts of the Holy Roman Empire. An international collaboration that was designed to crush the growing ambitions of the French. It's always the French.

Speaker 2 9:25

Is that like modern day NATO?

Speaker 1 9:27

Well, it was more or less in modern day NATO, wasn't it? It was very well observed now, quite an intelligent comment.

Speaker 2 9:31

You're very welcome. I know. I have them sometimes.

Speaker 1 9:35

Henry was working as a midshipman on board HMS Rupert.

Speaker 2 9:39

So when you're midshipman, you assuming you can't go to the ends of the you have to stay in the middle.

Speaker 1 9:43

That's right. You'll think you act as ballast or something.

Speaker 2 9:47

Yeah.

Speaker 1 9:48

HMS Rupert, a 64-gun ship under the command of Sir Francis Wheeler.

Speaker 2 9:54

Sir Francis Wheeler.

Speaker 1 9:55

He'd have been disappointed when he got on board a ship and realiser didn't have any wheels. In 1689, after HMS Rupert secured a famous victory against the French, get it in there. Yes. He was promoted to Master's Mate. This is Henry.

Speaker 2 10:11

Master's what, sorry?

Speaker 1 10:13

Master's mate.

Speaker 2 10:14

Oh, Master Mate, okay.

Speaker 1 10:16

Don't be disgusting. So now he can move about the ship more freely, Neil.

Speaker 2 10:20

Oh, that's right. That's been freedom for him.

Speaker 1 10:22

The following year he joined the huge 90-gun HMS Albemarle.

Speaker 2 10:29

Albemarle.

Speaker 1 10:30

A for Alpha Lima Bravo Echo Romeo Mike Alpha Romeo Lima Echo.

Speaker 4 10:40

Ooh, wow.

Speaker 1 10:41

On the invitation of Captain Wheeler. So obviously Captain Wheeler made a go of it, but the ship was involved in the crushing defeat of the English at the Battle of Beachy Head.

Speaker 2 10:51

Yeah, dirty French kids.

Speaker 1 10:54

The loss caused panic in England, not only because we were roundly beaten by a bunch of garlic chewing sex pests, but because the English Channel temporarily fell under the control of the French. Had the world gone quite mad.

Speaker 2 11:09

No, they can't control that. Sir Percy, Sir Percy, something terrible has happened. Wait, sinking or something? No, so worse. Much worse.

Speaker 1 11:19

For Henry, Beachy Head was his last battle in the Navy as only a month later he was discharged. Probably it was all his fault. Consequently, he was forced to turn his attentions elsewhere in order to find an income and was given a job by the Royal Governor of Bermuda. Could be worse, couldn't it?

Speaker 4 11:39

Yeah.

Speaker 1 11:40

Transporting Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas.

Speaker 2 11:46

That's not that nice.

Speaker 1 11:46

Yeah, perhaps it's not so good, are?

Speaker 2 11:48

No, it's a bit shy like that.

Speaker 1 11:50

Yeah, he could have just been bringing shorts back into the UK from Bermuda, couldn't he? Yeah. Could have made do with that. Oh no, he had to go out a step further. But soon he moved on, unfortunately for greater financial gain rather than any moral objections.

Speaker 4 12:05

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 12:06

In 1693, a group of London investors led by a wealthy merchant called Sir James Huberlin, brother of John, another investor and the first governor of the Bank of England that's one for your puppies. Decided to launch a venture called Spanish Expedition Shipping.

Speaker 2 12:31

Spanish Expedition Shipping CES.

Speaker 1 12:35

The idea was to sail four ships to what was then the Spanish West Indies for a mix of some legitimate trading, conducting a few salvage operations on sunken galleons, the spot of selling arms to the Spanish to use against those French buggers.

Speaker 4 12:52

Yeah.

Speaker 1 12:53

And then at the weekend and in their spare time they raid anything French they can lay their hands on.

Speaker 2 13:03

That'd be me. I'll be happy then.

Speaker 1 13:06

The four ships were the seventh son, the Dove, the James, and the forty-six-gun frigate Charles II, after Charles II of France. Even though they hated France and all things French, on board which Henry was served as first mate this time.

Speaker 2 13:28

Oh his first mate, was he?

Speaker 1 13:30

So he's like best mate with a captain.

Speaker 2 13:32

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 13:33

And he says, Oi mate, and everyone comes for it, it's not not you, I'm first mate.

Speaker 2 13:37

He's not stepped back. Yeah, you're second mate. Get away.

Speaker 1 13:42

Yeah. The fleet was to sail under Commander, Admiral Sir Arturo O'Burn, an Irish nobleman with a background in the Spanish Navy Marines. How does he manage that with his name? Don't know. Perhaps Arturo, is that a Spanish name?

Speaker 2 13:58

Hmm, I suppose. But then he'd say, what's your surname? O'Burn. I mean uh oh the Burn.

Speaker 1 14:05

So you were speaking there, obviously you went into Gaelic and Spanish. Was that Spanish?

Speaker 2 14:11

Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1 14:12

So what what were you saying there, please?

Speaker 2 14:14

Um, I could say his name was O'Burn, and in Spanish I said it was O'Burn.

Speaker 1 14:19

So you did it in both languages?

Speaker 2 14:21

Yep.

Speaker 1 14:22

How clever. The promise of good pay enticed experienced sailors like Henry, as the investors backed up by extra Spanish cash. Santander, that's gotta be in it. Drew up a contract which guaranteed a monthly wage and the first month would even be payable in advance before the expedition began.

Speaker 2 14:45

Well, just take it and go home, then wouldn't you?

Speaker 1 14:47

Once all four warships eventually set sail, they followed a route which took them to the northern Spanish city of Coruna.

Speaker 2 14:56

I've heard of that.

Speaker 1 14:57

Deportivo La Coruña, for you football fans.

Speaker 2 15:01

That's it, that's what I've heard of.

Speaker 1 15:02

That's where you've heard it from, is it? The journey took a couple of weeks, or it should have done if it didn't actually take five months. What? Delay number one, right? We'll go through some delays here.

Speaker 4 15:18

Yeah.

Speaker 1 15:19

Delay number one. While the ships were still in port, the original captain of the Charles II died.

Speaker 2 15:25

Well, that's I suppose it's a good excuse.

Speaker 1 15:27

A bit selfish. He was eventually replaced by Captain Charles Gibson. Oh Charlie Charles Charles, aren't they? Who was a heavy drinker and some say he lacked the urgency or discipline needed to keep the expedition on track. So he was a good choice, wasn't he? When the expedition did set sail from London in August 1693, almost immediately they were battered by severe storms and strong winds. And back in those days, if nature didn't cooperate, a ship could spend weeks battling the weather or be forced to wait in a sheltered bay for conditions to change. So that was delay number two.

Speaker 2 16:10

Okay.

Speaker 1 16:11

And then the all right, they all And then Neil, right?

Speaker 2 16:16

Yes.

Speaker 1 16:17

And then Neil, right? Yes. Delay number three arrived when they eventually reached Spain.

Speaker 2 16:23

That's all the beaches and thoughts, so it's alright, let's have a bit of time on there, shall we?

Speaker 1 16:27

The ships were not allowed to travel to the West Indies without a formal letter of mark, which was a legal mission to attack enemy ships from the authorities in Madrid. Even though they'd had months to get it ready because the expedition was later than an asthmatic one-legged tortoise in a hundred metres final, the bloody paperwork hadn't arrived near.

Speaker 2 16:48

Didn't they fax it?

Speaker 1 16:50

The Spanish, aren't they? They do things on their own tongue.

Speaker 2 16:52

I'm eating my paella. Ah, that's so that meant I'm eating my paella. In Spanish straight with the space.

Speaker 1 17:01

That was the Spanish. Thank you. I eat my paella. Very good. So the four ships were forced to wait at Corunya for several more months.

Speaker 2 17:11

That's a shame, isn't it?

Speaker 1 17:12

Tell you what, Neil.

Speaker 2 17:13

What?

Speaker 1 17:13

They were proper hard ships, weren't they?

Speaker 2 17:16

That was hard ships. Yes, that was very good, Stephen. Well done. Congratulations.

Speaker 1 17:21

And then Neil. Then Neil. Neil?

Speaker 2 17:25

But then Yes.

Speaker 1 17:27

But then Neil. What? Ah, think yeah. The English investors refused to pay the crews until the Spanish government provided their funds and paperwork. But although the Spanish produced the paperwork, they wouldn't pay anything until the mission had officially begun. The crew had been promised pay every six months and of course a month payable in advance. So the men were stuck effectively prisoners on their own ships, penniless and hungry, at anchor in Corunia.

Speaker 2 17:58

Could they not go into the town and live it up a bit?

Speaker 1 18:01

They had their money now. Just explain this in quite some depth.

Speaker 2 18:04

Yeah, but they didn't need a lot of money back then, did they? Couple of pieces of eight or something, they could have done some I don't know, some washing up or something in one of the pubs, made a bit of cash. Go collect glasses. There you go, job done.

Speaker 1 18:15

It wasn't long before the crew of the Charles II had reached their breaking point. On the night of may seventh, sixteen ninety four, while Captain Gibson was passed out drunk, first mate Henry Every, along with twenty five other men, seized the ship. The mutiny was bloodless, and in very little time others saw what was happening and joined the mutineers. As she sailed away from port, Charles II came under fire from one of her fellow warships, but Henry and the mutineers were able to escape unharmed into the night. Once they were safe, Henry allowed Captain Gibson and any of the crew who didn't want to join him to go ashore. The only man not released by choice was the ships.

Speaker 4 19:04

No cleaner.

Speaker 1 19:09

Who would be indispensable in this sort of world on board a ship?

Speaker 2 19:14

Probably the only job that would be Erm the steerer.

Speaker 1 19:18

The steerer No. Is that the right phrase?

Speaker 2 19:22

I don't know. Person who moves the wheel. Um I would say the maids.

Speaker 1 19:27

The maids, who famously were on board all of the pirate ships. No, the ship surgeon.

Speaker 2 19:33

Oh okay.

Speaker 1 19:34

Because he might come in handy, you see. Henry was unanimously elected as the new captain, and the ship was rechristened. Something that would strike fear and terror around the world.

Speaker 2 19:48

Epstein.

Speaker 1 19:49

No, it was a good guess. HMS Day Trip to Northampton.

Speaker 2 19:53

Oh bloody hell. Oh, that would scare you, wouldn't it?

Speaker 1 19:57

Was suggested. But the one I went with was even worse.

Speaker 2 20:00

Was it? Um let me have a guess. Richard Maidley.

Speaker 1 20:04

No. The fancy.

Speaker 2 20:06

The fancy. Cooe sailor. I suppose it would scare him a bit, wouldn't it? Oh, there's the couple there's a come tip the fancy. Oh men, move away quick. No fear for my owners.

Speaker 1 20:20

And so Henry and his new crew set sail for the Indian Ocean. On their way, the fancy robbed three English merchant ships from Barbados, stealing much needed supplies, and some of the robbed crew were persuaded to join Henry, who had now amassed almost one hundred men. They continued along the coastline of Africa and briefly stopped in Benin, West Africa, to make some improvements, turning the fancy into one of the fastest vessels on all the high seas.

Speaker 2 20:53

Well fancy that.

Speaker 1 20:58

With our new go faster stripes, Henry and his crew continued down the west coast of Africa, capturing Danish privateers and stealing their treasure. Well not the Danish treasure was.

Speaker 2 21:14

That'd be a good invention, that. Perhaps they should do that.

Speaker 1 21:17

I think it'll catch on. A handful of Danes defected and joined the Fancia, which at the beginning of 1695 had rounded the Cape of Good Hope at the bottom tip of Africa there.

Speaker 4 21:29

Yeah.

Speaker 1 21:30

And found time to capture a French pirate ship from which they looted and recruited, adding another forty men under Henry's command. In sixteen ninety five the fancy reached the straits of Babel Mandeb, which is a narrow squeeze of water between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula, Djibouti, and Eritrea in Africa. Do you know it well?

Speaker 2 21:56

Yes, I've heard there's some straits around that area, aren't there?

Speaker 1 21:58

You wouldn't have thought of an. No, not the fancy, they'd be interested in going after some straights, but they did. Here, the crew joined forces with another five pirate ships.

Speaker 2 22:08

Wow. Again, a fleet.

Speaker 1 22:11

The Amity, the Dolphin, the Pearl, Susanna, and the Portsmouth Adventure. Portsmouth Adventure. So most of those sound like pub names, don't they? Apart from Susanna. Who all elected Henry as admiral of their pirate flotilla, giving him command of almost five hundred of your men.

Speaker 2 22:35

Did he say, right, first thing is we're going to change the names of these ships. One's going to be Pansy.

Speaker 1 22:42

That one's over there. That's that's the cooey. Because Henry had a plan, a swashbuckling shiver me timbers parrot on me shoulder yarr kind of plan.

Speaker 4 22:53

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 22:54

Under Henry's leadership, the pirates set sail to the mouth of the Red Sea, where they would lie in wait for the Indian Mughal's government's mocker fleet, which was returning from an annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

Speaker 2 23:08

That's quite a nice drink as well, isn't it?

Speaker 1 23:10

Yeah, that's what they were carrying.

Speaker 2 23:13

Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 1 23:14

Chocolatey coffee.

Speaker 2 23:15

Yeah.

Speaker 1 23:16

The fleet was unrivalled in its wealth. Could have just been chocolatey coffee. Unless there was star because it's chocolatey coffee, in which case it was quite expensive, lots of it.

Speaker 2 23:25

It was expensive. It would have cost a pack it.

Speaker 1 23:30

By the way, if you're in America or elsewhere around the world and you don't recognise Costa and Neil's appaling joke, Costa is a ball in. Costa is a chain of coffee retailers. The fleet was unrivalled in its wealth. And if the pirates were successful, the treasures on board would mean Henry's men had to pull off the richest raid in all pirate history. But that kind of Dosh was protected by might. One ship alone, the Ganj-i-Sawai, was 1,600 tons and had a crew of over a thousand and around 80 cannons.

Speaker 2 24:04

How do they get on these ships? Who could literally be stood like, can't move.

Speaker 1 24:10

But Neil, despite you thinking, what that's a ship to avoid. No, that's the one Henry wanted. Did Henry manage to pull it off? Let's see, shall we sit in comfortably?

Speaker 2 24:22

Yes.

Speaker 1 24:23

Then we'll begin. Despite being all pumped up and ready for action, a great big Mughal convoy of twenty-five ships all cruising by, loaded with treasures and bound for India, had somehow eluded the pirates during the night.

Speaker 2 24:39

So they got all pumped up, ready to go, and they couldn't pull it off.

Speaker 1 24:42

They got their pumped up kicks, and all of a sudden, there goes the slowly cruising by twenty-five ships, and no one spotted a thing. The following day, the pirates encountered the flagship of the Mughal Emperor. Is it Mughal, Mughal, M-U-G-H-A-L? Your opinion there, please now.

Speaker 2 25:02

The Mughul.

Speaker 1 25:03

Yeah. Or Ang Zeb, the mighty Ganj-i-Sawai, and her fighting escort, the Fatih Mohammed.

Speaker 2 25:12

That's not nice.

Speaker 1 25:13

Fatih's belt F-A-T-E-H.

Speaker 2 25:17

Oh, that's all right. Yeah, say that's not nice.

Speaker 1 25:20

That won't body shaming. The Fatih Mohammed had early repulsed an attack by Amity, killing its captain, but the skirmish had weakened the ship and her crew which put up little resistance to Henry Every with the fancy speed and its forty-eight cannon. The pirates ransacked the ship and came away with and bearing in mind this is the 17th century, sixteenth, late 1600s. And came away with 40,000 pounds worth of treasure.

Speaker 4 25:52

Wow.

Speaker 1 25:53

That was a big while not bothered here to go and translate that. But forty thousand pounds.

Speaker 2 25:59

I would say you're talking millions.

Speaker 1 26:02

I'd say you talk at least a million now. Henry then sailed in pursuit of the Gunj-i-Sawai, eventually overtaking her on the 7th of September, 1695.

Speaker 2 26:13

Took a while to get there, didn't it? But it got there.

Speaker 1 26:16

Do you think they had all of the sailors that could be onto one side of that ship? Like you said, cooie. As well as as well as the 62 guns, the Ganj-i-Sawai carried around 500 trained guards, each carrying their own arsenal of small arms. Where did they get them from? I don't know.

Speaker 2 26:42

Poor little kids. Or people of short stature having their arms cut off. Cut their arms cut off and so they can throw it at them. That wouldn't do much damage, would it?

Speaker 1 26:50

You said they'd throw it, they probably held it by the shoulder and slap people around the face with them.

Speaker 2 26:54

Folded it at the elbow and use it as a boomerang.

Speaker 1 26:56

Yes, there's lots of options. Actually, it does make quite sense, doesn't it?

Speaker 2 26:59

Yeah.

Speaker 1 27:00

Or you could just extend a single finger from the middle of the one of your small arms, wave it at the English as they went by.

Speaker 2 27:06

Yeah, it's true.

Speaker 1 27:07

In the opening volley of fire, one of the Ganj-i-Sawai's 62 cannons exploded, killing one of its gunners and causing great confusion amongst her crew, while the first volley from the fancy blew apart Ganj-i-Sawai's main mast.

Speaker 2 27:24

Wow. Fancy that happened. That was a shot.

Speaker 1 27:27

The Fancy was a larger ship, and as she was what the Fancy was the larger ship. We established earlier that the Ganj-i-Sawai had thousand crew. Thousand crew, yeah. So the fancy was the larger ship, so she could probably easily take on all these extra people when they were piling on it. As she drew alongside many of Henry's 113-man crew rattling around her, weren't they tall? Well yeah, yeah, got plenty of space. Clambered aboard, and soon, with gunpowder, blood, and flashing blades, they overpowered the crew, passengers, and slaves of the Ganj-i-Sawai. Over the next few days, the captives were subject to extreme violence, including casual murder.

Speaker 2 28:11

Casual murder. Casual murder. Is that when you just walk past someone and stab them?

Speaker 1 28:15

That's when you got your chunking buttons on on the oversized t-shirt.

Speaker 2 28:19

Halfway through a bag of crisps and things, oh, that's gonna go and stab that fella over there.

Speaker 1 28:22

Yeah, he's not even bothered having a shave or something. Yeah. Torture of anyone who could tell them where the loot was hidden, and the rape of many of the women on board.

Speaker 2 28:32

Filthy pigs, that's not nice.

Speaker 1 28:34

It's not nice, is it? So old Henry here started off shuffling slaves between Europe and the what we now call the West Indies or Caribbean for our American listeners. And now he's doing these naughty things. So he's not particularly nice man. Once the Ganj-i-Sawai had been stripped bare of anything of value, the survivors of the attack were cut adrift and forced to sail their broken and empty flagship back to India. Meanwhile, Henry and his pirates could enjoy the unimaginable wealth they had half inched with precious metals and jewels amounting to six hundred thousand pounds. And I have actually bothered to translate that here into your modern pounds today.

Speaker 2 29:25

Yeah, we'd like to have a guess.

Speaker 1 29:26

Oh, that's an idea.

Speaker 2 29:27

Twelve million. Higher. Higher? Fifteen.

Speaker 1 29:30

Oh, you need to go quite a lot higher.

Speaker 2 29:33

Sixty million.

Speaker 1 29:34

You need to go quite a lot higher.

Speaker 2 29:37

Two hundred million.

Speaker 1 29:38

You need to go r much lower.

Speaker 2 29:40

One hundred million.

Speaker 1 29:42

Ooh, we'll call that close. Hundred and fifteen million of your pounds.

Speaker 2 29:48

Wow, now that's a booty.

Speaker 1 29:50

You can't see that from where you are.

Speaker 2 29:52

Pull your trousers up 'cause you've got a fat ass.

Speaker 1 29:54

Yes. And I'm doing a podcast with him.

Speaker 2 29:56

Hoho, touche.

Speaker 1 29:59

Some five hundred thousand gold and silver pieces, plus numerous jewelled baubles, and miscellaneous silver cups, trinkets, and so on. Well that's what was listed as being taken from the ship.

Speaker 2 30:13

At least Christmas would be nice, then won't it?

Speaker 1 30:15

It would, it'll have a nice tree. I should hang that on. But Henry had left his fellow Englishman with some tricky diplomacy in the face of a jolly miffed Indian Emperor.

Speaker 2 30:25

I think it were.

Speaker 1 30:26

As a result, the Privy Council and the East India Company set a bounty of £1,000 for Henry Avery or Long Ben. Remember that's one person, so they'll have to two people. Launching one of the most significant and potentially the first truly global manhunt. £1,000 at the time when the expected wage for a highly skilled craftsman in England was £30 a year.

Speaker 2 30:56

So that's a nice wedge.

Speaker 1 30:57

That was serious peas, blood.

Speaker 2 30:59

Yeah. That's some folding.

Speaker 1 31:02

In response to the capture of Ganj-i-Sawai, the Mughal Emperor, or Angzeb, that's given his name, sent troops to close the five key ports Bombay, Surat, Broach, Agra, and Ahmedabad, cutting off English trade with India until Henry Evri was caught and slapped. Executed.

Speaker 2 31:28

Executed. Executed. They really wanted him hurt, didn't they?

Speaker 1 31:32

Because of the absolute economic disaster this caused, the East India Company put Aurangzeb right by compensating his losses in full and filed an insurance claim for £350,000. Wow. Meanwhile, the other pirate captains agreed for the fancy to carry their treasure to an agreed location where they would split it amongst the various crews. Do you remember our first episode? Gamelau Ratzi.

Speaker 2 32:05

Yes, were Gaberel Gabala Ratzi, and then they he he went aboard for the money and they didn't I don't see why they didn't split it there and then. I thought I said it then I'll say it now.

Speaker 1 32:13

Yeah, it seems a bit trusting, doesn't it? So right, you keep all the money and we'll meet you somewhere else. But then again, these guys were out in the middle of the ocean. So it may have been a bit more difficult, perhaps. I don't know. But the dolphin and Susanna had never made it to the battle and seizing of Ganj-i-Sawai. The Portsmouth Adventure is there, but held back from engaging. The captain of the Amity was dead, and she only fought the Fate Mohammed. And although the pearl did muck in, after the capture her crew tried to trade clipped silver coins, which were devalued coins, for stolen treasure, so he told them each to f off, quite frankly. Really? Come nightfall, the fancy silently slipped away from the pirate Armada, taking all of Ganj-i-Sawai's treasure with them, leaving the Indians, the English, the powerful East Indian Trading Company, and four ships full of very pissed off pirates vowing to hunt them down. The international manhunt had begun. But Henry Every, old Long Ben, who later went on to become someone's uncle and invent rice. And the majority of his crew would never be caught.

Speaker 2 33:39

Majority, you say?

Speaker 1 33:40

Just six members were captured.

Speaker 2 33:42

Really?

Speaker 1 33:43

Just six members were captured, tried, and executed, though they were found not guilty of seizing Ganj-i-Sawai, an altogether different ship. In only two years of piracy, Henry Every had achieved the impossible. He'd stolen a sum so vast most people couldn't begin to comprehend it. He'd become the most wanted man on the planet, with his picture in every port around the globe, and a bounty on his head of around fifty years' pay for a skilled craftsman, and yet he vanished.

Speaker 2 34:17

I think you get the bounty for a start. Because otherwise it'd melt, wouldn't it?

Speaker 1 34:21

Not the bounty full of coconut, no. It's not what we're talking about here now. We're talking about the bounty as in the loot, would you?

Speaker 2 34:27

What's your style? Think about it. I've not seen bounties in the shops for ages. You can still get a bounty.

Speaker 1 34:32

You get mini bounties in celebrations, can't you?

Speaker 2 34:36

Can you? I like a bounty.

Speaker 1 34:39

Yeah, they're the worst ones. I don't know, again, for our listeners who aren't in England and the UK, bounty is a chocolate bar, chocolate bar with Chocolate. Smooth milk chocolate surrounding a sweetened coconut inner. And it's bloody lush. Anyway, as we were saying, before you got on to chocolate and changed subject entirely, and yet Henry had vanished, and his mystery continues to this very day.

Speaker 2 35:10

So they still don't know where he is.

Speaker 1 35:11

Where were you in 1695, please meal?

Speaker 2 35:14

I was nowhere near to be found or or um even created.

Speaker 1 35:17

Oh that sounds suspicious.

Speaker 2 35:19

Hmm.

Speaker 1 35:20

Why?

Speaker 2 35:22

Because I wasn't born.

Speaker 1 35:28

Yeah, you think that's that, I think. He goes to the top of the suspect list.

Speaker 2 35:32

I think he's buried the treasure somewhere, so that treasure should be buried somewhere. That'd be exciting. But they ever find the treasure, please.

Speaker 1 35:44

But some possible evidence has emerged. What recently Maybe Henry returned to England and some say he was swindled of his money and died a pauper. But tantalizingly, a coded letter has been found in France. That seems to suggest Henry had bought a pardon and worked for the French crown as a spy. Some gold coins stolen from the Ganj-i-Sawai have been found in what is now modern day United States of the States.

Speaker 2 36:36

In America? In America? Have they? How long ago was that then, please? Was it recently?

Speaker 1 36:42

I don't know, I've not made a note of that. Who knows where Henry Avery and his piracy's biggest ever haul did end up? It's a mystery.

Speaker 2 36:51

It is a mystery, isn't it? It's a mystery. He couldn't exactly go into a pub and sort of say, I'm very poor, pauper, I'm coming into this pub. Ching, here's a thousand gold pieces get me pissed, could he?

Speaker 1 37:03

Anyway, Neil, please.

Speaker 2 37:05

Yes, please.

Speaker 1 37:06

Do you have any further thoughts on today's episode of Henry Every?

Speaker 2 37:11

Well, who are So we did there? I think that he has stolen a lot of money and disappeared. I think he could be alive today. I'm just gonna put it out there.

Speaker 1 37:22

With that money. Using that money.

Speaker 2 37:24

With that money. Yeah. I think he's actually Oh! Elon Musk. Oh, could he have been Goldfinger?

Speaker 1 37:31

Well we went in two different directions there. You went once again, see what you've done, Neil, is you've gone and confused a fictional literary character for a real person. Whereas I've gone and confused an AI chatbot with a real person. You know Pepper Pig.

Speaker 2 37:48

Yeah.

Speaker 1 37:49

They're not real either, Neil.

Speaker 2 37:50

Well that's a different. I've been to Pepper Pig World. I bet he's got his own world down south. I've been there. I've seen him. I've seen him with my own eyes, Steve. No, I've seen Peppa Pig for real. Is it Peppa Pig's female? No, don't think so. It was actual Pepper Pig. I walked past him. I might even have a photo taken with him. Deny that if you can. I'll deny if you try and gender swap Peppa Pig. Don't try and change the subject 'cause I've got photographic proof of Peppa Pig.

Speaker 1 38:15

Would you like to tell the listener, although they'll probably doubt everything you say, how they can contact us, please, on your social medias.

Speaker 2 38:24

If you would like to contact us here at Honorable Mentions, you can do it through several wire pipey areas. We have something that pipes through through Spotify, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Discord, and you can email us at honorable mentionspod at gmail.com. That's honourablementionspod at gmail.com. I didn't say Instagram. We are also on Reddit. Thank you very much, please. And terms and conditions apply. And thank you very much. Yes, I am that sexy man.

Speaker 1 38:56

Well, listener, thank you very much once again for bearing with us through a load of old trite. What do you think to Henry Every? Perhaps you knew about him already. Perhaps you didn't at all. But the most famous pirate you've never heard of unless you have. And he made off with all that money, and no one knows to this day where it is. Thank you, listener. We'd like to say Ar Goodbye, and we'll see you again next week in the Artes.

Speaker 2 39:29

Yeah, bye.