Henry Avery
Henry Every carried out the most profitable pirate raid in history and was never caught. Born in Devon around 1659, he probably served in the Royal Navy and worked in the slave trade before taking a post as first mate on the Charles II, a privateer fitted out for a Spanish venture in 1693. The ship lay at Corunna for months without pay or orders. In May 1694 Every led a mutiny, took the vessel, renamed it the Fancy, and sailed for the Indian Ocean. He assembled a small squadron of pirate ships near the mouth of the Red Sea, waiting for the annual Mughal pilgrim fleet returning from Mecca. In September 1695 they took the Fateh Muhammed and then, after a chase, the Ganj-i-Sawai, the largest ship of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, carrying pilgrims and treasure. Its cannon burst, and the pirates boarded. The plunder was enormous — contemporary estimates run to several hundred thousand pounds, a sum without any real parallel in piracy — and the treatment of the passengers was appalling, with days of rape and torture recorded by Mughal and English sources alike. Aurangzeb closed the East India Company's factories and threatened its trade entirely. The Company and the crown responded with what is usually described as the first worldwide manhunt, offering a large reward and a royal pardon that specifically excluded him. He sailed to the Bahamas, bribed the governor, and dispersed. Six of his men were hanged in London in 1696 after a first jury acquitted them. Every himself disappeared. One account has him cheated of his diamonds by Bristol merchants and dying poor; nothing is confirmed.
- Lived: 1659 CE – ?
- Nationality: English
- Roles: pirate
