Has mystery of world’s most wanted pirate been solved?
Coin clue to buccaneer who stole £100m
A FEW coins unearthed in an orchard could unlock the centuries-old mystery of what became of a murderous English pirate.
Henry Every became the world’s most successful pirate – and most wanted man – after a bloody and audacious raid on a royal treasure ship.
He and his crew made off with £600,000 in gold and silver (more than £100million today) after ambushing a vessel owned by Indian emperor Aurangzeb in the Red Sea in 1695.
They managed to evade the first worldwide manhunt in recorded history despite a bounty on his head from William III.
Now a discovery by an amateur historian and metal detectorist in America may help solve the
‘The research is impeccable’
mystery of exactly how they got away with their crimes.
Every, also known as Avery, and his men raped the women on the Indian ship Ganj-i-Sawai, which was carrying Muslim pilgrims home to India from Mecca. The attack led William III, under pressure from India and the East India Company, to offer a bounty for Every’s capture.
Until now historians knew only that Every and his shipmates escaped on their ship the Fancy to the Bahamas, a haven for pirates. A few of the crew were later captured and executed, but Every never was.
The 17th century Arabian silver coins were discovered in Rhode Island by Jim Bailey, 53, who says they are evidence that while on the run Every made his way to the American colonies.
The first complete coin surfaced in 2014 with research confirming it was minted in 1693 in Yemen. That raised questions, Mr Bailey said, because there is no evidence that American colonists travelled to anywhere in the Middle East to trade until decades later.
Since then, other detectorists have unearthed 15 more Arabian coins in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Another was found in North Carolina, where records show some of Every’s men first went ashore.
Sarah Sportman, state archaeologist for Connecticut, said: ‘It seems like some of his crew were able to settle in New England and integrate. It was almost like a money laundering scheme.’
It is thought that Every hid in plain sight by posing as a slave trader. Records show a ship called the Sea Flower, used by the pirates after they ditched the Fancy, arrived with nearly four dozen slaves in 1696 in Newport, Rhode Island.
Mr Bailey, a security analyst, has published his findings in a research journal of the American Numismatic Society.
Kevin McBride, a professor of archaeology at the University of Connecticut, said Mr Bailey’s research was ‘impeccable’.
Piracy expert Mark Hanna, an associate professor of history at the University of California-San Diego, said: ‘Finding those coins was a huge thing.’
It is not clear what happened to Every in the end. One account says he settled in Devon and died in 1714 aged 55.