Pirates hid in U. S. with impunity
WARWICK, R. I.>> One tarnished silver coin at a time, the ground is yielding new evidence that in the late 1600s, one of the world’s most ruthless pirates wandered the American colonies with impunity.
Newly surfaced documents also strengthen the case that English buccaneer Henry Every — the target of the first worldwide manhunt — hid out in New England before sailing for Ireland and vanishing into the wind.
“At this point, the amount of evidence is overwhelming and indisputable,” historian and metal detectorist Jim Bailey, who has devoted years to solving the mystery, told The Associated Press. “Every was undoubtedly on the run in the colonies.”
In 2014, after unearthing an unusual coin engraved with an Arabic inscription at a pick- yourownfruit orchard in Middletown, R. I., Bailey began retracing Every’s steps.
Research confirmed that the exotic coin was minted in 1693 in Yemen.
Bailey then discovered it was consistent with millions of dollars of coins and other valuables seized by Every and his men in their brazen Sept. 7, 1695, sacking of the Ganj- i- Sawai, an armed royal vessel owned by Indian emperor Aurangzeb.
Historical accounts say Every’s
band tortured and killed passengers aboard the Indian ship and raped many of the women before escaping to the Bahamas, a haven for pirates. But word quickly spread of their crimes, and English King William III — under enormous pressure from a scandalized India and the influential East India Company trading giant — put a large bounty on their heads.
Detectorists and archaeologists have since located 26 similar coins from Maine to the Carolinas. All but three coins turned up in New England, and none can be dated later than when the Indian
ship was captured.
“When I first heard about it, I thought, ‘ Wait a minute, this can’t be true,’” said Steve Album, a rare coin specialist based in Santa Rosa, Calif., who helped identify all of the silver Arabic coins found in New England.
“But these coins have been found legitimately and in a few instances archaeologically, and every single one predates the sacking of the ship,” said Album, who has lived in Iran and has traveled widely in the Middle East.
Detectorists have also unearthed a gold nugget weighing one- tenth of an ounce — slightly heavier than a U. S. penny — from a potato field perched on a hilltop in seaside Little Compton, R. I.
There’s no documented evidence that naturally occurring gold has ever been found in the state. Bailey and other experts believe that the nugget likely originated somewhere along Africa’s Gold Coast, a center for the slave trade in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Adding to the intrigue, two silver Arabic coins were recovered not far from the nugget, and Every is known to have seized a considerable amount of gold while sailing off the coast of West Africa.
The latest evidence putting Every on American soil isn’t just metallic — it includes paper and pixels.
Bailey had already found records showing that the Sea Flower, a ship used by Every and his men after they ditched the vessel they’d used in their murderous raid, arrived in 1696 in Newport, R. I.
Captured pirates William Phillips and Edward Savill testified on Aug. 27, 1696, that one of two ships that left the Bahamas went to Virginia and New England before reaching Ireland. Critically, Bailey said, the records clarify a muddy timeline that long has been misinterpreted by historians to suggest Every lingered two months on the Caribbean island — something he never would have done as a fugitive.