During the “Golden Age of Piracy,” the most successful pirates amassed huge fortunes over short periods of time and then died bloody deaths in combat, on the gallows, or in shipwrecks.  The one notable exception was Captain Henry Every. While his career as a pirate lasted only two years and was vastly successful, unlike other well know pirates, Every got away.

For a time, he was the most wanted criminal in the world for his plundering of a Mughal treasure fleet in 1695, yet he seemed to simply have vanished. Now discoveries of Arabian coins found in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and North Carolina suggest that Captain Every and his crew may have found refuge in the British North American colonies.

In 2014, Jim Bailey, an amateur historian and metal detectorist, found the first coin at Sweet Berry Farm, a pick-your-own-fruit orchard, in Middletown, Rhode Island. He initially assumed the small silver coin was either Spanish or money minted by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. On closer examination, however, he saw Arabic text. Research confirmed that the coin was minted in 1693 in Yemen.

Since then, other detectorists have unearthed 15 additional Arabian coins from the same era — 10 in Massachusetts, three in Rhode Island and two in Connecticut. Another was found in North Carolina, where records show some of Every’s men first came ashore.

In what is often described as the middle period of the Great Age of Piracy, during the late 17th century and early 18th century, the primary hunting ground for plunder was in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea, requiring pirates to sail around the southern tip of Africa, often stopping at Madagascar to reprovision, then sailing on to targets such as the coast of Yemen and India. The route was called the “Pirate Round” and those who sailed it were called “Roundsmen.”

Henry Every was by far the most successful Roundsman. After leading a mutiny on the privateer, Charles II, in 1694, that he renamed, Fancy, he and his crew turned pirate and set off down the coast of Africa. They attacked and plundered British, French, and Danish ships along the way, recruiting crew as they went along.

Once in the Indian Ocean, Every learned of a Mughal Empire fleet of 25 ships, soon to set sail from the Red Sea port of Mocha on a voyage home to Surat, India. Along with carrying Muslim pilgrims returning from their hajj to Mecca, the armada would also include several loot-filled merchant vessels and treasure ships owned by the Grand Mughal of India himself.  Every and his men sailed for the Red Sea to intercept the flotilla. Along the way, they met up and partnered with several other pirate ships including the Amity, an American raider captained by the famed buccaneer Thomas Tew.

A few days later they intercepted the Mughal fleet. Over a several-day running battle, the Fancy captured the ship Fath Mahmamadi loaded with 50,000 British pounds’ worth of gold and silver and the Grand Mughal flagship Ganj-i-Sawai carrying gold, silver, and jewels worth somewhere between 325,000 and 600,000 British pounds—the equivalent of tens of millions today. Every became the richest pirate in the world.

After capturing the ship, the pirates sacked the Ganj-i-Sawai and brutalized its passengers. The men were tortured and killed, and the women—including an elderly relative of the Grand Mughal—were repeatedly raped.

Captain Every had made a very dangerous enemy. In retaliation for the attacks, Grand Mughal Aurangzeb blocked all British ports in India, stating they will not be reopened until Every was found. This resulted in the very first global manhunt.

The Mughal Empire around 1700 consisted of the entire Indian subcontinent and was the biggest economy in the world, having a 25% share of the world’s GDP. Mughal’s economy was bigger than that of China or Europe.

British longed for raw materials and end products from India. British East India Company was earning vast amounts of profits due to trade with Mughal India. The East India Company and the British crown offered a bounty of £1000 on Every’s head. 

About 75 of Every’s crew sailed to North America in hopes of escaping the transcontinental manhunt. Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, and other colonies published the proclamation for Every’s capture but did little else. Only seven of Every’s crew were tried in the colonies between 1697–1705, and all of these were acquitted. In the UK, five of Every’s crew were hanged in 1696.

The manhunt for Every continued for a decade, but the pirate and the treasure were never found.