Captain Henry Every: The Pirate Who Got Away With It

that's what we're going with. Henry was an English pirate born sometime between sixteen fifty three and sixteen fifty nine. Like a lot of our topics this season, his birth date is not nailed down, and really neither is his young life. It's assumed that he was born close to Plymouth, England, but his story doesn't really begin in terms of recorded history until he joined the Royal Navy. He served as a midshipman on a sixty four gun ship named the HMS Rupert, and he may have also spent time on

the HMS Kent as well. The ship names actually very a bit from source to source depending on what you're looking at, but these are the two most likely warships, but after his time serving in the navy, Henry's story fades again. What we do know is that he spent years as a privateer. According to a man named Peter Henry Bruce, who was a merchant in the Indian Ocean at the time, Henry also ran an illegal slave trading operation which was sanctioned by the governor of the Bahamas.

Because it was done illegally and undocumented, it was a highly profitable operation. Based on the year or in this fuzzy case, the potential year of his birth, Henry was likely in his late thirties when he officially began his new career, and that was becoming one of the most successful pirates in history. Henry's career in piracy coincided with what is known as the Golden Age of piracy, the

period between the sixteen fifties and the seventeen thirties. Roughly, not only were there potentially thousands of pirates sailing the seas during this period, this was the time of such now infamous pirates such as Captain Kidd, Calico, Jack Black Bart, and black Beard. Described by historian Decording quote, Henry every did not conform to any of the popular images we have of pirates today. He was of middle height, rather fat, with a dissolute appearance and what was described as a

jolly complexion Santa. As a pirate, he built an impressive career for himself, and he resurfaces in the historical record when he takes command of the warship Charles the Second. But before captaining his own ship, he began as first mate aboard Charles the Second, which was named after Charles the Second of Spain. Several London investors hoped for profits by sponsoring a privateering campaign in cooperation with the King of Spain and Charles the Second was in Spanish service

while Henry was aboard as a crewman. The forty six gun Charles the Second was meant to plunder French shipping vessels in the Caribbean, but while anchored off the coast of northern Spain for weeks, the crew started to grow restless and impatient, waiting for their pay and for the delivery of a letter of mark that was a license required by all privateering ships that pretty much allowed the

crew to plunder without consequence. The conditions aboard, though, had become horrendous, and Henry capitalizing on this opportunity led that restless crew to mutiny, and then Henry was elected as the new captain of the ship, and upon taking the Charles the Second, he announced his intention to turn pirate, declaring, I am captain of this ship. Now I am bound to Madagascar with the design of making my own fortune, and that of all the brave fell was joined with me.

The Charles the Second was renamed as the Fancy And speaking of names, this is when Henry Every became Captain Henry Every. Throughout his career of piracy, Henry Every was known to use a lot of aliases, such as Benjamin Bridgeman or Henry Bridgeman. He was also known sometimes as Jack Avery or John Avery. That's kind of what leads to that situation we mentioned at the top of the show,

where you'll hear his name pronounced different ways. To his crewman, he was known as long Bent and sometimes Captain Bridgeman. During his years of piracy, which were not many, just two years between six four and sixt Henry picked up a few other nicknames, the arch Pirate and the King of Pirates. In addition to gold, silver and jewels. Henry was an English pirate who apparently also looted names, clearly names. I like your name, I'm going to take it right.

As the captain of a pirate ship, Henry would generally have had the last word. However, pirates did have their own form of democracy aboard their vessels. It wasn't like our modern democratic process, but their culture of electing their captain and as well as how they split their loot, did have elements of the democratic process as you might recognize it. So here the crew decided that each crewman would get one share of loot and the captain would

pocket two shares. There was some honor among thieves. Henry had made some modifications to his vessel. He had modified its superstructure, removing the top deck of the Fancy to increase it's already pretty considerable speed. And after the mutiny and now under Henry's command, the crew decided not to wait any longer for a letter of mark or for the authorities to arrive, and they just decided to make a run for it. The Fancy, with her new captain,

crew and name, sailed for the Indian Ocean. Henry and his crew sailed to the African coasts, where trade routes were full of English, Spanish and French chips to prey upon and based their operations in both the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean. They pretty much followed what was known as the Pirate Round, and the Pirate Round was a sailing route that was popular among English pirates during

the late seventeenth and into the early eighteenth century. This route led from the Western Atlantic, ran parallel to the Cape Route around the southern tip of Africa, stopped at Madagascar, and then went onto the coasts of Yemen and India. The Pirate Round was largely the same as the roots

used by the East India Company ships. Years later, after months of plundering along trade routes, Henry and his crew had stolen five ships, making him powerful enough to attack even the most well armored vessels sailing between India and the Middle East. We're going to take a break now for a word from our sponsor, and when we're back, we're going to set the scene. Henry's big win. Welcome back to criminal Lya. This is when Captain every turns

himself into the world's most prosperous pirates. So it said that Every's crew was fairly content, as they had been pillaging and plundering the coasts of various places for several months, But then Henry learned that there was treasure, real treasure to be found. A Mogul Empire Armada was preparing to set sail from the port of Mocha in the Red

Sea on a voyage home to Surat, India. The convoy of possibly as many as twenty five vessels would be carrying more than one thousand Muslim pilgrims on their way to the holy city of Mecca, but the fleet would also include several treasure filled merchant vessels owned by the Emperor a wrongzeb Alamgir known also as the Grand Mogul, who ruled what is modern day India. One of them

was the flagship Ganji Sawai. The Ganji Sawai, which is also known as the Gun Sway, was the biggest ship in the fleet, with several dozen cannons and upwards of four hundred riflemen combined. This was more firepower than Henry's

entire pirate fleet. But it was well known that Henry was a good captain and a good pirate, and famous pirate captains, including Captain William May and his ship the Pearl Joseph Farrell and the Portsmouth Adventure, Thomas two in the Amity, William Want and the Dolphin, and Thomas Wake and Susannah are all to have said to have joined him, and they were under his command at the very least. They lent firepower to the Fancy as she went on

her attack, with every fleet in sight. The Mogul's vessels scattered. Most of the ships in Henry's fleet were too slow to keep up the chase, and they fell back. By morning, the crew of the Fancy could reach only two ships, the Fatim Mohammed and the larger of the two, the guns Sway. They first attacked the Fatimahammed, whose crew surrendered, but not before Thomas too was killed and allegedly disemboweled while fighting. Henry's victory was due to his skill as

a pirate, but it was also due to luck. During battle, Henry's fleet took out the mainmast of the Gun's Way, but it was when an artillery piece malfunctioned and exploded on the guns Way that every saw his opportunity to board the ship. His boarding party engaged in some fierce hand to hand combat, but when the captain of the guns way abandoned his crew. The crew then surrendered. Every screw was brutal and murderous. Those who survived were tortured

until they gave up locations of potentially hidden treasure. The whole ship came under their control, and they carried away all the gold and silver. That was written by Indian historian Coffee Colm later about the event, and then he went on quote. After having remained engaged for a week in searching for plunder, stripping them and of their clothes, and dishonoring the old and young women, they left the

ship and its passengers to their fate. Some of the women, getting an opportunity, threw themselves into the sea to save their honor, while others committed suicide using knives and daggers. Henry, it said, actually never went aboard the Gun's Way, Yet that catch and the brutality of all his men who did board, turned him into the world's most prosperous and most wanted pirate at the time. Henry's attack on that

fleet enraged the Grand Mogul. He had senior level employees at the East India Company arrested because he believed that they had conspired with the English pirate against him, although he had no evidence that that had actually happened, and he threatened to end trade agreements with the East India Company.

That's big. The East India Company, so fearful that that threat might come to fruition, compensated the mogul and also placed a bounty on Captain every We can't get into the details too much, but the East India Company, we're mentioning it once or twice here, so let's talk about how it's important to the time and place. Between six and eighteen seventy four, the East India Company became the

most powerful corporation the world had ever seen. The company was incorporated under the approval of Queen Elizabeth the First and went on to create a monopoly on trade on everything from spices to fabrics to opium. But the way that the East India Company worked was not at all through collaboration. They were known for widespread abuses of power,

and they got their way through intimidation and bribery. Imagine a company so big and influential that it built its own three thousand men army for the East India Company and for the Queen of England. The trade relationship with the Grand Mogul was exploitative, but that trade with the East and Southeast Asia and India was also very importan into the crown. So back to that treasure, that kind

of booty. Put a bounty on Henry's head. A proclamation for apprehending Henry Every alias Bridgeman and Sundry other pirates was distributed by authorities. It called for the punishment and execution of Captain Henry Every and his crew as quote heinous and notorious offenders of the law. They encouraged the quote seizing and apprehending the persons of such open and villainous transgressors. They called Henry and his crew notorious rogues, and offered a reward to anyone who took part in

their capture, especially the capture of Henry. Henry replied to that proclamation stating that he and his crew were quote now in a ship of forty six guns and one fifty men, bound to seek our fortunes. I have never as yet wronged any English or Dutch, nor never intend while I am commander. Many of his pirates retired after that haul. They did not fall into the more modern one more score before I quit trope. It was a little different. They actually did quit while they were ahead,

and then Henry vanished. We're left with his legend and perhaps some current ideas about what happened to his treasure. But today's historians can't seem to agree on many parts of Henry's life. The most interesting debate, though, isn't about his childhood or exactly what his job might have been in the Royal Navy. It's about how he ended his career. We are going to take a break for a word from our sponsor, and when we're back, we're going to talk about how Henry may or may not have ended

that career. Welcome back to Criminalia. Now we're getting into why Captain Henry every was so special he got to retire during the time of Henry Every not many pirates die rich and respected or in their own beds. So let's look at long been compared to a couple very successful pirates during the Golden Age of piracy. Let's start with Henry Morgan. You probably actually know Henry Morgan, or at least his likeness. Captain Henry Morgan can be seen

on bottles of Captain Morgan's spice rump. Henry was a pirate, Yes, but because he conducted his piracy under the service of the Queen of England, he technically was considered a buccaneer. Buccaneer is the term for a pirate who specifically operated from the Caribbean and Pacific coast of Central America. Henry was known as a vicious seamen and he amassed not only quite a head count but also a tight a

bit of treasure during his time plundering. In sixteen seventy four, with his deeds overlooked, Henry was knighted by Queen Anne for his service to the crown, and when Sir Henry Morgan retired from piracy and relocated to Jamaica, he was awarded by the monarchy the position of Lieutenant Governor, a post he served in for about nine years. He spent his retirement years with his wife and died in sight, but not from a bullet or a thrust of a

cutlast the rather likely from tuberculosis. Henry Morrigan was a pirate who did die in his own bed, but he was definitely in the minority. Blackbeard right, everybody knows about Blackbeard. Like Henry, every Blackbeard's piracy career only lasted a few years. He died as an active pirate in battle. During that time, he acquired more of a reputation than he did treasure. He and his crew were killed by British naval Lieutenant Robert Maynard and his crew of the Jaine, sent by

Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood. Blackbeard met his end when he made an incorrect assumption. He assumed that he had killed the other guys with cannon fire. He had not. His crew was overtaken by force when they jumped the mails of the chain. After a six minute brawl with knives, swords, and guns, all common fighting implements used at the time, black Beard and many of his crew were left dead.

There's this romantic notion of a pirate on an isolated tropical island, and like many pirates from the Golden Age of piracy, Henry every name popped up through the centuries in this type of scenario, but most of that is legend. The story of his death, or the lack of story about his death, is actually a story in itself. Tales we hear about the end of Henry's life can be a bit preposterous, and some can be fun and some

can maybe be plausible. It was said that Henry married an Indian princess in one of these, maybe even the granddaughter of the Grand Mogul. Then there's the one where Henry founded a new monarchy. In the years following his disappearance, there were claims that he was spotted here or there, pretty much everywhere. He like the Elvis of piracy. At that point, he had moved on from his Santa Claus nous. Some people believe that he lived out his life on

an unidentified tropical island. Some said that he had gone to Madagascar to retire, and some stories suggest Henry sailed to Ireland with his remaining crew members. There are some versions of the story that claimed that some of his crew had been apprehended and hanged, and there were even accounts that suggested that Henry had squandered his fortune and died on the streets of London. Henry commanded the Fancy only until late when he disappeared, and it's thought he

retired from piracy at that time. We do know that he vanished from all records in sixteen, and that his whereabouts and activities after that period we're still unknown. The fate of the Fancy is also unknown, although one version of his story suggests a Henry Bridgeman sold it or perhaps just gave it up. In the AMAS, there are accounts of the tale that suggests that he changed his name to Benjamin Bridgeman after he had used that for an alias for many years, and then quietly lived out

the rest of his life. But again, where there could be volumes compiled on the many theories about his retirement and his death if someone took the time to compile them all, and they are all just theories, we have no documentation exactly, sir. With the questionable dates of his birth and his dath, Henry may have been anywhere between forty and about sixty years old when he died. Despite that bounty on his head and the ensuing man hunt that followed, Henry seems to have gotten away with it,

away with his life, away with Luke. That's estimated to be about sixty million dollars in today's currency. Some value that at about a hundred million dollars or more, and Gail Sellinger, author of the book Pirates of New England, rights the value of the entire cargo would equal at

least three hundred million dollars when adjusted for inflation. Henry's career in piracy may have only lasted for two years, but he is known as one of the very few pirate captains to escape with his lute before being killed in battle or arrested and hanged. His legend instead is that he is the infamous pirate captain whose big reputation making heist was one of the most profitable acts of piracy in just that short period of time on the

high seas. Henry's escapades captured people's imaginations, and that led to two things. The first, those successful two years flung Henry into the spotlight, and he became inspiration for others to take up a career in piracy. The second, his exploits sparked works of art, including plays and literature, poems, songs, and you can even find today his likeness captured in wood carvings. That is our Henry story, Holly, Would you

like to take us into our cocktail story? Yes, step into the groggery where I am decorating it with carved wooden engravings of Henry. Every today's cocktail is called the Vanishing Pirate in line with the end of his story. He does kind of vanish. It is delicious, so it vanishes from the glass very quickly, and if you drink enough, your stories will be as hazy as the end of his life. It is one of those things that it's easy to drink a lot very quickly. Please don't drink responsibly,

but just know you will have hazy stories. So the Vanishing Pirate, it's just a quick three ingredient one. It starts with one ounce of elder flower cordial, so like a Sender main or something along the lines of that. One ounce of vodka I recommend using a strawberry vodka here,

and then six ounces of ginger beer. What happened is that the sweetness of the cordial rounds out that bite that ginger beer can have, so you have all of the crisp, refreshing, bubbly brightness of it and none of that like sometimes ginger beer can leave like a little spike feeling on my tongue where I'm like too sharp. No, it softens it all up and it gives it that fruity roundness to it. It's absolutely lovely and easy to drink a lot of and you can just pour those

directly into your last with ice. You don't need to do anything fancy. Give it a quick stir and you're good. You start with the sand germain on the bottom and then add your vodka and your ginger beer on top. The process of pouring over one over the other helps mix them already. So um, it's so delicious. It's so delicious that I texted Maria while I was working on it and said, sometimes I have an idea. I poured the drink and then I go, oh, man, I'm actually

good at this. Not often, but once in a while, I believe that. I replied that you have to have a talent, and that's a pretty good one to have. There are worse things to befall a person, right. The non alcoholic version of this is also incredibly lovely, but it does involve an ingredient that you might have the

special order, and that is elder flower syrup. It's not hard to get, but it's not like a thing that grocery stores often stuff, So you're going to use that instead of your your cordials, so that's easy as pie.

And to make this, you're actually going to cut up some juicy ripe strawberries, pour them into your glass with that syrup, and muddle it just a little bit together so that you have, like just a nice mush and then pour the ginger beer over that also delicious, also delicious um and highly recommended, and that won't make you fuzzy at all. You can drink them forever. They'll vanish just as quickly as Henry Every did, and yet your memory will not be compromised in anyway. It'll be great.

Hopefully you'll give this a try. If you do, I hope you like it and you can always share your success or failure with it by tagging us. So we has to take Criminalia on social media. We are so thankful that you spent this time with us talking about Henry Every Today and the vanishing pirate cocktail delicious. We hope we will see you right back here next week because we have plenty more piracy to come this season,

and so we will see you around on Criminalia. Criminalia is a production of Shonda land Audio in partnership with I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from Shonda land Audio, please visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.