Henry Every
The Pirate Who Stole an Empire's Fortune and Vanished Forever
By: Leo Eaton & Jamie Tavenner
May 27, 2026
Who Was Henry Every? Well, there are criminals who get caught. There are criminals who get away. And then there is Henry Every.
Henry committed what is considered the single largest act of piracy in history, had the entire world hunting for him, inspired a generation of pirates who came after him, and then completely vanished from the historical record.
No confirmed death.
No confirmed capture.
Just a man and an astronomical amount of stolen treasure.
Before He Became a Famous Pirate
Henry Every's early life is largely a mystery. Historical speculation places his birth somewhere around Plymouth, Devon, England, but even that's not certain. What is documented is that he served in the Royal Navy during the Nine Years War beginning in 1688. This conflict pitted England, the Dutch Republic, the Palatinate, Saxony, and Spain against France.
Incase you didn’t know (Leo didn’t), the Palatinate and Saxony are historic regions in Germany.
Every served aboard the 64-gun HMS Rupert, where he was promoted to Master's Mate after the ship won a significant battle against the French in 1690. He was then moved to the 90-gun HMS Albemarle. That ship took a significant enough blow that the French temporarily regained control of the English Channel. One month later, Every was discharged from the Royal Navy.
Promoted one year, unemployed the next. Welcome to the late 1600s.
With no naval career left, Every found work in the Atlantic slave trade, operating along the Guinea coastline of Africa and transporting enslaved people to the Americas and Caribbean on behalf of the Royal Governor of Bermuda. English historian Douglas Botting wrote that as a slaver, Every was one of the more devious men in that line of work. Which is, to be clear, a horrifying thought in itself.
“seems to have been more devious than most other practitioners of that sordid craft.”
Mutany and Pirates, am i right
By 1693 Every was aboard The Charles II, a privateering ship contracted to supply the Spanish with arms for use against the French and to recover treasure from sunken French ships in the Spanish West Indies. The pay was supposed to be good and the men were promised a monthly wage with the first month paid in advance.
Then the ship got stuck in the Spanish city of Corunna because the paperwork hadn't made it to Madrid yet. For five months, the crew sat at port with no movement, no work, and no pay.
Every, sensing the crew's deteriorating morale, led a mutiny. His rallying speech, as recorded in historical accounts:
“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 fellows joined with me.”
The mutiny succeeded. He renamed the ship to The Fancy and set course for the open ocean.
They were now, officially, pirates.
Building his crew
On the way down the African coast, Every proved to be more capable as a pirate captain than a naval officer. The Fancy hit several English merchant ships for supplies, and crews aboard those plundered ships would sometimes defect to join Every's crew willingly. By the time he reached the Cape of Good Hope in early 1695, he had grown his crew to around 150 men.
He also stopped in Benin, where the crew stripped the Fancy's upper decks down, making her one of the fastest ships on the water. Speed plus firepower. Not a great combination to have sailing toward you.
His methods along the way were consistently brutal:
He tricked a local chieftain and his men into boarding the Fancy and left them enslaved.
He stole ivory and gold from Danish ships.
When men wouldn’t join willingly, they were simply taken.
The pattern was clear, Every was building power, and he wasn't particular about how…
one big Heist
The target that would define Every's legacy was the Mughal Empire's fleet. The Mughal Empire was an Islamic empire that ruled a large portion of India from the mid-1520s to the late 1850s. The fleet was returning from the Hajj (pilgrimage) in Mecca and was loaded with treasure belonging to the Grand Mughal himself, Emperor Aurangzeb.
Every sailed up to the Red Sea in August 1695 and partnered with several other pirates including American pirate Thomas Tew, assembling a flotilla of six ships. Henry was named Admiral of this small fleet.
They intercepted the 25-ship Mughal fleet. The first vessel captured, the Fath Mahmamadi, surrendered quickly. From this first ship the flotilla received £50,000 or ~$67,000. By 2026 standards that would be worth ~$5.5M. This was just a warmup for what came next. Every pressed on to find the flagship.
On September 7th, 1695, they found the Ganj-i-Sawai, the largest ship in all of India. A 62-gun vessel carrying 400 to 500 riflemen vs The Fancy which had 46 guns and significantly fewer men.
What happened next was either extraordinary skill or extraordinary luck.
The Fancy's first cannon volley struck the Ganj-i-Sawai's main mast. Then, one of the Indian ship's own artillery pieces malfunctioned and exploded on deck. The crew fell into chaos. A boarding party from The Fancy climbed aboard, and hand-to-hand combat followed. The Indian captain abandoned his post, retreating below deck and (according to one source) ordered enslaved women to fight in his place rather than defending his ship himself.
The Fancy's crew took control of the ship. Stolen from this flagship was £350–600K (~$476- 807k). Again, adjusting for inflation in 2026 this would be worth ~$78.3M. That’s a total combined plunder of ~$80M by todays standards.
What followed was, without qualification, atrocious. Every's crew tortured the men aboard for information about hidden treasure, then killed them. The women aboard (including elderly women) were repeatedly sexually assaulted. Indian historian Khafi Khan recorded that some women, when they found the chance, threw themselves into the sea rather than endure further harm. Others died by their own hand using knives and daggers.
Every was many things. A capable sailor. A charismatic leader. A brilliant tactician. He was also, by any measure, a genuine monster.
The World's First Global Manhunt
The Mughal Empire was not going to let this slide. Emperor Aurangzeb placed full blame on England and demanded Every's head. A bounty of £1,000 or ~$1,300 (~$127k adjusted) was placed on him.
And what historians believe to be the first ever global manhunt was launched.
The fallout reached far beyond the pirates themselves. The East India Company took a significant commercial hit as imports dropped. Their factories in India came under attack. The Company was forced to pay reparations, and several of its senior figures were arrested on suspicion of having worked with Every.
Some of the Fancy's crew were eventually found and hanged. Most scattered to the Americas or back into Europe. Every sailed to the Bahamas and then... the trail goes cold.
The theories
What Happened to Henry Every after is anyone’s guess, but here are some of the theories surrounding his disappearance.
Theory 1:
He went to Ireland under the alias Bridgeman, after which all record of him vanishes entirely.
Theory 2:
He established a pirate haven on the island of Saint Mary's off the coast of Madagascar.
*This theory deserves its own footnote: a man using the pen name Adrian van Broeck claimed to be a Dutchman who had sailed with Every and wrote what he called a biography. In it, he claimed Every had run off with Emperor Aurangzeb's daughter, established a small island utopia on Saint Mary's Island, had children, and even created his own currency bearing his face. This account is considered by historians to be largely or entirely fabricated.
Theory 3:
He returned to England, was cheated out of all his money by merchants he tried to deal with, and died broke and anonymous.
The Legacy He Left Behind
Whatever happened to him personally, Every's influence on the golden age of piracy was substantial. He is credited with inspiring a generation of pirates who followed him, including names that have become legendary in their own right (names like Blackbeard, Bartholomew Roberts, Sam Bellamy, and Calico Jack Rackham).
In 1712, a play called The Successful Pyrate was performed at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane.
Daniel Defoe wrote a book called The King of the Pirates based on him.
Even the name of his ship, the Fancy, was adopted by later pirates.
The man who was dubbed the King of the Pirates committed the largest act of piracy in recorded history, sparked the first global manhunt, became the mythos of what it was to be a pirate and left absolutely no verifiable trace of what became of him.
Final thoughts
Jamie thinks Every got his treasure and knew when to lay low and retire, relaxing the rest of his days.
Leo thinks the backstabbing, mutineer-ing lifestyle of a pirate caught up with him. Every was probably thrown overboard and treasure stolen to save the crew that hadn’t been hanged yet from the same fate.
History is full of criminals who got caught and criminals who got away. Then there’s Henry Every, the pirate king that three centuries of historians couldn’t find.
What do you think happened?
“He knew when to fold it... When to hold it.”
Yo ho, yo ho. Did we shiver your timbers?
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sources:
https://www.history.com/articles/henry-everys-bloody-pirate-raid-320-years-ago
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Henry-Avery-Every-King-Of-Pirates/
