Henry Every was a pirate who became a legend thanks to the fact he was never caught and retired with all the treasure he collected over the years. He became famous among the pirates who called him the Arch pirate. He is also known as John Avary, Long Ben, and Benjamin Bridgeman. He was born in 1653 in Plymouth, England and was a sailor from early youth. He began his career in 1689 by serving as a midshipman in the British Royal Navy.
After leaving the Navy, Henry Every is mentioned in 1693 as a first mate on ‘‘Charles II’’, a privateer ship. He was in his forties, considered a good navigator and experienced sailor with great knowledge. When they were anchored in La Coruña, Every took control over the ship while captain was drunk and renamed it the ‘‘Fancy’’ continuing his journey to Cape of Good Hope. Along the way they adjusted the ship to their needs and the Fancy became one of the fastest vessels at that time. Soon he officially became a pirate by robbing three English merchant ships and continued to plunder every vessel he came across. In 1694 Henry Every joined the fleet of four pirate ships and soon attacked two treasure ships from convoy headed to India. The first was the Fateh Mohamed, from which they took a loot of over 50,000 pounds, and after eight days they attacked the second, bigger and stronger ship, Great Moguls flagship Gang-i-Sawai. After a two hour battle and victory, Henry Every’s crew went on torturing and killing its passengers for several days. Treasure taken from this ship was worth more than 500,000 pounds. After splitting the money with his allies he sailed for Nassau, Bahamas hoping to bribe the governor there and get pardon but his plan was unsuccessful. Then he decided to head back to England and the majority of his men did the same. The ship they sailed on landed in Ireland and most of his crewmembers were soon arrested. Henry Every was never seen again. There are some stories that say he died as a poor man in Bideford, England.
In 1967 a stone plague was discovered in Alibaug near Mumbai on the Arabian sea coast engraved with ‘‘Henry Every - County Donegal, Ireland-Death 1699’’. It remains unknown whether it’s memorial stone dedicated to our pirate or some other man, but there are records of some European privateers served hear and this name is still popular in the local fishermen community.
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