Henry Every: The Pirate Who Robbed an Emperor's Ship

Henry Every's pirates robbed the Mughal emperor's own ship, and the bill came due in Surat. A Golden Age of Piracy story told from both sides. In 1695, English mutineers sailing as the Fancy took the Ganj-i-Sawai, a Mughal ship coming home from the Red Sea ports of Mocha and Jeddah. Who really paid for that robbery? In Surat, the busiest port of the Mughal Empire, crowds filled the streets, and Englishmen from the East India Company's factory were put in irons. This Age of Sail documentary tells the story of Henry Every, also written Henry Avery, from three places: the pirates' own deck, the Mughal port of Surat, and a London courtroom. We follow the mutiny at A Coruña in 1694, a letter signed "As yet an Englishmans Friend", the capture itself, the Bahamas governor accused of welcoming a ship whose captain signed himself Bridgman, and the proclamations that printed Every's alias for the whole kingdom to read. Where the accounts disagree, we show both. The Mughal historian Khafi Khan says the royal ship's first gun burst on her own deck. John Dann, a seaman who sailed with Every and later testified for the Crown, swore at the Old Bailey that they fought her for about two hours. Neither version is neutral, and we don't pick one for you. Did Henry Every escape? Where did Henry Every go? Dann, the last man to give an account of him, parted from Every in Donegal in June 1696. After that the record goes quiet. A silver coin found in a Rhode Island orchard in 2014 keeps the question open, though historians disagree about what it proves. The Golden Age of Piracy has no shortage of legends. This film sticks to the record. Chapters: 0:00 Henry Every and the Emperor's Ship 5:34 The Drunken Boatswain: Mutiny at A Coruña 9:28 As Yet an Englishman's Friend 12:38 The Gun That Burst: Two Accounts of the Ganj-i-Sawai 17:11 The English in Irons at Surat 20:23 Captain Bridgman and the Governor of Nassau 23:31 The Old Bailey Trial of Every's Crew 26:51 The Bill: Trott, Surat and the Treaty 28:16 Where Did Henry Every Go? 📌 Research Integrity: This documentary draws on the sworn examinations of Every's own crew, the 1696 trial record, the Crown's proclamations, East India Company letters and a chronicle written on the Mughal side, and on the work of historians including Arnold Wright and Oliver Hoover. Where the sources disagree, we show you each side's account. No facts, quotes or dialogue are invented. Full sources are listed below. 📚 Sources: • J. F. Jameson (ed.), Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period (1923): examinations of John Dann and Philip Middleton, Every's declaration at Johanna, Bombay letters. gutenberg.org/ebooks/24882 • The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes, at the Old-Baily (London, 1696): archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_the-tryals-of-joseph-daw_1696. With An Account of the Behaviour, Dying Speeches, and Execution of the pirates (London, 1696) • Proclamations of 17 July and 10 August 1696 for apprehending Henry Every, the Scottish proclamation of 18 August 1696 (spcr.ac.uk/proclamation-18-august-1696-edinburgh/), and the Lords Justices' letter to the colonial governors, Archives of Maryland vol. 20, pp. 498-499 • Khafi Khan, Muntakhab al-Lubab, in Elliot and Dowson, The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians, vol. 7 (1877), pp. 350-355 (Mughal side): archive.org/details/the-history-of-india-as-told-by-its-own-historians-vol-7 • Alexander Hamilton, A New Account of the East Indies (Edinburgh, 1727): archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_a-new-account-of-the-eas_hamilton-alexander_1727_1 • Arnold Wright, Annesley of Surat and His Times (1918): archive.org/details/annesleyofsurath00wriguoft • John Biddulph, The Pirates of Malabar (1907) • Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 16, no. 928: the case of Nicholas Trott • Oliver D. Hoover, Treasure (Rhode) Island?, American Numismatic Society, Pocket Change (2021), with the author's 2022 correction: numismatics.org/pocketchange/yemen-correction/ 🎬 Footage courtesy of eighteen YouTube creators, used under fair use for commentary and education (CGI battle scenes are digital renders). Images: Wikimedia Commons (public domain and Creative Commons) and Internet Archive. Stock footage licensed via Envato; music by Epidemic Sound. Maps and animations: CB Media. Full list with links in the pinned comment. 💬 Was Henry Every the man who got away, or only the man nobody ever found? Ireland, New England, or a grave without a name: tell us where you think he went. And whose account of the Ganj-i-Sawai do you trust more, Khafi Khan's or Dann's?