He’d learned that a Mughal Empire fleet was soon to set sail from the Red Sea port of Mocha on a voyage home to Surat, India. By the time the Fancy reached Madagascar in mid-1695, it was a floating rogues’ gallery of some 150 men.Įvery’s early scores had won him the respect of his crew, but he soon set his sights on a more formidable quarry. They continued to plunder their way along the African coastline for the next several months, capturing French and Danish ships and picking up new recruits. Their first raid came soon thereafter, when they ransacked three English merchant ships in the Cape Verde Islands. “I am bound to Madagascar, with the design of making my own fortune, and that of all the brave fellows joined with me.”Īfter renaming the Charles II the Fancy, Every and his upstart buccaneers set a course toward the southern tip of Africa. “I am captain of this ship now,” he supposedly said. Upon seizing the Charles II, he announced his intention to turn pirate. In May 1694, Every capitalized on the poor morale by leading his disgruntled crew in a mutiny. The mission was slow to start, however, and the crew languished in a Spanish port for several months without being paid. In 1693, he reappears in the historical record as the first mate of the Charles II, a privateering vessel hired to plunder French shipping in the Caribbean. He went to sea at a young age, and may have served in the Royal Navy before working as a slave trader in the early 1690s.
Little is known about Every’s early life. Woodcut showing Every loading treasure on his ship
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