Henry Every: The Pirate King Who Vanished With a Fortune

Henry Every pulled off the most profitable heist in maritime history, triggered the world's first recorded global manhunt, and then disappeared completely. Known in his time as the King of Pirates, he is the rare figure who actually got away with it. This episode traces his two-year piratical career using East India Company records, the accounts of Indian historian Khafi Khan, and Old Bailey trial transcripts.We follow the desperate stranding at Coruna that sparked a bloodless mutiny aboard the Charles II, the transformation of the ship into the fast-sailing Fancy, and the brutal capture of the Mughal treasure ship Ganj-i-Sawai. We examine the atrocity aboard that vessel, the geopolitical crisis it caused for English trade in India, and the corrupt path the crew took to escape justice.How the heist nearly collapsed English trade and prompted Emperor Aurangzeb's retaliationThe chambermaid who exposed crewman John Dann's gold-stuffed waistcoatThe two Old Bailey trials and the politically pressured second verdictThe competing legends of Every's fate, from a Madagascar pirate kingdom to dying pennilessHow his escape inspired a generation of Golden Age pirates