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HENRY EVERY

King Of Pirates

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III.

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V.

VI. Overview

Henry Every, (sometimes spelled Avery) born c1653-1659 in Devon was an English pirate who operated in the Atlantic and Indian oceans in the mid 1690s.

He was the most notorious pirate of his time earning him the reputation of ‘King of Pirates’, and the first international man hunt was launched after he carried out what was then the most profitable pirate raid in history.

Henry Every depicted on shore with the Fancy engaging another vessel.

Every’s flag as described in “A Copy of Verses” a ballad allegedly wrote by Henry Every himself.

In 1695 his ship, joining with other infamous pirate crews, attacked the Grand Mughal ship Ganj-i-Sawai, which was making a pilgrimage to Mecca; Every and the other pirates seized loot worth around £600,000 (over £52 million today) and escaped to New Providence, a known pirate safe haven.

While some of his crew were arrested and charged with the crime, Every’s fate is unclear. He vanished without a trace and many uncorroborated stories have been told of what happened to him. It has been suggested that he escaped and retired with his booty.

Captain Henry Every

Henry Every, also known as Henry Avery (20 August 1659 – after 1696), sometimes erroneously given as Jack Avery or John Avery,^[a] was an English pirate who operated in the Atlantic and Indian oceans in the mid-1690s. He probably used several aliases throughout his career, including Benjamin Bridgeman, and was known as Long Ben to his crewmen and associates.^[b]

Dubbed “The Arch Pirate” and “The King of Pirates” by contemporaries, Every was infamous for being one of few major pirate captains to escape with his loot without being arrested or killed in battle, and for being the perpetrator of what has been called the most profitable act of piracy in history.^[1] Although Every’s career as a pirate lasted only two years, his exploits captured the public’s imagination, inspired others to take up piracy, and spawned works of literature.

Every began his pirate career while he was first mate aboard the warship Charles II. As the ship lay anchored in the northern Spanish harbour of Corunna, the crew grew discontented as Spain failed to deliver a letter of marque and Charles II‘s owners failed to pay their wages, and they mutinied. Charles II was renamed the Fancy and Every elected as the new captain.

Every’s most famous raid, on the 7th September 1695, was on a 25-ship convoy of Grand Mughal vessels making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, including the treasure-laden Ghanjah dhow Ganj-i-sawai and its escort, Fateh Muhammed. Joining forces with several pirate vessels, Every found himself in command of a small pirate squadron, and they were able to capture up to £600,000 in precious metals and jewels,^[1] equivalent to around £91.9 million in 2021^[2]. This caused considerable damage to England’s fragile relations with the Mughals, and a combined bounty of £1,000—an immense sum at the time—was offered by the Privy Council and the East India Company for his capture, leading to the first worldwide manhunt in recorded history.^[3]^[c]

Although a number of his crew were subsequently arrested, Every himself eluded capture, vanishing from all records in 1696; his whereabouts and activities after this period are unknown. Unconfirmed accounts state he may have changed his name and retired, quietly living out the rest of his life in either Britain or on an unidentified tropical island, while alternative accounts consider Every may have squandered his riches.^[4] He is considered to have died sometime between 1699 and 1714; his treasure has never been recovered.

Sourced from: Wikipedia

REFERENCES:

Burgess 2009a, p. 138
^ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). “The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)”. MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b ^c Burgess 2009a, p. 144
Woodard 2007

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The Legend

It is most likely that Henry Every was born 20th August 1659 in the village of Newton Ferrers as part of the Every family of Devon. This seems to be supported by witness testimonies from members of Every’s crew. One of which was William Phillips who stated that in 1696 Every was “aged about 40 years old” and that his mother lived “near Plymouth”.

It is believed that Every then became a sailor with the Royal Navy at a young age. Van Broech claims that while serving for the Royal Navy he served aboard the English fleet attacking Algiers in 1671. After this he went on to the Caribbean sea before captaining in the Bay of Cempeche onboard a log wood freighter.

Henry Every woodcut from Charles Johnson’s A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates (London: Midwinter, 1725)

Battle of Beachy Head (1690) by Theodore Gudin.

By his thirties he was married to Dorothy Arther who served as a Periwig seller in Ratcliffe Highway, London. A family man, Every worked hard aboard the HMS Rupert during the Nine Year War but sent most of his earnings home to his family. He later joined the HMS Albemarle as Master’s Mate before the Battle of Beachy Head against the French in 1690. This battle was a disaster for the English and a short time after in the same year, Every was discharged from the Royal Navy.

After his discharge from the Royal Navy in 1690 not much is known about Every until 1693. The first mention of since 1690 is in the journal of a Royal African Company agent named Thomas Phillips of the ship Hannibal. Phillips was on a mission on the Guinea Coast when he claimed “I have no where upon the coast met negroes so shy as here, which makes me fancy they have had tricks play’d them by such blades as Long Ben, alias Avery, who have seiz’d them and carry them away.” It’s possible to conclude from Phillip’s writings that he may have come across Avery on a number of occasions and may have known him on a more personal level.

In this same year Every had joined the Spanish Expedition consisting of four warships: Seventh Son, Dove, James, and Charles II. The Spanish Expedition’s intentions were to travel to the Spanish West Indies to trade goods, supply the Spanish with arms, and recover treasure from wrecked galleons while plundering the areas French possessions.

It’s unclear why but the ships took five months to arrive in Corunna from the River Thames, a journey that should have only taken two weeks. Malnourished and with provisions running low they lacked the official paperwork to go ashore at Corunna they were in a serious situation. For several more months they waited patiently for their monies and the paperwork which was constantly denied along with any support from their financiers. Tensions growing the crew began to buckle to the plans to mutiny to which Every was a prime catalyst for. William Phillips, a mariner on Dove claimed that Every went “up & down from ship to ship & persuaded the men to come on board him, & he would carry them where they should get money enough.”

Royal African Company logo.

Before He Was A Pirate

BACKGROUND

Modern scholarship suggests Henry Every was born on 20 August 1659 in the village of Newton Ferrers, about 9.7 kilometres (6 mi) southeast of Plymouth, Devon, England.^[1]^[2] Parish records suggest that he was the son of John Every and his wife, Anne (maiden name unknown); the Every family of Devon was quite established at the time, and it is likely he was a kinsman of the Every family of Wycroft Castle.^[3] According to the deposition of William Phillips, a member of Every’s crew who gave a “voluntary confession” after his capture, in August 1696 Every was “aged about 40 years,” his mother lived “near Plymouth,” and his wife was a periwig seller who lived “in Ratcliffe Highway.”^[4] Every was married and records suggest that he wed one Dorothy Arther at St James Duke’s Place in London on 11 September 1690,^[5] though there is no evidence that he had any children.

The earliest biographical account of the man, The Life and Adventures of Capt. John Avery (London: J. Baker, 1709), states that he was born in 1653 in Cattedown, Plymouth. Although this location and date are now known to be incorrect, they have been frequently cited in earlier literature. (Another suggested year for Every’s birth is 1665,^[6] though this too is in error.) The memoir’s Dutch author, who wrote his account a little over a decade after the pirate had vanished, uses the name Adrian van Broeck, but this is probably a pseudonym. The account tells of Van Broeck’s short captivity by Every’s crew aboard Fancy, and claims that Every’s father was a trading captain who had served in the Royal Navy under Admiral Robert Blake. Several later accounts of Every’s life, most prominently Daniel Defoe’s The King of Pirates (1720), have made reference to the earlier work, but it is of questionable veracity and has been described by the Dictionary of National Biography as “fiction, with scarcely a substratum of fact.”^[7]

Although a theory existed that Every’s birth name was actually Benjamin Bridgeman (especially in light of his nickname “Long Ben”), and that “Henry Every” was in fact an alias,^[8] modern scholarship has debunked it.^[9] It is accepted by historians that “Henry Every” was the pirate’s real name, given that he used this name when he entered the Royal Navy. As this was prior to the onset of his piratical career, he would have had no need for an alias; he used the name “Bridgeman” only after committing piracy. Every may have been a cousin of the well-known Every baronets, though this has not been proven conclusively.^[16]

ROYAL NAVY SERVICE

Every was probably a sailor from youth, serving on various Royal Navy ships. Popular accounts state that Every served aboard the English fleet bombarding Algiers in 1671, buccaneered in the Caribbean Sea, and even captained a logwood freighter in the Bay of Campeche, although these stories come from Van Broeck’s fictional memoir.^[10] The substantiated record picks up in March 1689, shortly after the breakout of the Nine Years’ War.

England and its allies—the Grand Alliance—Bavaria, the Dutch Republic, the Palatinate, Saxony, and Spain—were waging war against Louis XIV of France in an attempt to stop his expansions, and it was against this background that Every, now in his early thirties, was working as a midshipman aboard the sixty-four gun battleship HMS Rupert, then under the command of Sir Francis Wheeler.^[11] Every’s naval records suggest he was something of a family man, who spent “little of his wages on extras such as tobacco and regularly consigned his pay to his family.”^[12]

In mid-1689, HMS Rupert helped capture a large enemy French convoy off Brest, France. This victory gave Every an opportunity to better his fortunes and by the end of July he was promoted to Master’s mate, although he was probably the most junior of HMS Rupert‘s three Master’s mates.^[13] In late June 1690, he was invited to join Captain Wheeler on a new ship, the ninety-gun HMS Albemarle. He likely participated in the Battle of Beachy Head against the French two weeks later, an engagement which ended disastrously for the English.^[12]^[14] On 29 August of that year, Every was discharged from the Royal Navy.^[15]^[16]

AVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE

After discharge from the Royal Navy, Avery entered the Atlantic slave trade. Between 1660 and 1698, the Royal African Company (RAC) maintained a monopoly over all English slave trade, making it illegal to sell slaves without a license. To ensure compliance, the navy protected the company’s interests along the West African coast. Although illegal, unlicensed slaving could be a highly lucrative enterprise, as Avery was certainly aware; the prospect of profits ensured that violations of the company’s monopoly by “interlopers” (unlicensed slavers) remained a fairly common crime.

In 1693, Avery is identified in a journal prepared by an agent of the RAC, Captain Thomas Phillips of Hannibal, then on a slaving mission on the Guinea coast, who writes: “I have no where upon the coast met the negroes so shy as here, which makes me fancy they have had tricks play’d them by such blades as Long Ben, alias Avery, who have seiz’d them and carry’d them away.”^[17]^[18] (Avery was known to lure potential slave traders onto his ship by flying friendly English colours, then seize the slave traders themselves and chain them in his ship’s hold alongside their former captives.)^[19] Captain Phillips, who according to his own writings had come across Avery on more than one occasion—and may have even known him personally^[8]—also alluded to Avery as slave trading under a commission from Issac Richier, the unpopular Bermudian governor who was later removed from his post for his carousing behavior. However, Avery’s slave trading employment is relatively undocumented.^[20]

Sourced from: Wikipedia

REFERENCES:

Baer 2005, p. 91
^ Marley 2010, p. 589
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Rogoziński 2000
^ The National Archives SP 63/358 fols. 127–32
^ Fox 2008, p. 29
^ Gosse 1924, p. 23
Laughton 1908, p. 747
Grey 1933, p. 167
^ Baer 1994, p. 3
^ Jump up to:^a ^b ^c Baer 1994, p. 4
^ Fox 2008, p. 22
^ Marley 2010, p. 590
^ Fox 2008, pp. 19–29
^ Marley 2010, pp. 589–590
^ Botting 1978, p. 80
^ Phillips 1744, pp. 197
Woodard 2007, p. 19
Burgess 2009a, p. 132

On the night of 7th May, 1694 Every and approximately 25 others charged Charles II while O’Byrne; the Admiral of the fleet was ashore. With the Captain of Charles II asleep and the crew caught by surprise it was with no conflict that Every took the ship before vanishing into the night.

Once they were at a safe distance from the Spanish night watch non-conspirators were given a chance to leave. Every offered up the position of the ships Commander to Captain Gibson “If you have a mind to make one of us, we will receive you, and if you turn sober and attend to business, perhaps in time I may make you up of my Lieutenants. If not, here’s a boat, and you shall be set on shore.” Gibson declined the offer and was sent ashore with the others who didn’t want to join Every’s cause.

Every’s flag as depicted in Captain Charles Johnson’s A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates.

Every receiving the three chests of Treasure on board of his ship as depicted in The Pirates Own Book by Charles Ellms

After the mutiny Every was unanimously elected Captain and after likely inspiring his crew with stories of Thomas Tew’s success in the Red Sea a year earlier they agreed to set sail for the Indian Ocean as pirates, renaming Charles II the Fancy.

Along their journey to the Indian Ocean Every and his crew made several stops. First at Maio robbing three ships (and recruiting nine men), then to Guinea where they robbed the local chieftain and his peoples wealth, then at Bioko to resupply. Then they captured two Danish ships near the island of Principe taking prize of their ivory and gold. They rounded the Cape of Good Hope and stopped in the pirate safe haven of St. Augustine’s Bay to resupply again before heading to Johanna from where they rested. While here they captured a passing French pirate ship, looting the vessel and recruited more crew.

Before He Was A Pirate

MUTINY AND ASCENSION TO CAPTAINCY

On Monday, 7 May 1694, O’Byrne was scheduled to sleep ashore, which gave the men the opportunity they were looking for.^[1] At approximately 9:00 p.m., Every and about twenty-five other men rushed aboard Charles II and surprised the crew on board. Captain Gibson was bedridden at the time, so the mutiny ended bloodlessly.^[2]^[e] One account states that the extra men from James pulled up in a longboat beside the ship and gave the password, saying, “Is the drunken boatswain on board?” before joining in the mutiny. Captain Humphreys of James is also said to have called out to Every that the men were deserting, to which Every calmly replied that he knew perfectly well.^[3] James then fired on Charles II, alerting the Spanish Night Watch, and Every was forced to make a run to the open sea, quickly vanishing into the night.

After sailing far enough for safety, Every gave the non-conspirators a chance to go ashore, even deferentially offering to let Gibson command the ship if he would join their cause. According to Charles Ellms, Every’s words to Gibson were, “if you have a mind to make one of us, we will receive you; and if you turn sober, and attend to business, perhaps in time I may make you up of my lieutenants; if not, here’s a boat, and you shall be set on shore.”^[4] The captain declined and was set ashore with several other sailors.^[2] The only man who was prevented from voluntarily leaving was the ship’s surgeon, whose services were deemed too important to forgo. All of the men left on board Charles II unanimously elected Every captain of the ship.^[5] Some reports say that Every was much ruder in his dealings with Gibson, but agree that he at least offered him the position of second mate.^[6] In either case, Every exhibited an amount of gentility and generosity in his operation of the mutiny that indicates his motives were not mere adventure.

Every was easily able to convince the men to sail to the Indian Ocean as pirates, since their original mission had greatly resembled piracy and Every was renowned for his powers of persuasion. He may have mentioned Thomas Tew‘s success capturing an enormous prize in the Red Sea only a year earlier. The crew quickly settled the subject of payment by deciding that each member would get one share of the treasure, and the captain would get two. Every then renamed Charles II the Fancy—a name which reflected both the crew’s renewed hope in their journey and the quality of the ship—and set a course for the Cape of Good Hope.^[7]

AT PIRATE ROUND

At Maio, the easternmost of the Cape Verde‘s Sotavento islands, Every committed his first piracy, robbing three English merchantmen from Barbados of provisions and supplies.^[8] Nine of the men from these ships were quickly persuaded to join Every’s crew,^[5] who now numbered about ninety-four men.^[9] Every then sailed to the Guinea coast, where he tricked a local chieftain into boarding Fancy under the false pretense of trade, and forcibly took his and his men’s wealth, leaving them slaves.^[10] Continuing to hug the African coastline, Every then stopped at Bioko in the Bight of Benin, where Fancy was careened and razeed.^[9] Cutting away some of the superstructure to improve the ship’s speed made Fancy one of the fastest vessels then sailing in the Atlantic Ocean. In October 1694, Fancy captured two Danish privateers near the island of Príncipe, stripping the ships of ivory and gold and welcoming approximately seventeen defecting Danes aboard.^[11]

In early 1695, Fancy finally rounded the Cape of Good Hope, stopping in Madagascar where the crew restocked supplies, likely in the area of St. Augustine’s Bay.^[f] The ship next stopped at the island of Johanna in the Comoros Islands. Here Every’s crew rested and took on provisions, later capturing a passing French pirate ship, looting the vessel and recruiting some forty of the crew to join their own company. Every’s total strength was now about 150 men.^[12]

At Johanna, Every wrote a letter addressed to the English ship commanders in the Indian Ocean, falsely stating that he had not attacked any English ships. His letter describes a signal English skippers could use to identify themselves so he could avoid them, and warns them that he might not be able to restrain his crew from plundering their ships if they failed to use the signal. It is unclear whether this document was true, but it may have been a ploy by Every to avoid the attention of the East India Company (EIC), whose large and powerful ships were the only threat Fancy faced in the Indian Ocean.^[13] Either way, the letter was unsuccessful in preventing the English from pursuing him.

Sourced From: Wikipedia

REFERENCES

Fox 2008, pp. 45–50
Baer 1994, p. 14
Burgess 2009, p. 131
Ellms 1837, p.26
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Rogoziński 2000, p. 83
^ Burgess 2009a, p. 131
^ Baer 1994, p. 15
^ Burgess 2009a, p. 133
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Baer 2005, p. 96
^ Emlyn 1730, p. 10
^ Baer 2005, p. 97
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Fox 2008, pp. 58–60
Baer 2005, p. 98

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The Treasure

In August 1695, Every of the Fancy was elected Admiral of a pirate flotilla consisting of the infamous Thomas Tew Captain of the Amity, Joseph Faro Captain of the Portsmouth Adventure, Richard Want Captain of the Dolphin, William Mayes Captain of the Pearl, and Thomas Wake Captain of the Susanna a plan was set in motion which would in turn cause havoc on England’s relations with India.

The pirate fleet occupying the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb waiting patiently for their target, a convoy of 25 Grand Mughal ships. Their main target being the Ganj-i-Sawai meaning “Exceeding Treasure”.

Thomas Tew depicted in Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates: Fiction, Fact & Fancy Concerning the Buccaneers & Marooners of the Spanish Main, New York, United States, and London, United Kingdom, 1921.

Engraving of Every engaging the Great Mogul’s Ship depicted in The Pirates Own Book, by Charles Ellms, 1837.

The Ganj-i-Sawai also commonly known as the Gunsway had managed to slip past the pirate flotilla in the night but the pirates didn’t take long to set chase to the Indian convoy. Dolphin proved too slow for the chase so the crew joined the Fancy and Dolphin was burned. Susanna and Amity too fell behind but the later was never to rejoin the flotilla.

The Portsmouth Adventure, Fancy, and Pearl caught up with the Fatah Muhammed of the Grand Mughal’s fleet. The pirates quickly sacked the ship taking haul of between £50,000 to £60,000 worth of treasure. They didn’t waste any time, quickly setting chase for their greatest prize, the Gunsway. Catching up only a few days later when they exchanged fire which left the Ganj-i-Sawai immobilized and severely vulnerable after a shot took out their mainmast.

The pirates boarded the ship in a fury and after a violent hand to hand battle lasting several hours the ship and what remained of the crew was theirs to do with as they saw fit. I’ll spare you the grim details but know that what was done to the crew and passangers of this ship were unthinkable.

Along with the ship was it’s sensational and unfathomable amount of treasures estimated to have been worth between £200,000 and £600,000 making it the richest ship to ever have been taken by pirates.

Depiction of Captain Every’s encounter with the Emeror’s granddaughter on the Ganj-i-Sawai from The Works of Daniel Defoe by John Ward Dunsmore (1856 – 1945).

The Grand Mughal’s Fleet

In 1695, Every set sail for the volcanic island of Perim to wait for an Indian fleet that would be passing soon.^[g] The fleet was easily the richest prize in Asia—perhaps in the entire world—and any pirates who managed to capture it would have been the perpetrators of the world’s most profitable pirate raid.^[1] In August 1695, Fancy reached the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, where Every joined forces with five other pirate captains: Tew on the sloop-of-war Amity, with a crew of about sixty men; Joseph Faro on Portsmouth Adventure, with sixty men; Richard Want on Dolphin, also with sixty men; William Mayes on Pearl, with thirty or forty men; and Thomas Wake on Susanna, with seventy men.^[2] All of these captains were carrying privateering commissions that implicated almost the entire Eastern Seaboard of North America. Every was elected admiral of the new six-ship pirate flotilla despite the fact that Tew had arguably more experience, and now found himself in command of over 440 men while they lay in wait for the Indian fleet.^[2] A convoy of twenty-five Grand Mughal ships, including the enormous 1,600-ton Ganj-i-sawai with eighty cannons, and its escort, the 600-ton Fateh Muhammed, were spotted passing the straits en route to Surat. Although the convoy had managed to elude the pirate fleet during the night, the pirates gave chase.

Dolphin proved to be far too slow, lagging behind the rest of the pirate ships, so it was burned and the crew joined Every aboard Fancy. Amity and Susanna also proved to be poor ships: Amity fell behind and never again rejoined the pirate flotilla (Tew having been killed in a battle with a Mughal ship), while the straggling Susanna eventually rejoined the group. The pirates caught up with Fateh Muhammed four or five days later.^[3] Perhaps intimidated by Fancy‘s forty-six guns or weakened by an earlier battle with Tew, Fateh Muhammed‘s crew put up little resistance; Every’s pirates then sacked the ship, which had belonged to one Abdul Ghaffar, reportedly Surat’s wealthiest merchant.^[h]^[4] While Fateh Muhammed‘s treasure of some £50,000 to £60,000 was enough to buy Fancy fifty times over,^[5] once the treasure was shared out among the pirate fleet, Every’s crew received only small shares.^[6]

Every now sailed in pursuit of the second Mughal ship, Ganj-i-Sawai^[7] (meaning “Exceeding Treasure,” and often Anglicized as Gunsway),^[8] overtaking it a few days after the attack on Fateh Muhammed.^[5]^[9] With Amity and Dolphin left behind, only Fancy, Pearl, and Portsmouth Adventure were present for the actual battle.^[10]

Ganj-i-sawai, captained by one Muhammad Ibrahim, was a fearsome opponent, mounting eighty guns and a musket-armed guard of four hundred, as well as six hundred other passengers. But the opening volley evened the odds, as Every’s lucky broadside shot his enemy’s mainmast by the board.^[11] With Ganj-i-sawai unable to escape, Fancy drew alongside. For a moment, a volley of Indian musket fire prevented the pirates from clambering aboard, but one of Ganj-i-sawai‘s powerful cannons exploded, instantly killing many and demoralizing the Indian crew, who ran below deck or fought to put out the spreading fires.^[12] Every’s men took advantage of the confusion, quickly scaling Ganj-i-sawai‘s steep sides. The crew of Pearl, initially fearful of attacking Ganj-i-sawai, now took heart and joined Every’s crew on Indian ship’s deck. A ferocious hand-to-hand battle then ensued, lasting two to three hours.^[13]

Muhammad Hashim Khafi Khan, a contemporary Indian historian who was in Surat at the time, wrote that, as Every’s men boarded the ship, Ganj-i-sawai‘s captain ran below decks where he armed the slave girls and sent them up to fight the pirates.^[14]^[15] Khafi Khan’s account of the battle, appearing in his multivolume work The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians, places blame squarely on Captain Ibrahim for the failure, writing: “The Christians are not bold in the use of the sword, and there were so many weapons on board the royal vessel that if the captain had made any resistance, they must have been defeated.”^[14] In any case, after several hours of stubborn but leaderless resistance, the ship surrendered. In his defense, Captain Ibrahim would later report that “many of the enemy were sent to hell.”^[16] Indeed, Every’s outnumbered crew may have suffered anywhere from several to over a hundred casualties, although these figures are uncertain.^[17]^[16]

According to Khafi Khan, the victorious pirates subjected their captives to an orgy of horror that lasted several days, raping and killing their terrified prisoners deck by deck. The pirates reportedly utilized torture to extract information from their prisoners, who had hidden the treasure in the ship’s holds. Some of the Muslim women apparently committed suicide to avoid violation, while those women who did not kill themselves or die from the pirates’ brutality were taken aboard Fancy.^[18]

Although stories of brutality by the pirates have been dismissed by sympathizers as sensationalism, they are corroborated by the depositions Every’s men provided following their capture. John Sparkes testified in his “Last Dying Words and Confession” that the “inhuman treatment and merciless tortures inflicted on the poor Indians and their women still affected his soul,” and that, while apparently unremorseful for his acts of piracy, which were of “lesser concern,” he was nevertheless repentant for the “horrid barbarities he had committed, though only on the bodies of the heathen.”^[19] Philip Middleton testified that several of the Indian men were murdered, while they also “put several to the torture” and Every’s men “lay with the women aboard, and there were several that, from their jewels and habits, seemed to be of better quality than the rest.”^[19] Furthermore, on 12 October 1695, Sir John Gayer, then-governor of Bombay and president of the EIC, sent a letter to the Lords of Trade, writing:

It is certain the Pyrates, which these People affirm were all English, did do very barbarously by the People of the Ganj-i-sawai and Abdul Gofor’s Ship, to make them confess where their Money was, and there happened to be a great Umbraws Wife (as Wee hear) related to the King, returning from her Pilgrimage to Mecha, in her old age. She they abused very much, and forced severall other Women, which Caused one person of Quality, his Wife and Nurse, to kill themselves to prevent the Husbands seing them (and their being) ravished.^[20]

Later accounts would tell of how Every himself had found “something more pleasing than jewels” aboard, usually reported to be Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb‘s daughter or granddaughter. (According to contemporary EIC sources, Ganj-i-sawai was carrying a “relative” of the Emperor, though there is no evidence to suggest that it was his daughter and her retinue.^[21]) However, this is at odds with the deposition of Philip Middleton, who testified that “all of the Charles‘s men, except Every, boarded [Fateh Muhammed and Ganj-i-sawai] by Turns.”^[16] At any rate, the survivors were left aboard their emptied ships, which the pirates set free to continue on their voyage back to India. The loot from Ganj-i-sawai, the greatest ship in the Muslim fleet, totaled somewhere between £200,000 and £600,000, including 500,000 gold and silver pieces. All told, it may have been the richest ship ever taken by pirates.

Sourced from: Wikipedia

REFERENCES

Rogoziński 2000, p. 84
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Baer 2005, p. 99
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Fox 2008, pp. 73–79
^ Rogoziński 2000, p. 248
^ Woodard 2007, p. 21
^ Burgess 2009a, p. 136
Ganj-i-sawai
^ Travers 2007, p. 41
^ Woodard 2007, p. 20
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Rogoziński 2000, p. 85
^ Burgess 2009a, pp. 136–137
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Baer 2005, p. 101
^ Earle 2006, p. 117
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Elliot 1877, p. 350
^ Rogoziński 2000, p. 86
^ Jump up to:^a ^b ^c Baer 2005, p. 102
^ Fox 2008, pp. 60, 79
^ Elliot 1877, pp. 350–351
^ Jump up to:^a ^b ^c Grey 1933, p. 151
^ Jameson 1923, doc. No. 60
^ Fox 2008, pp. 80–81

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The Vanishing Act

Following the massive success of the Gunsway Heist the treasures were divided up among the crews and their Captains proceeded by a celebration at the Pirate safe haven of Bourbon island. While they now each had “gold enough to dazzle the eyes” Every and his crew had now become marked men. Their exploits had parliament declare them ‘Hostis humani generis’ meaning “Enemies of the human race”. The bounty on Every’s head would make for the first worldwide man hunt.

A large number of the crew decided to take their chances and remain on the island while the rest are said to have left with Every to Nassau in the Caribbean, stopping along the way at Ascension Island to stock up on provisions for the long journey ahead. It’s here where a few more of the crew decided to remain instead of going ahead to Nassau.

Portrait of Aurangzeb – The Grand Moghul.

Proclamation for apprehending Henry Every, alias Bridgeman, and sundry other pirates from 1696.

Having reached St Thomas the pirates entered the city of Nassau where they made contact with the island’s Governor, Sir Nicholas Trott to whom they declared their position as pirates and their misdeeds against the East India Company. They requested shore time in exchange for a heft sum of £860. At this point they identified their Captain as a Henry Bridgeman. Who was offering Trott their ship as a gift once the crew were unload their cargo.

Trott accepted this offer knowing that Nassau faced an impending threat from French forces to the South East and the presence of the pirate ships in the bay would likely prevent a French attack. This agreement allowed Every and his crew to come and go from the island as they pleased.

Word finally reached Nassau of the Fancy and the events that had transpired in the Indian Ocean as well as the true identity of the Fancy’s Captain, Henry Every. When Trott was questioned he denied ever knowing the true history of these pirates. Trott stripped the fancy of anything valuable and had it driven against the rocks likely to dispose of the evidence that he had been conspiring with the pirates or had knowledge of their presence in Nassau.

When a proclamation for the apprehension of Henry Every and his crew reached Nassau, Trott tipped Every off to this fact and warned him of what his actions would be in response. Trott issued a warrant for Every’s arrest and alerted the authorities of his whereabouts in order to save face and avoid suspicions that he ever colluded with the pirates. It was at this point that Every and 113 crew members vanished in the night.

Engraving by Aikmann depicts Avery selling his jewels from Howard Pyle’s “Buccaneers and Marooners of the Spanish Main – Second Paper” 1887.

Title page of ‘The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and Sparkes’ 1696.

While only 24 of the 113 person crew were ever captured and with 5 executed it is a complete mystery as to what happened to the other 89 members of the crew, Every, or the massive amounts of treasure they were hauling with them. They all appear to have disappeared without a trace. Or, did they?

With Every’s acts in the Indian Ocean and the havoc it caused to the British and Indian relations at the time he had become well known which combined with his vanishing act it was no surprise that over the years numerous stories began to circulate with varying degrees of credibility turning Every into something of a legend. The stories would range from Every dying in poverty in Devon, England to setting up a pirate utopia where he was king.

Every & Crew Disappear

VANISHING ACT

When the proclamation for the apprehension of Every and his crew reached Trott, he was forced to either put a warrant out for Every’s arrest or, failing to do so, effectively disclose his association with the pirate. Preferring the former choice for the sake of his reputation, he alerted the authorities as to the pirates’ whereabouts, but was able to tip off Every and his crew before the authorities arrived. Every’s 113-person crew then fashioned their hasty escape, vanishing from the island with only twenty-four men ever captured, five of whom were executed. Every himself was never seen again.^[1] His last words to his men were a litany of conflicting stories of where he planned to go, likely intended to throw pursuers off his trail.

It has been suggested that because Every was unable to buy a pardon from Trott or from the governor of Jamaica, his crew split up, some remaining in the West Indies, the majority heading to North America, and the rest, including Every himself, returning to England. Of these, some sailed aboard the sloop Isaac, while Every and about twenty other men sailed in the sloop Sea Flower (captained by Faro) to Ireland towards the end of June 1696. They aroused suspicions while unloading their treasure, and two of the men were subsequently caught. Every, however, was able to escape once again.^[2]

FATE

British author and pirate biographer Charles Johnson suggested that, after attempting to sell his diamonds, Every died in poverty in Devon after being cheated out of his wealth by Bristol merchants. It is, however, unclear how Johnson could have discovered this. If Every was known to be living in poverty, it is most likely that he would have been apprehended and the large bounty on his head collected.^[3] So ascribing this fate to Every may have been a type of moral propagandizing on Johnson’s part. Others have suggested that after Every changed his name, he settled in Devon and lived out the rest of his life peacefully, dying on 10 June 1714;^[4] however, the source for this information is The History and Lives of All the Most Notorious Pirates and their Crews (London: Edw. Midwinter, 1732), considered an unreliable (and slightly expanded) reprint of Johnson’s General History. In October 1781 John Knill, the Collector of Customs at St Ives, Cornwall, held a meeting with a descendant of Every who stated that his ″father had told him that Captain Every, after wandering about in great poverty and distress, had died in Barnstaple, and was buried as a pauper …″^[5]

As the manhunt for Every continued in the decade following his disappearance, sightings were frequently reported, but none proved reliable. After the publication of a fictional memoir in 1709, which claimed Every was a king ruling a pirate utopia in Madagascar, popular accounts increasingly took on a more legendary, romantic flavor (see In contemporary literature). Although such stories were widely believed to be true by the public, they had no basis in reality. No reliable information about Every’s whereabouts or activities emerged after June 1696.

Sourced from: Wikipedia

REFERENCES

Burgess 2009a, p. 144
Rogoziński 2000, p. 90
Earle 2006, p. 159
^ Dow & Edmonds 1996, p. 348
^ “Notice of John Knill, of Gray’s Inn: 1733–1811. (Continued from our last)”. The Cornishman (15). 24 October 1878. p. 6.

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Conclusion

The map below visually demonstrates the expanse and furosity of Every’s short two year career from the point of the Spanish Expedition leaving the Thames in London, England to his vanishing act in Nassau.

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Nombre De Dios Silver Train

Elizabeth Island

Cueva del Pirata

Arica, Chile

Nova Albion

Drakes Coffin

This intriguing document suggests Avery (or Henry Every) the pirate buried his treasure near the Lizard after his daring 1695 raid on ships in the Arabian sea.

With so many stories of what happened to Every after he vanished from Nassau and with Every having told his crew conflicting stories of where he would go and what he would do after the heist, the question of what happened to Every and his loot is a very complicated one which requires extensive and in-depth research.

In 2020 I stumbled across a letter in the Cornish Archives in England which referred to Henry Avery and gave directions to finding his hidden treasure as follows:

Avery The Pirate

On his return from India either landed or was shipwrecked near the Lizard where he buried three chests or boxes full of treasure in the sands of the sea shore.

“Environ trois milles a l’est du Lig. Pres trois pierres grises ou rochers dans une cove au Sud’Oest des trois pierres.”

[Translation from French to English: “About three miles east of Liz near three gray stones or rocks in a cove, South West of the three stones.”]

Mr K says: “Ces trois pierres sont couvertes with grass. (now nearly overgrown with furse & grass)

[Translation from French to English: “These three stones are covered in grass.”]

It is near where the earner of a high promontory juts out into the sea.

He said the spring tides now come over the place.

Chest haslar wood 2 feet long & 1 f wide in it were precious stones & bracelets, large rubies, sapphires, emeralds, topazes + diamonds.

Chest almost the same size & make as the first 120 ingots of gold, 40 thick flat pieces of gold as large as a round tobacco box with various characters on some of them, 25 bars of gold, some of which were 4 or 5 inches long.

Chest has 3,000 pieces of 8 besides Bullion not weighed but crammed in with pieces of brocades.

Overwhelmed with excitement I began to investigate the letter further and test the validity of the letter.

Over a year of research and planning later, Areas Grey put together an international team of treasure hunters and archeologists to investigate this possible lead which may solve this enduring mystery.

On this scouting expedition Areas Grey joined forces with:

Rob Jenner of the CodeBar Live Podcast

Lisa Finch of Enigma Treasure Hunts

Rob & Toni Frey of Rob Frey Explorer

& Pirate Treasure Hunter – Tyrone Leech

The team worked relentlessly investigating and fact checking every bit of information we had uncovered and in late 2022 we were convinced we were onto something big, we were even joined by Discovery Channel’s Expedition Unknown and its host Josh Gates. You can find Expedition Unknown’s coverage of our expedition on the Discovery Channel on June 14th 2023 – 9:00pm (EST).

Time to dive in, @JoshuaGates! 🤿🏴‍☠️

Search for the greatest score in pirate history on an all-new episode of #ExpeditionUnknown — tonight at 9p ET on @Discovery. pic.twitter.com/gSO1FZ1C2I

— Discovery (@Discovery) June 14, 2023

Trailer for Discovery Channel’s Expedition Unknown starring Josh Gates airing June 14th 2023 at 9:00pm (EST) don’t miss it!.

Some of the shots taken during our expedition in Cornwall, October 2022 in search of Henry Every’s long lost treasure and the legend of the mysterious letter.

After a solid week of endless scouting and investigating the southern Cornish coastline we walked away knowing that this was just the beginning and that we were not done here yet.

The mystery of Henry Every and his missing treasure endures but we are one step closer to finding the truth. After careful review of the information we gathered on the last expedition along with the research we have conducted we believe we have identified the exact location where Henry Every would have hidden his treasure in regards to the information provided in the letter. As such, we are now gearing up for a second expedition out to the site to locate and retrieve this long lost pirate loot. This second expedition will conclusively tell us if the treasure tale is real or that of fantasy. If the treasure is found it is believed to be worth over one hundred million!

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ADAM L C

Director of Areas Grey

Adam is an avid treasure hunter, seeker of adventure and the creator of Areas Grey. After travelling for almost half his life and cataloguing over 100 treasure legends along the way. He decided this was simply far too much treasure for one person to chase! As a result he created Areas Grey so he could share his stories, connect with other treasure hunters and put a little more adventure in the lives of the treasure hunting community.

Adam is a Private Investigator and former Wilderness Guide with a passion for history and archaeology. With the skills, knowledge and gear, Adam is always eager to go on the next fortune seeking adventure and connect with fellow treasure hunters along the way.

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It’s always a pleasure to hear from a fellow treasure hunter, get in touch using the form below.

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“I am a Man of Fortune, and I must seek my Fortune.”

– Henry Every, 1694

Open post

Captain Kidd’s Treasure

30/04/202118/08/2023
by Grey

CAPTAIN KIDD’S TREASURE

Beyond Gardiners Island

I.

OVERVIEW

II.

LEGEND

III.

LEGENDS MAP

IV.

PALMER MAPS

V.

BELLOMONT LETTERS

VI.

WRITER

Overview

William Kidd, privateer, pirate. 18th century portrait by Sir James Thornhill.

William Kidd, also known as Captain Kidd was a Scottish sea captain who was commissioned as a privateer for the Crown. During his career as a privateer, he captured a French ship which was commanded by an English Captain. As such, he was deemed a pirate. When Kidd caught word of this, he turned himself in to clear his name. However, due to political tensions in England at the time he was tried as a pirate and eventually executed in London 1701 for murder and piracy.

Before he turned himself in Kidd had buried a sizeable treasure on Gardiners Island, New York. When he was captured, and it was clear he wasn’t going to be able to clear his name he tried using the treasure to pay for his freedom. However, the treasure was recovered and turned in as evidence in the case against him. It has in more recent years been argued that with the discovery of court papers found in the 20th century, it is likely that Kidd was unjustly tried as a pirate and that he was in fact acting as a privateer.

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The Legend

Captain William Kidd was a Scottish sailor born in 1645, famous for his acts of piracy throughout the 17th century. An experienced sailor Kidd took to piracy by the time he was 35 years old, joining a French-English pirate crew in the Caribbean captained by Jean Fantin before a mutiny which placed Kidd as the new Captain. Kidd and his crew acted as pirates for hire for the Governor of Nevis on the agreement that they would protect the British colony and in payment they would keep any loot found on enemy ships.

By 1965 Kidd was married to one of the wealthiest women in New York and had helped build the Trinity Church. The Governor of New York – Richard Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont got Kidd to take on the task of becoming a pirate hunter with the mission of capturing Thomas Tew, Thomas Wake, John Ireland, William Maze, and many more well known pirates.

Painting of Captain Kidd in New York Harbor by Jean Leon Jerome Ferris.

Howard Pyle’s fanciful painting of Kidd burying treasure.

After two years in the Indian Ocean aboard his new ship the Adventure Galley, he had found no success with his pirate hunting mission. As such he was unable to cover the costs, his crew had become restless and a dispute with one of the crew which resulted in their death perhaps pushed Kidd over the edge as it is from this point on that stories of Kidd’s relentlessness began to surface. News traveled fast and Kidd was marked as a pirate.

In 1698 Kidd captured his greatest prize, the 400 ton Quedagh Merchant, an Indian ship loaded with satins, muslins, gold, silver, and other East Indian merchandise. The Quedagh Merchant was then renamed Adventure Prize. It was shortly after this that Kidd decided to return to New York but with the Adventure Galley unfit for the voyage the ship was burned and Kidd sailed to the Caribbean aboard the Adventure Prize. Knowing he was a wanted man he cached the Adventure Prize in the Caribbean Sea which is now believed to have been found in 2007 just South of La Romana on the Dominican coast.

On his way to New York aboard a sloop he hid treasure in order to use his knowledge of the whereabouts of this treasure as a bargaining chip in the event he was captured. Bellomont hearing of Kidd’s return lured him into a trap in Boston where Kidd was caught and arrested in 1699. He was placed in Stone Prison (Boston Gaol) for a year where he wrote several letters to Bellomont alluding to numerous hidden caches of treasure in an attempt to negotiate his freedom.

Kidd was sent to Newgate Prison in London where he was tried and charged with acts of piracy and murder. He was then hanged on 23rd May 1701 then his body gibbeted over the River Thames at Tilbury point as a warning to would be pirates.

Captain Kidd, gibbeted near Tilbury in Essex, following his execution in 1701.

Shortly before Kidd’s death Bellomont recovered a small cache of Kidd’s treasure that he had buried in a spot known as Cherry Tree field on Gardiners Island. Was this all of Captain Kidd’s treasure of is there more treasure caches hidden out there?

The Life Of Captain Kidd

OVERVIEW

William Kidd, also known as Captain William Kidd or simply Captain Kidd (c. 1655 – 23 May 1701),^[1] was a Scottish sailor who was tried and executed for piracy after returning from a voyage to the Indian Ocean. Some modern historians, for example Sir Cornelius Neale Dalton, deem his piratical reputation unjust.^[2]

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

Kidd was born in Dundee,^[3] Scotland prior to October 15, 1654. While claims have been made of alternate birthplaces including Greenock and even Belfast, Kidd himself claimed to be 41 years of age, and originally from “Dundee, in the Kingdom of Scotland” while testifying under oath at the High Court of the Admiralty about the former government of New York in October 1695.^[4] A local society supported the family financially after the death of the father.^[5] The myth that his “father was thought to have been a Church of Scotland minister” has been discounted, insofar as there is no mention of the name in comprehensive Church of Scotland records for the period. Others still hold the contrary view.^[6]^[7]

HUNTING FOR PIRATES

In September 1696, Kidd weighed anchor and set course for the Cape of Good Hope. A third of his crew died on the Comoros due to an outbreak of cholera, the brand-new ship developed many leaks, and he failed to find the pirates whom he expected to encounter off Madagascar.

As it became obvious that his ambitious enterprise was failing, Kidd became desperate to cover its costs. But, once again, he failed to attack several ships when given a chance, including a Dutchman and a New York privateer. Some of the crew deserted Kidd the next time that Adventure Galley anchored offshore, and those who decided to stay on made constant open threats of mutiny.

Kidd killed one of his own crewmen on 30 October 1697. Kidd’s gunner William Moore was on deck sharpening a chisel when a Dutch ship appeared. Moore urged Kidd to attack the Dutchman, an act not only piratical but also certain to anger Dutch-born King William. Kidd refused, calling Moore a lousy dog. Moore retorted, “If I am a lousy dog, you have made me so; you have brought me to ruin and many more.” Kidd snatched up and heaved an ironbound bucket at Moore. Moore fell to the deck with a fractured skull and died the following day.^[25]

Seventeenth-century English admiralty law allowed captains great leeway in using violence against their crew, but outright murder was not permitted. Yet Kidd seemed unconcerned, later explaining to his surgeon that he had “good friends in England, that will bring me off for that”.

ACCUSATIONS OF PIRACY

Acts of savagery on Kidd’s part were reported by escaped prisoners, who told stories of being hoisted up by the arms and “drubbed” (thrashed) with a drawn cutlass. On one occasion, crew members ransacked the trading ship Mary and tortured several of its crew members while Kidd and the other captain, Thomas Parker, conversed privately in Kidd’s cabin. When Kidd found out what had happened, he was outraged and forced his men to return most of the stolen property.^{[citation needed]}

Kidd was declared a pirate very early in his voyage by a Royal Navy officer, to whom he had promised “thirty men or so”.^[21] Kidd sailed away during the night to preserve his crew, rather than subject them to Royal Navy impressment.^[26]

On 30 January 1698, Kidd raised French colours and took his greatest prize, the 400-ton Quedagh Merchant,^[27]^[28] an Indian ship hired by Armenian merchants that was loaded with satins, muslins, gold, silver, an incredible variety of East Indian merchandise, as well as extremely valuable silks. The captain of Quedagh Merchant was an Englishman named Wright, who had purchased passes from the French East India Company promising him the protection of the French Crown. After realising the captain of the taken vessel was an Englishman, Kidd tried to persuade his crew to return the ship to its owners,^{[citation needed]} but they refused, claiming that their prey was perfectly legal, as Kidd was commissioned to take French ships, and that an Armenian ship counted as French if it had French passes. In an attempt to maintain his tenuous control over his crew, Kidd relented and kept the prize. When this news reached England, it confirmed Kidd’s reputation as a pirate, and various naval commanders were ordered to “pursue and seize the said Kidd and his accomplices” for the “notorious piracies” they had committed.^[29]

Kidd kept the French sea passes of the Quedagh Merchant, as well as the vessel itself. While the passes were at best a dubious defence of his capture, British admiralty and vice-admiralty courts (especially in North America) heretofore had often winked at privateers’ excesses into piracy, and Kidd may have been hoping that the passes would provide the legal fig leaf that would allow him to keep Quedagh Merchant and her cargo. Renaming the seized merchantman Adventure Prize, he set sail for Madagascar.^{[citation needed]}

On 1 April 1698, Kidd reached Madagascar. After meeting privately with trader Tempest Rogers (who would later be accused of trading and selling Kidd’s looted East India goods),^[30] he found the first pirate of his voyage, Robert Culliford (the same man who had stolen Kidd’s ship years before) and his crew aboard Mocha Frigate. Two contradictory accounts exist of how Kidd reacted to his encounter with Culliford. According to The General History of the Pirates, published more than 25 years after the event by an author whose identity remains in dispute, Kidd made peaceful overtures to Culliford: he “drank their Captain’s health”, swearing that “he was in every respect their Brother”, and gave Culliford “a Present of an Anchor and some Guns”.^[31] This account appears to be based on the testimony of Kidd’s crewmen Joseph Palmer and Robert Bradinham at his trial. The other version was presented by Richard Zacks in his 2002 book The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd. According to Zacks, Kidd was unaware that Culliford had only about 20 crew with him, and felt ill-manned and ill-equipped to take Mocha Frigate until his two prize ships and crews arrived, so he decided not to molest Culliford until these reinforcements came. After Adventure Prize and Rouparelle came in, Kidd ordered his crew to attack Culliford’s Mocha Frigate. However, his crew, despite their previous eagerness to seize any available prize, refused to attack Culliford and threatened instead to shoot Kidd. Zacks does not refer to any source for his version of events.^[32]

Both accounts agree that most of Kidd’s men now abandoned him for Culliford. Only 13 remained with Adventure Galley. Deciding to return home, Kidd left the Adventure Galley behind, ordering her to be burnt because she had become worm-eaten and leaky. Before burning the ship, he was able to salvage every last scrap of metal, such as hinges. With the loyal remnant of his crew, he returned to the Caribbean aboard the Adventure Prize.^{[citation needed]} Some of his crew later returned to America on their own as passengers aboard Giles Shelley‘s ship Nassau.^[33]

TRIAL AND EXECUTION

Prior to returning to New York City, Kidd knew that he was a wanted pirate and that several English men-of-war were searching for him. Realizing that Adventure Prize was a marked vessel, he cached it in the Caribbean Sea, sold off his remaining plundered goods through pirate and fence William Burke,^[34] and continued toward New York aboard a sloop. He deposited some of his treasure on Gardiners Island, hoping to use his knowledge of its location as a bargaining tool.^[35] Kidd found himself in Oyster Bay, as a way of avoiding his mutinous crew who gathered in New York. In order to avoid them, Kidd sailed 120 nautical miles (220 km; 140 mi) around the eastern tip of Long Island, and then doubled back 90 nautical miles (170 km; 100 mi) along the Sound to Oyster Bay. He felt this was a safer passage than the highly trafficked Narrows between Staten Island and Brooklyn.^[36]

Bellomont (an investor) was away in Boston, Massachusetts. Aware of the accusations against Kidd, Bellomont was justifiably afraid of being implicated in piracy himself and knew that presenting Kidd to England in chains was his best chance to save himself. He lured Kidd into Boston with false promises of clemency,^[37] then ordered him arrested on 6 July 1699. Kidd was placed in Stone Prison, spending most of the time in solitary confinement. His wife, Sarah, was also imprisoned. The conditions of Kidd’s imprisonment were extremely harsh, and appear to have driven him at least temporarily insane.^{[citation needed]} By then, Bellomont had turned against Kidd and other pirates, writing that the inhabitants of Long Island were “a lawless and unruly people” protecting pirates who had “settled among them”.^[38]

After over a year, Kidd was sent to England for questioning by the Parliament of England.^{[citation needed]} The new Tory ministry hoped to use Kidd as a tool to discredit the Whigs who had backed him, but Kidd refused to name names, naively confident his patrons would reward his loyalty by interceding on his behalf. There is speculation that he probably would have been spared had he talked. Finding Kidd politically useless, the Tory leaders sent him to stand trial before the High Court of Admiralty in London, for the charges of piracy on high seas and the murder of William Moore. Whilst awaiting trial, Kidd was confined in the infamous Newgate Prison, and wrote several letters to King William requesting clemency.^{[citation needed]}

Kidd had two lawyers to assist in his defence.^[39] He was shocked to learn at his trial that he was charged with murder. He was found guilty on all charges (murder and five counts of piracy) and sentenced to death. He was hanged in a public execution on 23 May 1701, at Execution Dock, Wapping, in London.^[15] He was hanged twice. On the first attempt, the hangman’s rope broke and Kidd survived. Although some in the crowd called for Kidd’s release, claiming the breaking of the rope was a sign from God, Kidd was hanged again minutes later, this time successfully. His body was gibbeted over the River Thames at Tilbury Point – as a warning to future would-be pirates – for three years.^[40]

Kidd’s associates Richard Barleycorn, Robert Lamley, William Jenkins, Gabriel Loffe, Able Owens, and Hugh Parrot were also convicted, but pardoned just prior to hanging at Execution Dock.^{[citation needed]}

Kidd’s Whig backers were embarrassed by his trial. Far from rewarding his loyalty, they participated in the effort to convict him by depriving him of the money and information which might have provided him with some legal defence. In particular, the two sets of French passes he had kept were missing at his trial. These passes (and others dated 1700) resurfaced in the early twentieth century, misfiled with other government papers in a London building.^[41] These passes call the extent of Kidd’s guilt into question. Along with the papers, many goods were brought from the ships and soon auctioned off as “pirate plunder”. They were never mentioned in the trial.^{[citation needed]}

As to the accusations of murdering Moore, on this he was mostly sunk on the testimony of the two former crew members, Palmer and Bradinham, who testified against him in exchange for pardons. A deposition Palmer gave, when he was captured in Rhode Island two years earlier, contradicted his testimony and may have supported Kidd’s assertions, but Kidd was unable to obtain the deposition.^{[citation needed]}

A broadside song, “Captain Kidd’s Farewell to the Seas, or, the Famous Pirate’s Lament”, was printed shortly after his execution and popularised the common belief that Kidd had confessed to the charges.^[42]

Sourced from: Wikipedia

REFERENCES:

Johnson, Ben. “Captain William Kidd”. Historic UK. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
^ “Execution of Captain Kidd | History Today”. www.historytoday.com. Retrieved 19 November2019.
^ ““Yes, I was born in Dundee,” Kidd confirms in LATIN!”. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
^ ““Yes, I was born in Dundee,” Kidd confirms in LATIN!”. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
^ “Courtly Lives – The Kidd Family”. www.angelfire.com. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
^ “Pirates: William Kidd”. Genealogy & Family History Achievements Heraldry and Research. Archived from the original on 17 December 2007. Retrieved 13 December 2007.
^ Hawkins, Paul (2002). “Captain William Kidd Web Site: History”. Archived from the original (self-published historical site) on 23 October 2008. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
Hamilton, (1961) p.?
Cordingly (1995), p.183
^ Harris, Graham (2002). Treasure and Intrigue The Legacy of Captain Kidd. Dundurn. pp. 114–115. ISBN 9781550024098. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
Hamilton, (1961)
^ Office, Great Britain Public Record (1908). Calendar of State Papers: Colonial Series …London: Longman. pp. 486–487. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
^ Charles Johnson (1728). The History of the Pyrates, p. 75.
^ Zacks, p. 185-86.
^ Jameson, John Franklin (1923). Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period by J. Franklin Jameson. New York: Macmillan. Retrieved 26 June 2017.
^ Westergaard, Waldemar (1917). The Danish West Indies Under Company Rule (1671–1754): With a Supplementary Chapter, 1755–1917. New York: Macmillan. pp. 115–118. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
^ “Long Island Genealogy”. longislandgenealogy.com. Retrieved 29 October2019.
^ Richard Zacks, The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd (Hyperion, 2003)
^ “The Quest for the Armenian Vessel, Quedagh Merchant” (PDF). AYAS Nautical Research Club. Retrieved 13 December 2007.
^ “Legend of Capt. Kidd”. Newsday. 12 April 2009. Archived from the original on 15 May 2008. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
^ Zacks, p. 364.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). “Kidd, William” . Encyclopædia Britannica. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 783–784.
Armstrong, Catherine; Chmielewski, Laura M. (4 December 2013). The Atlantic Experience: Peoples, Places, Ideas. Macmillan International Higher Education. ISBN 978-1-137-40434-3.
^ Ralph Delahaye Paine (1911). The Book of Buried Treasure: Being a True History of the Gold, Jewels, and Plate of Pirates, Galleons, Etc., which are Sought for to this Day. Heinemann. p. 124.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b The complete words of the original broadside song “Captain Kid’s Farewel to the Seas, or, the Famous Pirate’s Lament, to the tune of Coming Down” are at davidkidd.net. “Captain Kidd Lyrics. The lyrics of Captain Kidd from 1701 to today”. 23 July 2011. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011.

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Legends Map

Many tales and legends tell of Captain William Kidd hiding his treasure in various locations around the world. While most of these appear to be ghost stories, could there be any truth behind these tales?

Some stories have hold some weight and have inspired the imaginations of treasure hunters for years such as what are known as the Palmer maps, hand drawn treasure maps allegedly found in items of furniture belonging to Captain Kidd. Additionally, after analysis of letters wrote to Bellomont during Kidd’s time in the Boston Gaol prison it would appear that Kidd had alluded to at least two other treasure caches in the Caribbean which he had intended to retrieve after reclaiming the Adventure Prize which he had cached south of La Romana just off the Dominican Coast.

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Nombre De Dios Silver Train

Elizabeth Island

Cueva del Pirata

Arica, Chile

Nova Albion

Drakes Coffin

Treasure Legends Of Captain Kidd

MYTHOLOGY AND LEGEND

The belief that Kidd had left buried treasure contributed considerably to the growth of his legend. The 1701 broadside song “Captain Kid’s Farewell to the Seas, or, the Famous Pirate’s Lament” lists “Two hundred bars of gold, and rix dollars manifold, we seized uncontrolled”.^[42]^[43] This belief made its contributions to literature in Edgar Allan Poe‘s “The Gold-Bug“; Washington Irving‘s “The Devil and Tom Walker“; Robert Louis Stevenson‘s Treasure Island and Nelson DeMille‘s Plum Island.^{[citation needed]} It also gave impetus to the constant treasure hunts conducted on Oak Island in Nova Scotia; in Suffolk County, Long Island in New York where Gardiner’s Island is located; Charles Island in Milford, Connecticut; the Thimble Islands in Connecticut; Cockenoe Island in Westport, Connecticut;^[44] and on the island of Grand Manan in the Bay of Fundy.^{[citation needed]}

Captain Kidd did bury a small cache of treasure on Gardiners Island in a spot known as Cherry Tree Field; however, it was removed by Governor Bellomont and sent to England to be used as evidence against Kidd.^[45]^[46] Some time during the 1690s Kidd visited Block Island, where he was supplied by Mrs. Mercy (Sands) Raymond, daughter of the mariner James Sands. The story has it that, for her hospitality, Mrs. Raymond was bid to hold out her apron, into which Kidd threw gold and jewels until it was full. After her husband Joshua Raymond died, Mercy moved with her family to northern New London, Connecticut (later Montville), where she bought much land. The Raymond family was thus said to have been “enriched by the apron”.^[47] On Grand Manan in the Bay of Fundy, as early as 1875, reference^{[example needed]} was made to searches on the west side of the island for treasure allegedly buried by Kidd during his time as a privateer.^[48] For nearly 200 years, this remote area of the island has been called “Money Cove”. In 1983, Cork Graham and Richard Knight went looking for Captain Kidd’s buried treasure off the Vietnamese island of Phú Quốc. Knight and Graham were caught, convicted of illegally landing on Vietnamese territory, and assessed each a $10,000 fine. They were imprisoned for 11 months until they paid the fine.^[49]

QUEDAGH MERCHANT FOUND

For years, people and treasure hunters have tried to locate Quedagh Merchant.^[50] It was reported on 13 December 2007 that “wreckage of a pirate ship abandoned by Captain Kidd in the 17th century has been found by divers in shallow waters off the Dominican Republic.” The waters in which the ship was found were less than ten feet deep and were only 70 feet (21 m) off Catalina Island, just to the south of La Romana on the Dominican coast. The ship is believed to be “the remains of Quedagh Merchant“.^[51]^[52] Charles Beeker, the director of Academic Diving and Underwater Science Programs in Indiana University (Bloomington)‘s School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, was one of the experts leading the Indiana University diving team. He said that it was “remarkable that the wreck has remained undiscovered all these years given its location,” and given that the ship has been the subject of so many prior failed searches.^[53] Captain Kidd’s cannon, an artifact from the shipwreck, was added to a permanent exhibit at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis in 2011.^[54]

FALSE FIND

In May 2015, a 50-kilogram (110 lb) ingot expected to be silver was found in a wreck off the coast of Île Sainte-Marie in Madagascar by a team led by marine archaeologist Barry Clifford, and was believed to be part of Captain Kidd’s treasure.^[55]^[56]^[57] Clifford handed the booty to Hery Rajaonarimampianina, President of Madagascar.^[58]^[59] However, in July 2015, a UNESCO scientific and technical advisory body revealed that the ingot consisted of 95% lead, and speculated that the wreck in question might be a broken part of the Sainte-Marie port constructions.^[60] Sourced from: Wikipedia REFERENCES:

The complete words of the original broadside song “Captain Kid’s Farewel to the Seas, or, the Famous Pirate’s Lament, to the tune of Coming Down” are at davidkidd.net. “Captain Kidd Lyrics. The lyrics of Captain Kidd from 1701 to today”. 23 July 2011. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011.
^ The genealogy of the historic tune can also be found at davidkidd.net.
^ Kanaga, Matt (27 April 2011). “Cockenoe Island: Farm? Distillery? Power plant? Buried Treasure?”. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
Zacks, Richard (2002). The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd. Hyperion. pp. 241–243. ISBN 0786884517. Retrieved 14 December2007.
^ Ralph Delahaye Paine (1911). The Book of Buried Treasure: Being a True History of the Gold, Jewels, and Plate of Pirates, Galleons, Etc., which are Sought for to this Day. Heinemann. p. 304.
^ Caulkins, Frances Manwaring (1852). History of New London, Connecticut. p. 293.
^ “Grand Manan – Captain Kidd’s Money Cove”. pennystockjournal.blogspot.co.uk. Penny Stock Journal. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
^ Branigin, William (12 May 1984). “Tracking Captain Kidd’s Treasure Puts Pair in Vietnamese Captivity”. The Washington Post.
^ “Captain Kidd (1645–1701)”. PortCities London. Retrieved 13 December 2007.
^ “Captain Kidd Ship Found”. Yahoo News. 13 December 2007. Archived from the original on 15 December 2007. Retrieved 13 December 2007.
^ “Captain Kidd’s Shipwreck Of 1699 Discovered”. Science Daily. 13 December 2007. Retrieved 13 December 2007.
^ “IU team finds fabled pirate ship”. INDYSTAR.COM. 13 December 2007. Archived from the original on 17 December 2007. Retrieved 13 December 2007.
^ Falkenstein, Jaclyn (16 March 2010). “Children’s Museum Reveals First Major Component of National Geographic Treasures of the Earth”. The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis Press Release. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
^ “Pirate Captain Kidd’s ‘treasure’ found in Madagascar”. BBC. 7 May 2015.
^ Elgot, Jessica (7 May 2015). “‘Captain Kidd’s treasure’ found off Madagascar”. Retrieved 8 January 2017 – via The Guardian.
^ Leopold, Todd. “Capt. Kidd’s treasure found off Madagascar, report says”. cnn.com. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
^ “Captain Kidd’s treasure ‘found’ in Madagascar”. telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
^ “PressReader.com – Connecting People Through News”. pressreader.com. Retrieved 8 January2017.
^ “Mission to Madagascar”. UNESCO Scientific and Technical Advisory Body assists Madagascar. Retrieved 14 July 2015.

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The Palmer-Kidd Charts

In 1929, a retired lawyer and collector of pirate relics Hubert Palmer purchased a number of items of furniture allegedly belonging to Captain William Kidd with one of the items even being inscribed with ‘Captain William Kidd, Adventure Galley, 1669’. Within these items he is said to have found 4 hand drawn maps in varying degrees of detail depicting the same island. Inscriptions on the maps included ‘China Sea’, ‘W.K’ and dated ‘1669’.

After Palmers death the items were passed onto his housekeeper Elizabeth Dick who then handed them over to the British Museum. Upon the British Museum’s examination the items appeared to be in the opinion of the examiner – R.A. Skelton to be genuine 17th Century charts. All four of the maps were then sold by Dick in 1950 to an Englishman who later moved to Canada. Since then the maps whereabouts are unknown.

Hubert Palmer with the ‘Hardy’ Chest.

The “Skeleton Map” found within furniture belonging to Captain William Kidd.

There is a lot of disagreement over the Palmer-Kidd charts with some saying that they are a hoax and others claiming to have solved the clues hidden in the maps finer details and even identified the island depicted. However, the theories on which island is being depicted in the hand drawn maps varies vastly with some suggestions being Hei Ling Chau Island, Juan Fernandez Island, Oak Island or even that it just depicts Gardiners Island where Bellomont recovered the treasure in Cherry Tree Fields.

Despite all of the theories and those claiming to have solved the clues, the treasure caches have not been found and the maps remain a mystery.

“Coral Island Map”.

“Sarah Kidd Map Version 1”.

“Sarah Kidd Map Version 2”.

Interestingly, in 2012 Fieldings Auctioneers held an auction for Captain William Kidd’s Bible, Bible Box and Mirror – Reputed to be from the ship Adventure Galley. The closing bid for the items was £2,900 on July 7th 2012. The pictures of the items hold some interesting elements such as the initials W.K. But, perhaps more exciting is the dot letters forming the words ‘YUNNAN ISLAND’. What other secrets could these items be holding?

Find the full details and more pictures from Fieldings Auctions here.

CAPTAIN WILLIAM KIDD PIRATE Circa 1645-1701 – Bible, Bible Box and Mirror – Reputed to be from the ship Adventure Galley.

Captain Kidd’s Charts

PALMER MAPS

About 10 years before the outbreak of WW11, the first of four 17th century charts were found in a bureau that once belonged to Captain William Kidd. Three others were found over the next 5 years in various items of Kidd’s furniture.

The three charts (The first two found were more or less identical) all contain different and varying amounts of information but all without doubt depict the same island.

A lot of people claim the charts are a hoax and anyway Kidd’s treasure was mostly accounted for and well publicised. That is true of his infamous ill-fated last voyage when he was declared a pirate and the bulk of his treasure was that looted from the ‘Quedah Merchant’. Most of that treasure was recovered and the episode is well documented.

A lot happened in the next few years. The charts are not a hoax. The island exists and is in the South China Sea. With Robin C.. of Birmingham who helped in the discovery of the island, we went there! Aerial photography has confirmed the shape of the island and the topography is almost exactly the same today as when the charts were drawn over 300 years ago. Whoever constructed the charts and clues was very clever. Knowing exactly where the island is, I can now see how and why things that didn’t make sense to me are necessary and now make a lot of sense and, the charts have to be used together.

Sourced from: CaptainKiddsCharts

CONTROVERSY

From letters written by Hubert Palmer to Harold T. Wilkins in the 1930s and 1940s it is clear that the nature and sequence of the discoveries of the Palmer-Kidd maps is different from that widely peddled on the internet.

The fault lies with Anthony Howlett, who did a very poor job of researching the subject by relying too much on the memories of Palmer’s nurse/housekeeper, Mrs. Elizabeth Dick. It should be borne in mind that Palmer was suffering from dementia in the period Mrs. Dick knew him.

As to the Yunnan Parchment, the mirror containing this was bought in 1940. Palmer’s excitement and conviction as to its authenticity, as seen in his letter at right, suggest that claims he doubted it was genuine are incorrect.

Harold Wilkins’ maps were quite clearly drawn by him, but contain transcriptions of instructions on maps that were in a file in the possession of a group of dilettante treasure hunters that came to light in the 1920s. The general content of the papers in the file together with the instructions were leaked to Wilkins by a contact who was called in to advise the group.

The focus of the search at that time was the island of Juan Fernandez, which explains why the so-called Kidd maps bear a resemblance to charts of this island from the late 1600s (Wilkins) and early 1700s (Palmer). Wilkins’ island is definitely not off the south coast of England, as has been declared elsewhere.

It is unlikely that the maps have anything to do with the pirate Captain Kidd. They appear to be copies of copies of copies … which is to say that the artefacts are bogus but the information contained thereon (the instructions and internal detail of the island) are not. There is good reason to believe that Palmer’s and Wilkins’ maps are drawn from the same source, and are likely to be part of a set of seven, potentially pertaining to an official or semi-official venture.

Sourced from: GJBath

CAPTAIN WILLIAM KIDD PIRATE Circa 1645-1701 – Bible, Bible Box and Mirror – Reputed to be from the ship Adventure Galley. A small early 18th Century carved oak bible box, the hinged lid over a carved double lunette front and steel lock plate above the initials ‘WK’, the interior missing a division, with canvas panel and leather holding strap, 52cm wide, together with a leather covered bible titled on cover ‘ Kidd’s family bible, Pentland Farm, Leith, Edinburgh, the reverse ‘Capt William Kidd Adventure Galley, together with a small oak framed mirror with original plate glass, the top frame section inscribed and inlaid with a primitive skull and cross bones and arrow above the skull, the reverse shows a part concealed compartment dot stamped ‘Yunnan Island ‘, with a hand written reference to the British Museum, ‘hidden here map of latitude and longitude of treasure island China seas’, also noticed on the reverse is a parchment type backing with indecipherable ink writing. ILLUSTRATED Research has identified that these items were formerly the property of the late Hubert Palmer who died in 1949, aged 85, a retired lawyer and collector of pirate relics. After his death all artifacts passed to his house keeper and nurse companion Mrs Elizabeth Dick. It was reported that due to the high costs of living Mrs Dick decided to sell the collection and turn her eighteen room home into flats and an auction was conducted on the premises at Staincliffe, 22 Granville Road, Eastbourne, Sussex by auctioneers Oakden & Co on Thursday and Friday, 20th and 21st July 1950.

Sourced from: FieldingsAuctions

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Kidd’s Letters To Bellomont

Bellomont retrieved one treasure cache located on the Eastern tip of Gardiners Island which has consisted of two chests; one containing over 200 bars of silver, one enameled silver box inlaid with diamonds and a diamond ring. The other containing no less than 67 rubies. All of which was sent to London as evidence in the trial against Kidd.

However, analysis of the letters Kidd wrote to Bellomont suggest that the treasure on Gardiners Island may have only been a fraction of what Kidd had hidden.

Letter from Richard Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont.

Kidd on Gardiner, overseeing the burial of treasures (illustration from Howard Pyle ‘s Book of Pirates).

Bellomont reported to the Board of Trade on 5th January 1699/1700 that Kidd had told him that if he were freed he could take Bellomont to the place where he had hidden the Quedagh Merchant and then set sail to St Thomas’ Island and Curaçao in the Caribbean from where he could bring him back a treasure worth some fifty or sixty thousand pounds “Which would otherwise be lost”.

13th December 2007, the wreckage of a ship believed to be the Quedagh Merchant was located in shallow waters off the Dominican coast, just South of La Romana, approximately 70 feet off Catalina Island. A cannon now named ‘Captain Kidd’s Cannon’ was recovered from the alleged Quedagh Merchant wreck and is now on display at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.

For a more detailed view of the letters visit AMDigital here.

Does this mean that there could be some truth to Kidd’s proposal to Bellomont, that he had cached the Adventure Prize (Quedagh Merchant) and intended to use it to recover more hidden treasure at St Thomas’ Island and Curaçao in the Caribbean?

Carte des Antilles by Mentelle, E. (Edme), 1730-1815.

1: Where the Quedagh Merchant was found.

2: St Thomas’ Island.

3: Curaçao.

Kidd’s Letters To Bellomont

BEYOND GARDINERS ISLAND

Yet the hoard unearthed from Gardiner’s Island may have only been a tiny fraction of Kidd’s fortune. In a letter to the Board of Trade, dated 5 January 1699/1700, Bellomont reported that a fortnight previously Kidd had sent word to him via the jailer with a proposition. Kidd proposed that if Bellomont were to let him go to the place where he had left his ship the Quedagh Merchant and to sail to ‘St Thomas’s Island and Curaçao’ in the Caribbean he would bring back a treasure worth some fifty or sixty thousand pounds, ‘which would otherwise be lost’. To allay any fears that he would use the opportunity to escape, Kidd said that he would be willing to go as Bellomont’s prisoner. However, Bellomont, eager to completely disassociate himself from Kidd, was certainly not going to let him take to the high seas again. In reply Bellomont told Kidd that ‘he was the King’s prisoner’ and therefore ‘could hearken to no such proposition’.

Even so, the promise of further undiscovered riches was a tempting prospect and Bellomont instructed the jailer to try to gain Kidd’s confidence and to get him to reveal the location of the treasure. However, the jailer proved wholly unsuccessful in this task and Kidd only said that ‘nobody could find it but himself and would not tell any further’.

Whether the claims of a second hoard were true or merely an elaborate ruse in order to attempt an escape is unknown. Kidd took the secret with him to the gallows. Fortune-hunters have been searching for his lost treasure ever since.

Sourced from: AMDigital

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Written By

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ADAM L C

Director of Areas Grey

Adam is an avid treasure hunter, seeker of adventure and the creator of Areas Grey. After travelling for almost half his life and cataloguing over 100 treasure legends along the way. He decided this was simply far too much treasure for one person to chase! As a result he created Areas Grey so he could share his stories, connect with other treasure hunters and put a little more adventure in the lives of the treasure hunting community.

Adam is a Private Investigator and former Wilderness Guide with a passion for history and archaeology. With the skills, knowledge and gear, Adam is always eager to go on the next fortune seeking adventure and connect with fellow treasure hunters along the way.

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“I have been sworn against by perjured and wicked people.”

– Captain William Kidd, 1700

Open post

The Buzzard’s Hidden Treasure

29/08/202018/08/2023
by Grey

LA BUSE’S TREASURE

Olivier Levasseur’s Cryptogram

I.

OVERVIEW

II.

LEGEND

III.

THE TREASURE

IV.

THE CLUES

V.

CONCLUSION

VI.

WRITER

Overview

Olivier Levasseur was a French pirate between 1688 and 1730. Nicknamed La Buse (The Buzzard), he is known for allegedly hiding one of the biggest treasures in pirate history, estimated at over £1 billion, and leaving a cryptogram behind with clues to its whereabouts.

Over the years since the cryptogram was released into the public domain many treasure hunters have gone in search of La Buse’s treasure in hopes of striking it rich, but despite these attempts, nobody has yet recovered the unimaginable treasure believed to have been hidden by the pirate.

Depiction of the pirate Olivier Le Vasseur A.K.A La Buse – The Buzzard.

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The Legend

sixteenth century engraving of a Spanish galleon.

Levasseur was born in Calais, France sometime during the Nine Years’ War (1688 – 1697). During the War of Spanish Succession (1701 – 1714) he procured a letter of marque from King Louis XIV becoming a privateer for the French crown. Instead of returning home at the end of the war he joined the Benjamin Hornigold pirate company in 1716.

One year later the Hornigold party split and Levasseur partnered with Samuel Bellamy and was elected captain of William Moody’s crew in 1718 operating together with Howell Davis and Thomas Cocklyn.

From 1720 to 1724 Levasseur joined forces with John Taylor, Jasper Seagar, and Edward England with Paulsgrave Williams as quartermaster. They launched raids from a base on the island of Sainte-Marie, off the coast of Madagascar. After raiding Laccadines they sold the loot to Dutch traders for £75,000 before marooning England on Mauritius.

The remaining crew later captured the Portuguese great galleon ‘Nossa Senhora do Cabo’ (Our Lady of the Cape) or ‘Virgem do Cabo’ loaded with treasures consisting of bars of gold and silver, dozens of boxes of golden Guineas, diamonds, pearls, silk, art, and religious objects including the Flaming Cross of Goa.

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The Treasure

Each pirate received £50,000 worth of golden Guineas as well as 42 diamonds with Levasseur taking the Flaming Cross before retiring from piracy and settling down in secret in the Seychelles. In 1730 Levasseur was captured near Fort Dauphin, Madagascar.

Before Levasseur was hanged at Saint Denis, Reunion island in 1730 he wore a necklace which he threw to the crowd exclaiming “Find my treasure, the one who may understand it”. While the necklace has since been lost the 17 lines of a cryptogram that was contained within the necklace continues to puzzle treasure hunters today.

The Flaming cross of Goa is described as being seven feet tall, encrusted with diamonds, rubies and emeralds. It was so heavy that three men were needed to carry it!

Just a fraction of the “Mother Lode” discovered by Mel Fisher in 1985 from the wreck of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha.

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The Clues

Maritime historian, Charles-Germain-Marie Bourel de La Roncière.

The cryptogram first appeared in a book called “Le Flibustier Mysterieux” which was published in Paris in 1934. It had been written by a man named Charles Bourrel de la Roncière. Charels was a renowned and respected French historian and librarian whose works marked the revival of naval history studies.

The cypher as seen here, consists of 17 lines of symbols which at first glance would appear to be nonsense. However, Roncière correctly identified the symbols as being what is known as a “pigpen cipher” also known or referred to as the masonic cipher, Freemason’s cipher, Napolean cipher, and tic-tac-toe cipher.

The cipher uses a simple substitution cipher, letters of the alphabet are placed into four grids. Each part of the grid can then be used as a symbol in exchange for that letter in the secret message. The 4 grids of letters are then used as a key to break the coded message.

The pig-pen cipher is an ancient one, it can be traced back to the Knights Templar during the crusades. Fortunately for treasure hunters this type of cipher is very easy to break without the key which is exactly what Roncière did. Exchanging the symbols for letters he was able to decipher the cryptic texts. However, what it revealed was not expected.

The alleged cipher text of the pirate Olivier Le Vasseur.

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Conclusion

Roncière’s decryption of the “pig-pen” cipher text relied on this key substitution key.

The decrypted text below which was revealed after Roncière broke the cipher surprisingly doesn’t reveal anything to do with piracy or treasure, in fact it would appear more like a recipe of some sort:

1. aprè jmez une paire de pijon tiresket
2. 2 doeurs sqeseaj tête cheral funekort
3. filttinshientecu prenez une cullière
4. de mielle ef ovtre fous en faites une ongat
5. mettez sur ke patai de la pertotitousn
6. vpulezolvs prenez 2 let cassé sur le che
7. min il faut qoe ut toit a noitie couue
8. povr en pecger une femme dhrengt vous n ave
9. eua vous serer la dobaucfea et pour ve
10. ngraai et por epingle oueiuileturlor
11. eiljn our la ire piter un chien tupqun
12. lenen de la mer de bien tecjeet sur ru
13. nvovl en quilnise iudf kuue femm rq
14. i veut se faire dun hmetsedete s/u dre
15. dans duui ooun dormir un homm r
16. esscfvmm / pl faut n rendre udlq
17. u un diffur qecieefurtetlesl

At this point, any sensible person would look at this and regret wasting their time decrypting it in the first place. So why did a well-respected historian like Roncière after discovering the decoded message to reveal nothing and with apparently no evidence to link the text to any pirate or treasure would he then proceed to risk his reputation and write a book about it?

This is the real reason why this legend lives on today and why it has led so many treasure hunters since 1934 to go in search of the lost treasure of Olivier Le Vasseur, some spending their entire lives and spending every bit of their fortunes looking for it.

What do you believe?

Reginald Cruise-Wilkins went in search of La Buse’s treasure from 1947 until the day he died. Now his son John Cruise-Wilkins continues his father’s legacy at Bel Ombre, on the island of Mahé in the Seychelles.

Sources & References

Information for this article has been provided by various sources and are referenced here:

Primary Source: Olivier Levasseur – Wikipedia

Bibliography:

- “Olivier Levasseur”. goldenageofpiracy.org. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
- Hostin, Geraldo (2019). The Pirate of Cotinga Island (1718): A Historical and Archaeological Study of a Mysterious Shipwreck in the South of Brazil. ISBN 978-1-64826-767-3.
- Hostin, Geraldo (2019). The Pirate of Cotinga Island (1718): A Historical and Archaeological Study of a Mysterious Shipwreck in the South of Brazil. ISBN 978-1-64826-767-3.
- Grey, Charles (1933). Pirates of the eastern seas (1618-1723): a lurid page of history. London: S. Low, Marston & co., ltd. Retrieved 26 June 2017.
- Fox, E. T. (2014). Pirates in Their Own Words. Raleigh NC: Lulu.com. ISBN 9781291943993. Retrieved 17 June 2017.
- Woodard, Colin (2008). The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down. Orlando FL: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0547415758.
- Smith, Wilbur (2018). On Leopard Rock: An Adventure in Books. New York: Simon and Schuster. pp. 274–276, 283. ISBN 978-1-4998-6128-0. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
- One Man’s Search for Buried Treasure’ by Jean-Marc Mojon (Agence France-Presse) in The Jakarta Globe of 14 December 2009, Features C3

Other sources of information:

Charles de La Roncière:Wikipedia

More on the La Buse cryptogram: CipherFoundation.org

Pig-Pen Cipher: Wikipedia

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Written By

Follow On:

ADAM L C

Director of Areas Grey

Adam is an avid treasure hunter, seeker of adventure and the creator of Areas Grey. After travelling for almost half his life and cataloguing over 100 treasure legends along the way. He decided this was simply far too much treasure for one person to chase! As a result he created Areas Grey so he could share his stories, connect with other treasure hunters and put a little more adventure in the lives of the treasure hunting community.

Adam is a Private Investigator and former Wilderness Guide with a passion for history and archaeology. With the skills, knowledge and gear, Adam is always eager to go on the next fortune seeking adventure and connect with fellow treasure hunters along the way.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

CodeBar Podcast

Join Robert, host of the CodeBar Live podcast and journey into the greatest treasure legends, armchair treasure hunts, codes, ciphers, puzzles, escape rooms, ARG’s, puzzle boxes & more!

VISIT THE CODEBAR

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Get Free Priority Access To Treasure News, Giveaways, And More!

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LET’S CONNECT AND FIND SOME TREASURE!

It’s always a pleasure to hear from a fellow treasure hunter, get in touch using the form below.

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“With what I have hidden here, I could buy the whole island.”

– Olivier ‘La Buse’ Levasseur, 1730

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	USA: Amazon.com
	UK: Amazon.co.uk
	France: Amazon.fr
	Germany: Amazon.de
	Spain: Amazon.es
	Italy: Amazon.it

	USA: Amazon.com
	UK: Amazon.co.uk
	France: Amazon.fr
	Germany: Amazon.de
	Spain: Amazon.es
	Italy: Amazon.it

HENRY EVERY

King Of Pirates

Overview

Henry Every, (sometimes spelled Avery) born c1653-1659 in Devon was an English pirate who operated in the Atlantic and Indian oceans in the mid 1690s.

He was the most notorious pirate of his time earning him the reputation of ‘King of Pirates’, and the first international man hunt was launched after he carried out what was then the most profitable pirate raid in history.

In 1695 his ship, joining with other infamous pirate crews, attacked the Grand Mughal ship Ganj-i-Sawai, which was making a pilgrimage to Mecca; Every and the other pirates seized loot worth around £600,000 (over £52 million today) and escaped to New Providence, a known pirate safe haven.

While some of his crew were arrested and charged with the crime, Every’s fate is unclear. He vanished without a trace and many uncorroborated stories have been told of what happened to him. It has been suggested that he escaped and retired with his booty.

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The Legend

On the night of 7th May, 1694 Every and approximately 25 others charged Charles II while O’Byrne; the Admiral of the fleet was ashore. With the Captain of Charles II asleep and the crew caught by surprise it was with no conflict that Every took the ship before vanishing into the night.

After the mutiny Every was unanimously elected Captain and after likely inspiring his crew with stories of Thomas Tew’s success in the Red Sea a year earlier they agreed to set sail for the Indian Ocean as pirates, renaming Charles II the Fancy.

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The Treasure

The pirate fleet occupying the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb waiting patiently for their target, a convoy of 25 Grand Mughal ships. Their main target being the Ganj-i-Sawai meaning “Exceeding Treasure”.

The pirates boarded the ship in a fury and after a violent hand to hand battle lasting several hours the ship and what remained of the crew was theirs to do with as they saw fit. I’ll spare you the grim details but know that what was done to the crew and passangers of this ship were unthinkable.

Along with the ship was it’s sensational and unfathomable amount of treasures estimated to have been worth between £200,000 and £600,000 making it the richest ship to ever have been taken by pirates.

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The Vanishing Act

Trott accepted this offer knowing that Nassau faced an impending threat from French forces to the South East and the presence of the pirate ships in the bay would likely prevent a French attack. This agreement allowed Every and his crew to come and go from the island as they pleased.

While only 24 of the 113 person crew were ever captured and with 5 executed it is a complete mystery as to what happened to the other 89 members of the crew, Every, or the massive amounts of treasure they were hauling with them. They all appear to have disappeared without a trace. Or, did they?

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Conclusion

The map below visually demonstrates the expanse and furosity of Every’s short two year career from the point of the Spanish Expedition leaving the Thames in London, England to his vanishing act in Nassau.

Map Key:

*Click on a Treasure for more information.

In 2020 I stumbled across a letter in the Cornish Archives in England which referred to Henry Avery and gave directions to finding his hidden treasure as follows:

Overwhelmed with excitement I began to investigate the letter further and test the validity of the letter.

Over a year of research and planning later, Areas Grey put together an international team of treasure hunters and archeologists to investigate this possible lead which may solve this enduring mystery.

After a solid week of endless scouting and investigating the southern Cornish coastline we walked away knowing that this was just the beginning and that we were not done here yet.

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Written By

Follow On:

ADAM L C

Director of Areas Grey

Adam is a Private Investigator and former Wilderness Guide with a passion for history and archaeology. With the skills, knowledge and gear, Adam is always eager to go on the next fortune seeking adventure and connect with fellow treasure hunters along the way.

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CodeBar Podcast

Join Robert, host of the CodeBar Live podcast and journey into the greatest treasure legends, armchair treasure hunts, codes, ciphers, puzzles, escape rooms, ARG’s, puzzle boxes & more!

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LET’S CONNECT AND FIND SOME TREASURE!

It’s always a pleasure to hear from a fellow treasure hunter, get in touch using the form below.

Whether you’re looking for someone to help with a treasure hunt, if you’ve got a story to tell, some vital information to share, feedback for Areas Grey, or if you just want to say “hi”, all emails are welcome!

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“I am a Man of Fortune, and I must seek my Fortune.”

– Henry Every, 1694

CAPTAIN KIDD’S TREASURE

Beyond Gardiners Island

Overview

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The Legend

Kidd was sent to Newgate Prison in London where he was tried and charged with acts of piracy and murder. He was then hanged on 23rd May 1701 then his body gibbeted over the River Thames at Tilbury point as a warning to would be pirates.

Shortly before Kidd’s death Bellomont recovered a small cache of Kidd’s treasure that he had buried in a spot known as Cherry Tree field on Gardiners Island. Was this all of Captain Kidd’s treasure of is there more treasure caches hidden out there?

OVERVIEW

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

HUNTING FOR PIRATES

ACCUSATIONS OF PIRACY

TRIAL AND EXECUTION

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Legends Map

Many tales and legends tell of Captain William Kidd hiding his treasure in various locations around the world. While most of these appear to be ghost stories, could there be any truth behind these tales?

Map Key:

*Click on a Treasure for more information.

MYTHOLOGY AND LEGEND

QUEDAGH MERCHANT FOUND

FALSE FIND

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The Palmer-Kidd Charts

Despite all of the theories and those claiming to have solved the clues, the treasure caches have not been found and the maps remain a mystery.