21. A Clean Escape?
Of the Mughal convoy, the richest prize was the fleet’s flagship, the Ganj-i-Sawai, which carried 62 guns and 500 men armed with muskets. The pirates seized it after an hours-long ferocious fight, in which the Mughal captain panicked and fled to hide below decks among concubines. After they secured the vessel, Every and his crew then went on a days-long orgy of assaults and torture. The loot from the Ganj-i-Sawai came to about £600,000 in gold, silver, precious metals and goods. It was the largest single haul ever scored by pirates. There is no honesty among thieves, however, and Henry Every and his men did not want to share with the other pirate ships. So they resorted to trickery.
Every’s men loaded their hold with the loot and made arrangements to meet and divide the bounty, but took off instead. The Fancy, recently modified for speed, soon out-sailed the other pirate ships that followed in her wake in impotent rage, until she disappeared below the horizon. The Fancy made it to the Caribbean, and after the loot was divided, the crew split up and Every disappeared from history. It was commonly assumed that he had made a clean escape, established a new identity somewhere, and spent the rest of his life in the lap of luxury. However, some sources claim that he returned to England, only to get swindled out of his riches and end his days as an impoverished pauper.
