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Daring Escapes from Concentrations Camps, Enemies, and Crashed Planes

Khalid Elhassan November 11, 2021 36 min

Mikhail Devyataev had to escape not only German pursuit, but also survive his own side's antiaircraft fire. History Net

A proclamation by the Privy Council of Scotland for the apprehension of Henry Every. National Library of Scotland

22. The Indian Ocean’s Richest Prize

Henry Every was elected by his fellow mutineers to captain the seized Charles II, which was renamed the Fancy. He then made the jump from privateer – semi-official pirates authorized by governments to prey on enemy ships – to outright pirate. He issued a proclamation to assure English ships that they had nothing to fear from him and that he would only attack foreign ships. The proclamation was not the worth the paper it was written on: Every’s first act of piracy was to plunder provisions and supplies from three English merchantmen.

He then sailed into the Indian Ocean and arrived in Madagascar in 1695, where he had the Fancy refitted and modified for speed. Soon thereafter he seized a French ship and convinced 40 of its crew to join him. Eventually, with a crew of about 150 men, he sailed north towards the Red Sea, to intercept the Indian Mughal fleet as it returned from the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. The Mughal fleet was the Indian Ocean’s richest prize, and its capture would yield fabulous riches. Every joined forces with five other pirate ships, and on September 7^th, 1695, they spotted their target, a 25-ship Mughal convoy.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.