00:00It was September 7, 1695, somewhere at sea near the Horn of Africa.
00:07A merchant ship laden with treasure was sailing from present-day Yemen to its home port in India.
00:13Its escort had previously been captured by pirates, and now it was their turn,
00:18as they spotted a frigate approaching them fast.
00:21From its mast pole, a red flag with a Jolly Roger on it fluttered in the wind.
00:26Once the battle was over, a British pirate named Henry Avery sailed away with one of the biggest catches ever.
00:34It all happened during the Golden Age of Piracy, from 1690 to 1730.
00:40At that time, all ships sailing across the Atlantic Ocean feared the European pirates,
00:45and you could hear, arrr, matey, in taverns on several continents.
00:49From the coast of North America all the way to South America,
00:53they would engage merchant vessels and steal their cargo.
00:57The Caribbean was a real hotspot for piracy.
01:00Do the names Blackbeard and Captain Kidd sound familiar to you?
01:04Or is it just me who read too many pirate stories?
01:07Anyway, as the 17th century drew to a close,
01:10the thirst for wealth made some pirates sail down the eastern coast of Africa and into the Indian Ocean.
01:16This is how Avery ended up so far in the east, but he was not the only European to sail in that direction.
01:24At the time, the Indian Ocean was teeming with merchant ships,
01:28as convoys transported luxury goods or pilgrims from Mecca in the Arabian Peninsula
01:33to the Mughal Empire in what is today India.
01:37The rich cargo included silk, spices, incense, and perfumes.
01:41In addition to these goods, the East India Company transported everything from cash to jewels
01:47on behalf of several European empires, such as England, Netherlands, and France.
01:53Sounds pretty much like any pirate's dream, doesn't it?
01:56The most attractive targets were ships that belonged to the Mughal Emperor,
02:00whose impressive realm covered nearly the entire Indian subcontinent.
02:05Back in the Caribbean, cloth, timber, and spirits were the most common types of cargo.
02:10It didn't seem good enough to the most ambitious pirates.
02:14They set their minds on more luxurious catch.
02:17Gold, gems, and silver they could get in the Indian Ocean.
02:21Adam Baldrige, who was a wanted man in British-ruled Jamaica because he took a man's life,
02:27was among the first to arrive.
02:29Through not-so-honest means, in 1691, he managed to establish a safe haven for pirates
02:35on St. Mary's Island, near the remote northern coast of Madagascar.
02:40250 miles off the African mainland.
02:43The place set close to major shipping routes between Europe and Asia.
02:47Talk about an ideal location.
02:49The pirates made sure to fortify the island.
02:52As you can guess, they didn't like unexpected guests and enjoyed staying there, having fun in safety.
02:59A Frenchman, Olivier Lavassure, and his English colleague, John Taylor,
03:03were among the most successful of those islanders.
03:06In 1721, they easily captured a Portuguese treasure ship.
03:11It didn't go so smoothly, though.
03:13A serious storm damaged the ship, so they had to dock at the Island of Reunion for repairs.
03:19There were important individuals aboard, such as the Viceroy of Portuguese India and the Bishop of Goa.
03:25But the loot was the pirate duo's biggest feat.
03:28Cash, diamonds, and porcelain worth hundreds of millions of US dollars in today's money.
03:34The catch was so enormous that the pirates didn't even bother to rob the rich passengers.
03:39But even this heist couldn't overshadow what Henry Ivory had achieved 26 years earlier.
03:46We don't know a lot about the life of this Englishman, except that he was born in Plymouth and that he served in the Merchant Marine.
03:52In 1694, Ivory became the first mate aboard Charles II, a privateering ship hired by the Spanish crown.
04:02Such ships were privately owned and engaged by nations during major conflicts with other nations.
04:08Ivory's ship had an important mission of tracking French smugglers in the Caribbean, but soon the tables would turn.
04:15Ivory was good with words and led a successful mutiny in 1694.
04:21After he left the unfortunate captain ashore and renamed the ship Fancy, the new captain set sail for Madagascar.
04:29There, news reached Ivory that a large fleet of 25 ships was soon to leave for its home in India.
04:35Apart from pilgrims, the fleet included several treasure ships owned by the Grand Mughal of India himself.
04:42Ivory didn't waste time and assembled an armada of six ships to go after the Mughal convoy.
04:49As soon as they spotted the fleet, the pirates started a chase.
04:53They managed to board an escort vessel, stealing gold and silver worth more than $17 million in today's money.
05:00And if that wasn't enough, Ivory and his men went after the flagship named Ganjai Savai.
05:06It was the biggest ship in all of India at the time that could protect itself better than the whole fleet combined.
05:13The pirates got lucky, as one of their volleys cut the main mast of the Indian ship in half, and there was more serious damage to it.
05:21Ivory brought his ship alongside the crippled Mughal ship, and his men boarded the vessel.
05:26Indian sailors showed some impressive resistance, even though their captain had abandoned them.
05:32Ivory's men won in the end, and they got one of the richest pirate catches ever.
05:37They filled their chests with hundreds of thousands of pounds in jewels, gold, and silver.
05:42After it, the pirates set course for the Bahamas and used their enormous wealth to convince the local ruler to let them come ashore.
05:50Their most prized possession? Their ship, the Fancy, was included in that deal.
05:55Once the news of the heist reached the Emperor of India, a huge diplomatic scandal broke out.
06:03The Grand Mughal was enraged and accused the East India Company of plotting against him, arresting several of their high-ranking officials.
06:11The company feared that the Indian leader would cancel their valuable trade agreements.
06:15So they decided to do something nice for him and bring to justice the pirates responsible for the theft.
06:22Together with British ships equipped for search at sea, they launched one of the first truly international pursuit of Ivory and his shipmates, promising a reward to whoever captured him.
06:34The pursuit was only partially successful, as they only managed to catch and trial several pirates.
06:40Most of them scattered across Europe and the Americas, keeping their share of the wealth.
06:44Ivory earned himself the nickname the King of Pirates because of his adventure in the Indian Ocean.
06:51Historians believe he escaped to Ireland with his share of the loot using a false name.
06:56George Washington.
06:58Oh, I made that up.
07:00Piracy was a risky trade, and not all European fortune-seekers were successful in the East.
07:06Take Dutch pirate Dirk Shivers, who entrapped four ships in the Indian port of Calicut.
07:12He demanded money from the local Indian authorities and the East India Company, but they offered him only half of the requested sum.
07:20Finally, they settled on a different amount.
07:23When it didn't arrive, Shivers set another ship ablaze.
07:26By this point, both the British and the Indians had had enough, and they hired ten Indian pirate ships to drive Shivers away, which they succeeded in doing.
07:36The pirate captain was forced to return for repairs to St. Mary's Island empty-handed.
07:42Oh well.
07:43The end of the 18th century, and an increased European presence in the region, brought about the end of the golden age of piracy.
07:51As the British authorities increased raids on pirate strongholds, the number of pirates decreased significantly.
07:58In 1692, a huge earthquake that was followed by a tsunami erased a well-known pirate haven from the map, Port Royale in Jamaica.
08:07But piracy in the Indian Ocean never fully disappeared.
08:11Modern pirates might not have an eye patch or a parrot on their shoulder, but they mean business just as the pirates from the past.
08:18The Strait of Malacca connects the Indian Ocean to the Pacific, and today, around 40% of world trade takes place through it.
08:27Despite this fact, piracy was alive and well here even in the 21st century.
08:33The national authorities of Malaysia and Indonesia, two countries the strait separates, were finally able to curb piracy only in 2016.
08:42No, it's not a romantic story at all.
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