Ganj-i-Sawai

Last updated

Ganj-i-Sawai, Mughal Hajj Ship.jpg
A later (1933) interpretation of Ganj-i-Sawai. The ship is inaccurately depicted as an East Indiaman.
History
NameGanj-I-Sawai
Owner
OrderedIn 1614 by Empress Mariam-uz-Zamani [1]
Launched1616
Completed1616
Maiden voyage1617
Out of service7 September 1695
Fate Seized by pirates
General characteristics
Type Ghanjah sailing ship
Displacement1500 [2] to 1600 tons [3] [4]
Complement1100–1300 total, 400–500 of which were soldiers [5]
Armament40–80 guns [5] / 800 guns [6] [7]

The Ganj-i-Sawai (Persian/Hindustani:Ganj-i-Sawai, in English "Exceeding Treasure", often anglicized as Gunsway) was an armed Ghanjah dhow (trading ship) belonging to the Mughals. During Aurangzeb's reign, it was captured on 7 September 1695 by the English pirate Henry Avery en route from present-day Mocha, Yemen to Surat, India. It was built on the order of Empress Mariam-uz-Zamani, great grandmother of Aurengzeb, after the capture of her ship named Rahimi . [1] : 186–187 

Contents

Capture by pirates

In August 1695, Henry Every, captaining the 46-gun, 5th rate frigate Fancy , reached the Mandab Strait, where he teamed up with five other pirate ships, including Thomas Tew's 8-gun, 46-man sloop-of-war Amity, Richard Want in Dolphin, Joseph Faro in Portsmouth Adventure, Thomas Wake in Susannah, and William Maze in Pearl. Although a Mughal convoy of 25 ships bound for India had eluded the pirate fleet during the night, the following day they encountered Ganj-i-Sawai and her escort Fateh Muhammed with both stragglers passing the straits en route to Surat.

Every and his men attacked Fateh Muhammed, which had earlier repulsed an attack by Amity, killing Captain Tew. Perhaps intimidated by Fancy's 46 guns or weakened by their earlier battle with Tew, Fateh Muhammed's crew put up little resistance, and Every's pirates sacked the ship and came away with £40,000 worth of treasure.

Every then sailed in pursuit of Ganj-i-Sawai, overtaking her about eight days out of Surat. Ganj-i-Sawai was a fearsome opponent, mounting 62 guns and carrying four to five hundred guards armed with small arms, [8] as well as six hundred other passengers. But the opening volley evened the odds, as one of the Ganj-i-Sawai's cannons exploded, killing some of its gunners and causing great confusion and demoralization among the crew, while Every's broadside shot his enemy's mainmast by the board. The larger Fancy drew alongside, and a number of her 113-man crew clambered aboard, overpowering the crew, passengers, and slaves of Ganj-i-Sawai.

The victorious pirates then subjected their captives to several days of horror, murdering prisoners at will, and using torture to force them to reveal the location of the ships' treasure.

The loot from Ganj-i-Sawai totaled between £325,000 and £600,000, including "some 500,000 gold and silver pieces, plus numerous jeweled baubles and miscellaneous silver cups, trinkets, and so on." [9] Several crews went home empty-handed: Tew was dead, Want and Wake's ships were too slow and never made it to the battle, Faro made it to the Ganj-i-Sawai but never engaged, and Maze was present but Every took back their share of the loot after Pearl's crew tried to trade clipped coins to Fancy's men. [10] Every had been asked by the other pirate captains to carry the treasure to an agreed upon location where it would be split among the various crews, as Fancy, with her 46 guns, carried the most fire power to guard it. Come nightfall, Every and his crew silently slipped away from the pirate armada, taking all Ganj-i-Sawai's treasure with them.

In response to the capture of Ganj-i-Sawai, the Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb, sent his army to five key ports for English trade in India — Bombay, Surat, Broach, Agra, and Ahmedabad — to close them. Aurangzeb effectively cut off English trade with India as he refused to reopen the ports until Henry Every was caught and executed for his crimes. The East India Company reconciled with the Mughal Emperor by fully compensating his losses, and filed an insurance claim for £350,000, [11] though Mughal authorities demanded this amount be doubled. The desire to see Every executed led to the first truly global manhunt in history, though he and the majority of his crew would never be caught. Six members of his crew were captured, tried, and executed, though they were not found guilty of seizing Ganj-i-Sawai, but rather a different ship. [12]

The Ganj-i-Sawai heist and its loot feature prominently in the 2016 video game Uncharted 4: A Thief's End .

See also

Citations

  1. 1 2 Safdar, Aiysha; Azam Kalan, Muhammad (January–June 2021). "History of Indian Ocean-A South Asian Perspective" (PDF). Journal of Indian Studies. 7 (1): 183–200.
  2. ↑ Johnson 2020, p. 120.
  3. ↑ Baer 2005, p. 101.
  4. ↑ "Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency: Tha'na (2 pts.) - Google Books". 1882. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  5. 1 2 Saletore 1978, p. 54—55.
  6. ↑ Kaushik Roy (2015, p. 194)
  7. ↑ Roy (1972, p. XII)
  8. ↑ Harris, Graham (2002). Treasure and Intrigue: The Legacy of Captain Kidd. Toronto: Dundurn. p. 88. ISBN   9781550024098 . Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  9. ↑ Burgess, Douglas R. Jr. (2014). The Politics of Piracy: Crime and Civil Disobedience in Colonial America. Lebanon, NH: ForeEdge. p. 53. ISBN   9781611685275.
  10. ↑ Rennie, Neil (2013). Treasure Neverland: Real and Imaginary Pirates. Oxford: OUP Oxford. ISBN   9780191668654 . Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  11. ↑ Burgess, Douglas (2009). The Pirates' Pact: The Secret Alliances Between History's Most Notorious Buccaneers and Colonial America . New York: McGraw Hill. pp.  143. ISBN   9780071474764.
  12. ↑ "The trial of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, Wm. Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes, at the Old-Bailey, for felony and piracy". A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanors. 13 (392, column 451). 1812.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East India Company</span> British trading company (1600–1874)

The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies, and later with East Asia. The company gained control of large parts of South Asia and Hong Kong. At its peak, the company was the largest corporation in the world by various measures and had its own armed forces in the form of the company's three presidency armies, totalling about 260,000 soldiers, twice the size of the British Army at certain times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Tew</span> 17th-century English pirate

Thomas Tew, also known as the Rhode Island Pirate, was a 17th-century English privateer-turned-pirate. He embarked on two major pirate voyages and met a bloody death on the second, and he pioneered the route which became known as the Pirate Round. Other infamous pirates in his path included Henry Avery and William Kidd.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Indian Navy</span>

Maritime powers in the Indian subcontinent have possessed navies for many centuries. Indian dynasties such as the Chola Empire used naval power to extend their influence overseas, particularly to Southeast Asia. The Marakkar Navy under Zamorins during 15th century and the Maratha Navy of the Maratha Confederacy during the 19th and 18th centuries fought with rival Indian powers and European powers. The East India Company organised its own private navy, which came to be known as the Bombay Marine. With the establishment of the British Raj after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the small navy was transformed into "His Majesty's Indian Navy", then "Her Majesty's Indian Marine", and finally the "Royal Indian Marine".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Every</span> English captain and pirate

Henry Every, also known as Henry Avery, sometimes erroneously given as Jack Avery or John Avery, 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.

Adam Baldridge was an English pirate and one of the early founders of the pirate settlements in Madagascar.

The Pirate Round was a sailing route followed by certain, mainly English, pirates, during the late 17th century and early 18th century. The course led from the western Atlantic, parallel to the Cape Route around the southern tip of Africa, stopping at Madagascar, then on to targets such as the coast of Yemen and India. The Pirate Round was briefly used again during the early 1720s. Pirates who followed the route are sometimes referred to as Roundsmen. The Pirate Round was largely co-extensive with the routes of the East India Company ships, of Britain and other nations.

Events from the year 1695 in England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bawarij</span> Sindhi pirates

Bawarij were Sindhi pirates named for their distinctive barja warships who were active between 251 and 865 AD. They looted Arab shipping bound for the Indian subcontinent and China, but entirely converted to Islam during the rule of the Samma dynasty (1335–1520). They are mentioned by Ma'sudi as frequenting the pirate den at Socotra and other scholars describes them as pirates and sailors of Sindh. Their frequent piracy and the incident in which they looted two treasure ships coming from Ceylon became the casus belli for the Umayyad conquest of Sindh.

<i>Fancy</i> (ship) 1690s pirate ship

Fancy was a 46-gun frigate commanded by pirate Henry Every between May 1694 to late 1695.

Qasim Yakut Khan also known as Yakut Shaikhji, Yakub Khan and Sidi Yaqub was a naval Admiral and administrator of Janjira Fort who first served under Bijapur Sultanate and later under the Mughal Empire.

Joseph Faro was a pirate from Newport, Rhode Island active during the Golden Age of Piracy, primarily in the Indian Ocean. He is best known for sailing alongside Thomas Tew to join Henry Every’s pirate fleet which captured and looted the fabulously rich Mughal ship Gunsway.

Thomas Wake was a pirate from Newport. Active during the Golden Age of Piracy, he is best known for sailing alongside Thomas Tew to join Henry Every in the Indian Ocean, hunting the Moghul treasure fleet.

John Ireland was a pirate active in the Indian Ocean. He is best known for sailing with Thomas Tew.

Richard Want was a pirate active in the Indian Ocean. He is best known for sailing alongside Thomas Tew and Henry Avery.

Robert Glover was an Irish-American pirate active in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean area in the late 1690s.

Richard Glover was a pirate and slave-trader active in the Caribbean and the Red Sea in the late 1690s.

Richard Bobbington was a pirate active in the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Persian Gulf in the late 1690s.

William Mayes was a pirate active in the Indian Ocean. He was best known for taking over William Kidd’s ship Blessed William and sailing with Henry Avery. William Mayes is american, specifically from Rhode Island. Mayes was one of the original founders of Libertalia. A civil war came about and William was poisoned by Henry Avery and Thomas Tew.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capture of the Grand Mughal Fleet</span> 1695 capture of Mughal vessels

On 7 September 1695, English pirate Henry Every captured the 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 squadron, and they were able to capture up to £600,000 in precious metals and jewels, equivalent to around £115 million in 2024. 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.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.