![treasure island coins treasure island coins](https://i.pcgs.com/s3/cu-pcgs/Articles/20210316-caribbean/13828845_146891719.jpg)
"I was aware that the American colonies had been bases of operation for piracy in the late 17th century." "I had to run to my car and get a big bottle of water… the mud came off, and I saw this Arabic script on the coin and I was amazed, because I knew exactly where it'd come from," he said. "You never field-clean a coin, because you could damage it," he said. In 2014, his metal detector picked up the first of the mysterious coins in a meadow on Aquidneck Island that was once the site of a colonial township. (Image credit: Bettmann/Getty Images) Arabian silverīailey is an amateur archaeologist who worked on the recovery of the wreck of the Whydah, a pirate ship discovered off Cape Cod in 1984. Since his loot from the Ganj-i-sawai was never accounted for, rumors long persisted that the treasure had been buried somewhere in secret.Ĭaptain Henry Avery and his crew take one of the Great Mogul's ships in this illustration. Later reports suggested he had sailed to Ireland while still on the run and that he died there, impoverished, a few years later. Some of Every's crew went to live in the mainland colonies, where they were eventually tried and acquitted, possibly as a result of bribery but there were no further sightings of Every. They lived for several months in the Bahamas, possibly with the collusion of the British governor of the islands but they fled in late 1696 as the Royal Navy closed in. Related: In photos: Pirate ship discovered in the UKĪfter an outcry led by the British East India Company, whose profits on the riches of India were threatened by the raid, Britain's King William III ordered what is regarded as the first international manhunt to capture Every and the other pirates.īy this time, however, Every and his crew had escaped to the New World.
![treasure island coins treasure island coins](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6e/47/be/6e47be2c8f18ecc89d8f04b589528fc5.jpg)
Reports say the pirates tortured and killed its crew and 600 passengers, before making off with gold and silver, including thousands of coins, said to be worth between 200,000 and 600,000 British pounds - the equivalent of between $40 million and $130 million in today's money. In 1695, Every and his cutthroat crew on board their ship Fancy joined a pirate raid on a convoy in the Red Sea that was returning to India from Mecca.Įvery's ship chased and caught the convoy's flagship, the Ganj-i-sawai, which belonged to the Grand Mughal Aurangzeb, the Muslim emperor of what is now India and Pakistan. (Image credit: Bettmann/Getty Images) Pirate attack Captain Henry Every and his crew take one of the Great Mogul's ships in this illustration.