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Empire

199. Robbing the World’s Wealthiest Dynasty

Empire

Jack Davenport

History

4.64.1K Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2024

⏱️ 39 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

One of the most notable pirates of his day, Henry Avery would go on to make potentially the most lucrative heist ever on the high seas. Originally a navy man, Avery then took the well-trodden path of starting out as a privateer and turning to piracy. Via a mutiny he soon found himself in the Indian Ocean looking to take the biggest prizes - Mughal ships - and in August 1695 the greatest appeared before him. The ships of Aurangzeb himself were heading for the Red Sea, so Avery hoisted his sail and went after them. Listen as William and Anita discuss one of the most infamous pirates of the age and his attempts to rob the Mughals. To buy William's book: https://coles-books.co.uk/the-golden-road-by-william-dalrymple-signed-edition Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: [email protected] Goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

If you want access to bonus episodes reading lists for every series of empire, a chat community,

0:06.7

discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcast, add free listening and a weekly

0:11.5

newsletter, sign up to Empire Club at

0:14.4

W.

0:15.1

W. Empire pod UK.com. Hello and me William welcome to Empire with me Anita Arnan and me William

0:34.2

Durham pool now recently we've been discussing pirates haven't we are having such

0:38.8

fun with our pirates I like such great pirates and you, we've taken you through the lives of Blackbeard and William Kidd,

0:46.0

and today we're going to talk about another pirate whose end was very different from his pirate brethren

0:52.0

and whose deeds leave little room for romanticizing.

0:55.7

They're not even grey areas here like they have been with some of our others.

0:58.8

No, this is the story of a very naughty pirate indeed called Henry Avery or at least that is one of his many

1:06.1

names because he had a whole variety of aliases and what is fascinating is that his story has got everything about not only the story of piracy but also kind of the story of organized crime.

1:18.2

It's a story of a man who initially has a career veers off the rails, goes over to the dark side, and pulls off the

1:29.6

most extraordinary heist in piracy history.

1:34.6

He gets a larger bag of goodies of swag

1:38.7

than any other pirate in history.

1:41.9

And he then kicks off the first global manhunt the entire East India

1:47.6

company is mobilised to track him down and they catch most of his gang but they never catch him but there is a final

1:55.3

fantastic twist at the end which of course being a person that would never...

1:59.2

Here you are I'm jumping in right now before you give it away.

2:01.8

I would never spoil a story.

2:03.9

Did you see me leaping in? Saw you revving and I thought I'd rear up in my seat.

...

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