Madagascar Pirates Top File
Known as "Long Ben" or "The Arch Pirate," Henry Every pulled off the single richest heist in pirate history because of Madagascar. In 1695, Every led a small fleet to the Red Sea. He captured the Ganj-i-Sawai, the flagship of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb.
The treasure was staggering: gold and silver worth between £200,000 and £600,000 at the time (equivalent to over $200 million today). After the heist, Every vanished into the pirate haven of Île Sainte-Marie (St. Mary’s Island), just off Madagascar’s northeast coast. He bribed governors and disappeared. Every is the top of the Madagascar pirate hierarchy because he got away with it.
One aspect of the Madagascar story often overlooked is the relationship between the pirates and the indigenous Malagasy people.
Unlike the violent colonization happening elsewhere, the relationship on Sainte-Marie was often transactional and symbiotic. The pirates needed food, cattle, and local knowledge; the Malagasy needed guns, cloth, and silver. madagascar pirates top
Intermarriage was common. Many pirates retired on the island, assimilating into local tribes. This created a unique creole culture that persisted for decades. In fact, if you visit the cemetery on Sainte-Marie today, you can still find headstones carved with the skull and crossbones, marking the final resting places of men who hailed from England, France, and America, but who died as citizens of the island.
When we think of pirates, our minds usually drift to the Caribbean. We picture the sandy shores of Nassau, the Jolly Roger flapping in a hurricane wind, and Captain Jack Sparrow navigating turquoise waters.
But while the Caribbean was the bustling supermarket of the Atlantic, the real treasure island lay thousands of miles away in the Indian Ocean. It was a place of staggering wealth, terrifying storms, and a lawless society so distinct that it nearly became its own nation. Known as "Long Ben" or "The Arch Pirate,"
Welcome to Madagascar, the lost kingdom of the Golden Age of Piracy.
In the late 1600s and early 1700s, the Indian Ocean was the superhighway of global trade. Ships laden with silks, spices, ivory, and—most importantly—gold and diamonds from the Mughal Empire sailed between India and Europe.
For a pirate, the Caribbean was becoming too crowded. The Royal Navy was cracking down, and the pickings were slim. But the Indian Ocean? It was ripe for the taking. The treasure was staggering: gold and silver worth
The problem was logistics. You couldn't just sail from New York to India to rob a merchant ship; you needed supplies, fresh water, and a place to hide. Madagascar was perfectly positioned. It sat right on the trade routes and offered natural harbors deep enough to hide a fleet.
Most importantly, it was a sanctuary. In an era before GPS and radar, a pirate who could navigate the treacherous currents and reefs of Madagascar’s coast was effectively invisible to the Royal Navy.