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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (April 3, 2021)
B4 THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 2021 Ancient coins may solve pirate mystery By WILLIAM J. KOLE Associated Press WARWICK, R.I. — A handful of coins unearthed from a pick-your-own- fruit orchard in rural Rhode Island and other random corners of New England may help solve one of the planet’s oldest cold cases. The villain in this tale: a murderous English pirate who became the world’s most-wanted criminal after plundering a ship carry- ing Muslim pilgrims home to India from Mecca, then eluded capture by posing as a slave trader. “It’s a new history of a nearly perfect crime,” said Jim Bailey, an amateur his- torian and metal detec- torist who found the fi rst intact 17th-century Ara- bian coin in a meadow in Middletown. That ancient pocket change — among the oldest ever found in North Amer- ica — could explain how pirate Capt. Henry Every vanished into the wind. On Sept. 7, 1695, the pirate ship Fancy, commanded by Every, ambushed and captured the Ganj-i-Sawai, a royal vessel owned by Indian emperor Aurangzeb, then one of the world’s most powerful men. Aboard were not only the worship- ers returning from their pil- grimage, but tens of mil- lions of dollars’ worth of gold and silver. What followed was one of the most lucrative and heinous robberies of all time. Historical accounts say his band tortured and killed the men aboard the Indian ship and raped the women before escaping to the Bahamas, a haven for pirates. But word quickly spread of their crimes, and English King William III — under enormous pres- sure from a scandalized India and the East India Company trading giant — put a large bounty on their heads. “If you Google ‘fi rst worldwide manhunt,’ it comes up as Every,” Bailey said. “Everybody was look- ing for these guys.” Until now, historians only knew that Every even- tually sailed to Ireland in 1696, where the trail went cold. But Bailey says the coins he and others have found are evidence the notorious pirate fi rst made his way to the American colonies, where he and his crew used the plunder for day-to-day expenses while on the run. The fi rst complete coin surfaced in 2014 at Sweet Berry Farm in Middletown, a spot that had piqued Bai- ley’s curiosity two years earlier after he found old colonial coins, an 18th-cen- tury shoe buckle and some musket balls. Waving a metal detector over the soil, he got a sig- nal, dug down and hit literal paydirt: a darkened, dime- sized silver coin he initially Photos by Steven Senne/AP Photo Amateur historian Jim Bailey uses a metal detector to scan for Colonial-era artifacts in a fi eld in Rhode Island in March. A 17th century Arabian silver coin, top, that research shows was struck in 1693 in Yemen, rests near an Oak Tree shilling minted in 1652 by the Massachusetts Bay Colony, below, and a Spanish half real coin from 1727, right. ‘FOR ME, IT’S ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT THE THRILL OF THE HUNT, NOT ABOUT THE MONEY. THE ONLY THING BETTER THAN FINDING THESE OBJECTS IS THE LONG- LOST STORIES BEHIND THEM.’ Amateur historian Jim Bailey assumed was either Span- ish or money minted by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Peering closer, the Ara- bic text on the coin got his pulse racing. “I thought, ‘Oh my God,’” he said. Research confi rmed the exotic coin was minted in 1693 in Yemen. That imme- diately raised questions, Bailey said, since there’s no evidence that Ameri- can colonists struggling to eke out a living in the New World traveled to anywhere in the Middle East to trade until decades later. Since then, other detec- torists have unearthed 15 additional Arabian coins from the same era — 10 in Massachusetts, three in Rhode Island and two in Connecticut. Another was found in North Carolina, where records show some of Every’s men fi rst came ashore. “It seems like some of his crew were able to settle in New England and inte- grate,” said Sarah Sport- man, state archaeologist for Connecticut, where one of the coins was found in 2018 at the ongoing exca- vation of a 17th-century farm site. “It was almost like a money laundering scheme,” she said. Although it sounds unthinkable now, Every was able to hide in plain sight by posing as a slave trader — an emerging pro- fession in 1690s New England. On his way to the Bahamas, he even stopped at the French island of Reunion to get some Black captives so he’d look the part, Bailey said. Obscure records show a ship called the Sea Flower, used by the pirates after they ditched the Fancy, sailed along the Eastern seaboard. It arrived with nearly four dozen slaves in 1696 in Newport, Rhode Island, which became a major hub of the North American slave trade in the 18th century. “There’s extensive pri- mary source documentation to show the American colo- nies were bases of opera- tion for pirates,” said Bai- ley, 53, who holds a degree in anthropology from the University of Rhode Island and worked as an archaeo- logical assistant on explo- rations of the Wydah Gally pirate ship wreck off Cape Cod in the late 1980s. Bailey, whose day job is analyzing security at the state’s prison complex, has published his fi nd- ings in a research journal of the American Numis- matic Society, an organiza- tion devoted to the study of coins and medals. Archaeologists and his- torians familiar with but not involved in Bailey’s work say they’re intrigued, and believe it’s shed- ding new light on one of the world’s most enduring criminal mysteries. “Jim’s research is impeccable,” said Kevin McBride, a professor of archaeology at the Uni- versity of Connecticut. “It’s cool stuff . It’s really a pretty interesting story.” Mark Hanna, an asso- ciate professor of history at the University of Cali- fornia, San Diego and an expert in piracy in early America, said that when he fi rst saw photos of Bailey’s coin, “I lost my mind.” “Finding those coins, for me, was a huge thing,” said Hanna, author of the 2015 book, “Pirate Nests and the Rise of the British Empire.” “The story of Capt. Every is one of global signifi - cance. This material object — this little thing — can help me explain that.” Every’s exploits have inspired a 2020 book by Steven Johnson, “Enemy of All Mankind;” PlaySta- tion’s popular “Uncharted” series of video games; and a Sony Pictures movie ver- sion of “Uncharted” star- ring Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg and Antonio Banderas that’s slated for release early in 2022. Bailey, who keeps his most valuable fi nds not at his home but in a safe deposit box, says he’ll keep digging. “For me, it’s always been about the thrill of the hunt, not about the money,” he said. “The only thing better than fi nding these objects is the long-lost sto- ries behind them.” Our weekly ad in the Coast Weekend is working well! We have had customers come into the shop saying they haven’t been in to see us for a while, and saw our ad in the paper, so decided to stop in! Kelly Mauer, owner Gain Exposure. Drive More Business. Find New Customers. Marketing assistance from the print & digital experts. 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