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

History

''Fancy'' was initially a 46-gun

privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...

named ''Charles II'' – after Charles II of Spain – in Spanish service, commanded by a Captain Gibson, and was anchored at

A Coruña A Coruña (; ; also informally called just Coruña; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality in Galicia, Spain. It is Galicia's second largest city, behind Vigo. The city is the provincial capital of the province ...

, Spain. On 7 May 1694, Henry Every and a few other conspirators organised and carried out a successful

mutiny Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military or a crew) to oppose, change, or remove superiors or their orders. The term is commonly used for insubordination by members of the military against an officer or superior, ...

and, setting Captain Gibson ashore, left A Coruña for the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...

. At this time, ''Charles II'' was renamed ''Fancy''. Upon arriving at the Cape, Every sailed to the island of Johanna (Anjouan) in the Comoros Islands, where he had ''Fancy'' careened, removing barnacles and weed from the section of the hull that was permanently below water, increasing her speed. He also had ''Fancy'' razeed, intentionally removing parts of the ship's

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

in order to increase her speed. Following this work, ''Fancy'' became one of the fastest ships active in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

, and Every used this speed to attack and take a French pirate ship, looting the vessel and recruiting approximately 40 of the crew to his own ship, leaving him with a total complement of around 150. Flag_of_Henry_Every_red

Every continued to be active in the Indian Ocean, where he worked alongside other famous pirates of his time, including Thomas Tew. Most notable in his captures was '' Ganj-i-Sawai'', a Mughal ship under the command of Ibrahim Khan during Emperor

Aurangzeb Alamgir I (Muhi al-Din Muhammad; 3 November 1618 – 3 March 1707), commonly known by the title Aurangzeb, also called Aurangzeb the Conqueror, was the sixth Mughal emperors, Mughal emperor, reigning from 1658 until his death in 1707, becomi ...

's era. Since ''Ganj-i-Sawai'' mounted 62 cannons and had four to five hundred musket-armed guards, cannon fire from ''Fancy'' was instrumental in Every's victory – the first salvo caused a cannon aboard ''Ganj-I-Siwai'' to explode, killing a number of gunners. Every's career ended when the crew returned to Nassau in April 1696, in

the Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of ...

. He returned to Britain aboard the sloop ''Sea Flower'', arriving in Ireland in June 1696 and promptly disappearing. Although the fate of ''Fancy'' is unknown, it was rumored that Every gave her to the governor of Nassau as a bribe. There is supporting documentary evidence that ''Fancy'' ran aground on

New Providence New Providence is the most populous island in The Bahamas, containing more than 70% of the total population. On the eastern side of the island is the national capital, national capital city of Nassau, Bahamas, Nassau; it had a population of 246 ...

and Governor Trott had the guns and everything of value stripped.E. T. Fox (2008) King of the Pirates, The Swashbuckling Life of Henry Every, page 109

References

Sources

* FOX, E.T., King of the Pirates: The Swashbuckling Life of Henry Every, The History press, Stroud, Glos. 2008,

History

References

Sources

Further reading