By modern standards he would be as rich as Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos. Born near Plymouth, England, in 1659 - and later known as Henry Avery, John Avery, Jack Avery, Henry Bridgeman, and Benjamin Bridgeman – Henry Every was a moderately educated man who spent some time in the Royal Navy until he seized an opportunity to become a pirate.

Another theory claims that Every served on several merchant vessels and warships when England went to war with France in 1688.

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In early 1694, Every was appointed as the first mate aboard the privateer vessel called Charles II, in the service of the king of Spain. The mostly English crew was extremely unhappy with their poor treatment by Spanish officers and convinced Every to lead a mutiny. In May 1694, they captured the ship and renamed it the Fancy.

The only choice of mutineers given those circumstances was piracy. Captain Every began soon attacking English and Dutch merchant vessels off the coast of Africa, and later operated in the Atlantic and the Caribbean against Spanish and French ships.

Henry Every turned out to be a competent leader and skillful sailor. He was soon nicknamed “the pirate king” and earned the reputation of the most successful pirate.

While the exact number of raids and captures under his command remains unknown, Captain Every is credited among others with the jackpot seizure of the treasure ship of the Grand Mughal Empire, Ganj-i Sawa’I (or Gunsway), off the Indian coast. It was transporting gold, silver and diamonds valued at $200 or $400 million in today’s money, according to some historians.

The captain and his Fancy crew members became millionaires in a blink of a day.

The Gunsway strike attracted the attention of the English crown, which disliked the idea of a conflict with the Mughals while expanding trade routes and colonial possessions.

Considering that the Fancy was operating both in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, he was also wanted by the Spanish, the French, and, obviously, by the Mughals, all of whom engaged in the first true global manhunt for a single man.