Henry Avery was one of the most successful pirates of all time in terms of the plunder he accumulated, despite only being active for two years. Not much is known about his early life, but it is commonly accepted that he was born in 1659 in the West Country of England, probably in Newton Ferrers, a village about six miles south-east of Plymouth, Devon. The more common spelling of Avery’s surname is Every. He was also known under several alias including Long Ben and Benjamin Bridgeman.
He joined the English Navy, although the exact year is unknown. He is recorded as working as a midshipman aboard a sixty-four-gun ship named the HMS Rupert, under Captain Francis Wheeler and possibly participated in the Nine Years War, but was probably a seaman long before then. After being discharged from the Royal Navy he began working as an illegal slave trader in Africa, although this part of his life is not well documented.…