Pirate Round
F1. Maritime HistoryDefinition
Late seventeenth century circuit by American pirates to the Indian Ocean.
The sailing circuit run by Atlantic-based pirates in the 1690s and early 1700s, from the North American colonies and the Caribbean south around the Cape of Good Hope to the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and Madagascar, preying on Mughal and East India Company shipping. Henry Every’s 1695 capture of the Ganj-i-Sawai and the voyage of Captain William Kidd belong to it; Madagascar (Sainte-Marie) was the main base. Colonial merchants fenced the loot until crackdowns closed the route by the 1720s.
Source: Henry Every's capture of the Ganj-i-Sawai, 1695; Madagascar (Ile Sainte-Marie) pirate base, 1690s to 1700s