Pirate Raid on the Ganj-i-Sawai / Last captive thylacine died - September 7

Pirates raided the Ganj-i-Sawai on this day in 1695. / On this day in 1936, the last thylacine, aka Tasmanian tiger, died at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone, it's Eves checking in here to let you
know that you're going to be hearing two different events
in history in this episode, one from me and one
from Tracy V. Wilson. They're both good, if I do
say so myself. One with the show, Welcome to this
Day in History class from how Stuff Works dot com
and from the desk of Stuff You Missed in History Class.
It's the show where we explore the past one day

(00:21):
at a time with a quick look at what happened
today in history. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Tracy V. Wilson and it's September seven. On this day
in pirate Henry every pulled off one of the most
profitable raids in pirate history, which also launched a massive

(00:43):
international incident. Every sale aboard a ship called the Fancy,
which had previously been the Charles the Second before he
commandeered it from a Spanish port in s From that port,
he and his newly piratical crew late, of course, for Madagascar.
They were joining up with a route called the Pirate Round,

(01:03):
which was really popular among English pirates in the sixteen nineties.
This sailing route went from the Caribbean around the Cape
of Good Hope up to Madagascar and then into the
Indian Ocean. It was off the coast of Madagascar that
Every joined up with a whole collection of other pirates
who were hoping to attack a fleet of ships belonging
to the Mughal Empire. This empire ruled parts of the

(01:27):
Indian subcontinent from the early sixteenth century into the mid
eighteenth century. In sixteen it's territory covered most of what's
now India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Putan, and Nepal. This fleet belonging
to the Mughal Empire was huge, twenty five ships, including
escort vessels. Some of the passengers where the emperor's own

(01:49):
family members returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca. The first
ship that Every and the other pirates attacked was called
the Fat Mammady. It was an escort ship that was
part of the rear Guard. Their real prize, though, was
the Ganji Sawai, which is sometimes anglicized as the gun Sway.
They spotted this ship on September seven, and this ship,

(02:12):
in addition to being large, was owned by Emperor Arnzeb himself.
At least one of the emperor's family members was on
board the ship was huge. It was exceptionally well armed.
The pirates were only able to take it because when
the battle started a piece of weaponry exploded and started
a fire. The behavior of these pirates once they took

(02:35):
over the Ganji Sawai was really horrible. They completely brutalized
the people on board in their search for treasure. They
came away with a huge hall of gold, silver and jewels.
But when the Ganji Sawai reached the Mughal Empire, the
Emperor and the rest of the people were outraged. Riots

(02:56):
spread through the city of Surret, which was the port
that the ship came into. They targeted the British East
India Company offices there. British officials started writing back to
London to report what had happened. This sparked a huge
international man hunt for Every and his pirate crew. The
British East India Company could not afford any problems in

(03:17):
their relationship with the Mughal Empire or the Emperor himself.
A few of Every's crew were captured, but every was not.
Those who were captured were put on trial two times
to try to bring a conviction that would satisfy the
Mughal Emperor. There were two trials because, much to the
surprise of all the authorities involved, the British people were

(03:40):
really excited about pirates. By the time this trial even happened,
there was already a really popular ballad about Henry. Every
was very high spirited and adventurous, and it did not
make him sound like a bad guy at all. So
after everyone was acquitted in the first trial, they had
to try them again, this time on a charge of

(04:01):
mutiny instead of piracy. They were found guilty of mutiny
and hanged. The British government had to pay reparations to
the Mughal Empire, but every himself was never captured. It's
more likely though, that he died in poverty than that
he went on to live like a king on his
pirate wealth. You can learn more about this in the
May ninth episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class,

(04:25):
and you can subscribe to This Day in History Class
on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and We're rail to get
your podcasts. Thanks also to Schari Harrison for her audio
work on this podcast. You can tune in tomorrow for
a labor strike that lasted for five years. Hi, I'm

(04:51):
Eves and welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show that uncovers a little bit more about history every day.
The day was September seventh, nineteen thirty six. The last

(05:12):
dial a Scene, also known as the Tasmanian tiger, died
at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania in nineteen eight six.
After no Dialacene had been spotted for fifty years, the
animal was declared extinct. The thalacene, scientific name Thylacenus sinocephalus,
was a large carnivorous marsupial. Its fur was short and

(05:36):
yellowish brown or gray, and it had dark stripes across
its back from its shoulders to its tail. Its head
looked like a dog or wolves, and its ears were small,
and females had a pouch for carrying their young. The
dialacene was mainly nocturnal. It once lived all over Australia,
from New Guinea to Tasmania, but in recent times it

(05:59):
was found only in Tasmania. The first recorded killing of
a thala scene by Europeans happened in eighteen o five.
After it was killed, the Lieutenant Governor of Tasmania, William Patterson,
sent a description of the animal to the Sydney Gazette.
He wrote, it is very evident this species is destructive
and lives entirely on animal food. On dissection, his stomach

(06:23):
was filled with a quantity of kangaroo. This deprecating take
of Thi la scenes was also evident in later European communications.
Tasmania's Assistant surveyor George Prudeaux Harris wrote that the animal
had a savage and malicious appearance, and that it appeared
inactive and stupid. Thyla scenes were also considered a threat

(06:44):
to sheep, though they were still quote cowardly and by
no means formidable to man, as later assistant surveyor George
William Evans put it in an eighty two book. Since
the thila scene was viewed as destructive to flocks of sheep,
it was hunted and people offered rewards for killing the animal.

(07:05):
But the rhetoric around the thalacenes savagery was just myth.
Minister John West of Lawn System wrote in eighteen fifty
the thi lacene kills sheep, but confines its attack to
one at a time, and is therefore by no means
as destructive to a flock as the domestic dog become wild,
or as the Dingo of Australia, which both commit havoc

(07:28):
in a single night. Still reports exaggerated the abundance of
thala scenes, how many sheep they killed, and how many
bounties were paid to kill them. Thylacenes were being blamed
for the attacks of wild dogs, poor management, rural depressions,
and other things that affected agricultural production. Though some people

(07:50):
spoke up against thylacene killings, the animal continued to get
bad pressed and was the subject of propaganda. The government
even offered a bounty of one pound for every adult
thilacene killed and ended up sponsoring the killing of two thousand,
one and eighty four thalacenes. By the beginning of the
twentieth century, the number of thalacenes killed and bounties offered decreased.

(08:15):
Throughout the beginning of the century, the animal became rarer
as it faced competition from wild dogs, the destruction of
its habitat, and disease in addition to hunting. The last
known wild dialacene was shot in nineteen thirty. The last
captive dialacene, named Benjamin after its death, was held at

(08:35):
the Hobart Zoo. It died on September seventh, nineteen thirty six,
probably from neglect. The dialacene was reportedly locked out of
its shelter and could have died from the cold. The
July before Benjamin died, Tasmania had listed the thi lacene
as a protected species. The thalacene was listed as an

(08:56):
endangered species until it was declared extent by the International
Union for Conservation of Nature in nineteen eighty two and
the Tasmanian government in nineteen eighty six. In nineteen ninety six,
Australia declared September seven National Threatened Species Day. I'm each

(09:16):
Jeff Code and hopefully you know a little more about
history today than you did yesterday. You can follow us
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C podcast We'll see You Tomorrow. For more podcasts from
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(09:39):
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