This past fall I met up with Josh Gates, host and producer of Discovery Channel’s Expedition Unknown, at London’s oldest pub, The Prospect of Whitby to talk about the legendary pirate Henry Avery.
Avery, the so-called “pirate king,” was one of the most successful pirates in history, though, as I relate in The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down, it’s still a mystery whether he got away with his treasure or wound up destitute. I shared Avery’s story with Gates and his crew over a pint, and you can share in the fun in this week’s episode of the show, “Treasure of the Pirate King,” and then see how his search in southwestern England fared. (It’s Season 11: Episode 4 for those seeking it out hereafter, and premiered last Thursday, June 14.)
Back before the Covid-19 pandemic I flew to Paris to talk to Gates about another pirate, Olivier La Buse (aka “The Buzzard) for Season 8: Episode 6, “The Fortune of the Buzzard,” which you can find here.
Avery seems to be having a moment. Just a few months before joining the Expedition Unknown crew in London I spoke at length with the Vanished podcast for their full-length episode on the late 17th century pirate.
COLIN WOODARD is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist. He is the author of six books that have been translated into a dozen foreign languages and inspired an NBC television drama. He is currently Director of Nationhood Lab at the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Affairs at Salve Regina University. As State and National Affairs Writer at the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram he won a 2012 George Polk Award and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2016. He is a contributing editor at POLITICO and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, Smithsonian and dozens of other major publications.