In mid-September 1698, a 600-ton haj ship known as “Great Mahomet” [Kbyr Māhwmyt] was, as part of her pilgrimage to Mecca, homeward bound to Surat India from the port of Jeddah on the coast of Arabia, when she was attacked by two European pirate vessels under the command of Robert Culliford (The Mocha Frigate, 40 guns), and Richard “Dirk” Chivers (Soldado, 20 guns).
The sea-battle that followed was unusually violent. At least twenty pirates were killed, while over three hundred of the passengers and crew of the pilgrim ship died, according to Ibrahim Khan, one of the owners of the vessel who was then aboard. Another owner, Hussein Hamidan, declared that the pirates had tortured Indian merchants to reveal the hiding places of their treasure.
As was often the case for important haj ships returning to India from pilgrimage to Mecca, Great Mahomet was immensely rich. Estimates of the treasure aboard range as high as 230,000 contemporary English pounds sterling. A portion of these treasures included precious stones, jewelry, 40,000 “pieces of Arabian gold”, 1000 oz. of uncoined gold (in the form of 250 gold bars and 40 pounds of gold dust), 4000 oz. of bar-silver, and much more in coinage of ther countries; including 10,000 Venetian gold sequins, 50,000 silver “pieces-of-eight”, 8000 German “rix-dollars” and other specie.
Great Mahomet was also carrying the personal possessions and baggage of approximately six hundred haj pilgrims, in addition to commodities from the Arabian
Peninsula. decorative art treasures, and other ceremonial artifacts, associated with Muslim pilgrimage.
Since the pirateship Soldado was un-seaworthy, the pirates transferred cannon and some of their men to Great Mahomet, re-named her The New Soldado and put her under the command of Richard “Dirk” Chivers. As for the Muslim crew and passengers, some sixty women were reportedly kept aboard the pirate ship as captives to be taken to the pirate base at “St. Mary’s” (Ile Ste. Marie Madagascar), while the rest were put aboard the ship’s boats to make for shore as best they could.
After attacking several other ships off the coast of India, the pirate flotilla arrived at the harbor of Ile Ste. Marie, Madagascar on January 29, 1699.
Shortly after their arrival, the marauders were surprised by the approach of a powerful Royal Navy squadron that had set sail from England on a pirate-hunting expedition under the command of Commodore Thomas Warren. Great Mahomet and the Mocha were sunk by the pirates across the entrance to the bottle-necked harbour to block it.
During previous expeditions to Ile Ste. Marie Madagascar as part of the Discovery Channel “Quest” documentary series, the Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation with Barry, Brandon Clifford, and their extensive team, discovered five 17th and 18th-century shipwrecks, tentatively identified as The Adventure Galley (Captain William Kidd, history’s most infamous pirate), Fiery Dragon, and yet another haj ship take by the Dragon in 1720.
Further and more recent expeditions to Madagascar resulted in the discovery of the tentatively identified Great Mahomet and Mocha.
Buried deep in the harbor’s sub-bottom, seismic-testing with remote-sensing equipment as well as direct diver examination show that these wrecks have been undisturbed since the time of their sinking three centuries ago.
Taken together, these resources represent a priceless view into the rich history and culture of the 17th and 18th century Indian Ocean basin. Artifacts already recovered and identified from these wreck sites come from such far-flung regions as Europe, America, Arabia, India, China, Africa, and Central Asia.
