The Pirates of the Indian Ocean and Their Madagascar Haven

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By Jordan Lamont · Last updated 10 October 2026

Say it like a local: Nosy Boraha (NOO-see boo-RAH) — the Malagasy name for Ile Sainte-Marie; Baie des Forbans — literally “Pirates’ Bay”.

For a few decades around 1700, one of the most lawless, cosmopolitan places on Earth was a narrow green island off the east coast of Madagascar. Its sheltered bay filled with captured ships; its shore with men who had robbed Mughal treasure fleets and Red Sea pilgrims. More than a thousand pirates are said to have lived or anchored here. The question worth asking is not who they were — our full history of the Sainte-Marie buccaneers tells that story — but why Madagascar, of all the islands in the world, became their haven.

The perfect address for a pirate

The answer is geography. Madagascar sits squarely on the sea roads between Europe, the Red Sea and India — exactly the waters where the richest cargoes of the age were moving. The Mughal empire’s pilgrim and treasure ships, and the heavily laden vessels of the English, Dutch and Portuguese East India companies, all passed within striking distance. And the island offered what every raiding crew needed between prizes: sheltered harbours to careen and refit ships, fresh water and provisions, and distance from any European navy that might hang them.

One spot was ideal above all others: Ile Sainte-Marie, known in Malagasy as Nosy Boraha, a long thin island hugging the east coast. Its deep, protected bay could hide a fleet; its position let crews slip out onto the shipping lanes and vanish again. Along with Ranter Bay further north, it became the great base of what historians call the Pirate Round.

The Pirate Round

The Pirate Round was a vast raiding circuit, most active around 1693-1700 and again in 1719-1721. Crews would sail from the American colonies — New York, Rhode Island, the Caribbean — south across the Atlantic, round the Cape of Good Hope, and make for Madagascar. There they would careen, refit and reprovision before striking north toward the coasts of Yemen and India, then run the whole route home with their plunder. Madagascar was the hinge of the entire operation: the one place, halfway around the world, where an exhausted pirate ship could be made ready to hunt again.

The New York connection

A pirate haven needs more than a good anchorage — it needs a supplier. On Sainte-Marie, that man was Adam Baldridge, a fugitive who established a base on the island by 1690 and, within a year, controlled the approach to its harbour from a stronghold overlooking the bay. Baldridge sold incoming crews everything they needed, at steep prices.

His own supplies came from an unlikely place: New York. The merchant Frederick Philipse — one of the richest men in the colony — chartered ships under captains such as John Churcher and Thomas Mostyn to carry trade goods out to Madagascar. In other words, respectable colonial money was quietly bankrolling the pirate economy of the Indian Ocean. There is a darker thread here that the romance usually leaves out: Baldridge paid Philipse partly in enslaved people, and his growing involvement in slaving provoked a local uprising in 1697 that destroyed his post. The pirate “paradise” was built on, and brought down by, the trafficking of Malagasy people.

The men who made the legend

Three names tower over the Madagascar years. Thomas Tew made a single, enormously profitable cruise that, with its low casualties, “led to a flood of pirates following his route.” Henry Every pulled off one of the richest hauls in pirate history, capturing a treasure ship of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and looting a fortune — then vanished, never caught. And William Kidd, hired as a privateer to suppress the Madagascar pirates, turned pirate himself and took the merchantman Quedagh Merchant — a decision that would send him to the gallows in London.

The later wave, around 1719-1721, brought Edward England, John Taylor and the Frenchman Olivier Levasseur, nicknamed “La Buse.” It was Taylor and Levasseur who seized what is remembered as the greatest prize of the entire Pirate Round, plundering a richly laden Portuguese vessel. Out of this same world grew the enduring myth of Libertalia, the pirate utopia said to have stood somewhere on Madagascar — a legend as much as a place.

Why it matters today

The pirate age left Madagascar more than stories. Sainte-Marie’s harbour holds one of the densest clusters of Golden Age shipwrecks found anywhere, and the island still keeps its pirate cemetery and its Baie des Forbans. They are a reminder that Madagascar was never isolated from world events — for a few violent decades it sat at the very centre of them. For the wider story of how the island was shaped by the outside world, see our history of how Madagascar became Madagascar.

FAQ

Why did pirates choose Madagascar?

Geography. Madagascar sat astride the rich shipping lanes between Europe, India and the Red Sea, far from European naval power, with sheltered harbours where crews could careen, refit and resupply. Ile Sainte-Marie, with its protected bay, became the main base.

What was the “Pirate Round”?

A long raiding circuit, most active around 1693-1700 and again 1719-1721, that ran from the American colonies south around the Cape of Good Hope, stopped at Madagascar to refit, and then struck ships off Yemen and India before returning home.

Who were the most famous Madagascar pirates?

Thomas Tew, whose rich cruise drew others to the route; Henry Every, who took an immense Mughal prize; and William Kidd, hired to hunt pirates who became one himself. Later came Edward England, John Taylor and Olivier Levasseur (“La Buse”).

Can you still visit the pirate sites today?

Yes. Ile Sainte-Marie (Nosy Boraha) has a pirate cemetery and the Baie des Forbans (“Pirates’ Bay”), and its harbour holds one of the densest concentrations of Golden Age pirate shipwrecks known anywhere.