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In this year, a commander in the Royal Navy, George Anson, returned to England after 3 years sailing around the world. During that time England was at war with Spain and he captured quite a few treasure ships making him an extremely rich man.
However the voyage didn't start off very successfully. Anson started with six ships. By the time he reached the foot of South America, Cape Horn, 2 of his ships had gone home. After rounding the Cape, a third ship was wrecked on the coast of Chile. He now had 3 ships and, instead of 961 men, he only had 335. His crew were dying of scurvy and so he put all the fit men on one ship, the Centurion, and made his way to what was then the East Indies. He spent a long time cruising in the Pacific trying to attack ships sailing between Mexico and the Philippines.
He eventually found one with an enormous quantity of gold and captured the vessel. He then sailed back to England arriving in June 1744. He became a very rich man and showed that piracy, even now, was still a lucrative way of living for some sailors.
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