Thomas Tew’s pirate ship during his famous 1690s voyage was the Amity.
Tew was an English privateer who turned pirate and became one of the earliest major figures of the Pirate Round, a route linking the Atlantic, Madagascar, and the wealthy shipping lanes of the Indian Ocean. He sailed aboard the Amity from Bermuda in 1693 after receiving a privateering commission from Governor Isaac Richier.
During the voyage, Tew and his crew captured a large Mughal treasure ship in the Gulf of Aden. The success made Tew wealthy and encouraged other pirates to seek fortunes around Madagascar and the Red Sea. His voyage helped establish the Pirate Round as a recognizable pattern of long-distance piracy.
The Amity is sometimes confused with ships belonging to other Golden Age pirates, including Bartholomew Roberts’s Royal Fortune and Christopher Condent’s Fiery Dragon. Tew later returned to the Indian Ocean, where he was killed during an attack on another Mughal vessel in 1695.