the illegal scheme without their consent. Tew's crew reportedly answered with the shout, "A gold chain or a wooden leg, we'll stand with you!" The pirates proceeded to elect a quartermaster, a common pirate practice to balance the captain's power. Tew reached the Red Sea and ran down a large Ghanjah dhow en route from India to the Ottoman Empire late in 1693. The dhow surrendered without serious resistance, inflicting no casualties on the assailants. Tew's pirates helped themselves to the ship's treasure, worth £100,000 () in gold and silver alone, not counting the value of the ivory, spices, gemstones, and silk taken. Tew's 45 men afterward shared out between £1,200 () and £3,000 () per man, and Tew himself claimed about £8,000 (). Tew urged his crew to hunt down and rob the other ships in the Indian convoy, but he yielded to the opposition of the quartermaster. He set course back to the Cape of Good Hope, stopping at Adam Baldridge's pirate settlement at St. Mary's on Madagascar to careen. Tew reached Newport in April 1694. Benjamin Fletcher, royal governor of Province of New York, became good friends with him and his family. Second pirate cruise In November 1694, Tew bought a new letter of marque from Fletcher and set out for another pirate cruise. His crew numbered 30 to 40 men at departure this time. John Ireland served as navigator on Tew's Amity during their second cruise, although he claimed after his own capture that both he and Tew had been forced to serve by the sloop's mutinous crew. According to his deposition, the crew threatened the pair during what would have been a trip from New York to Boston to prepare for privateering against the French. However, by the time that he reached Madagascar, Tew apparently increased his force to 50 or 60 men. They arrived at the Mandab Strait at the mouth of the Red Sea in August 1695, where Tew found several other pirates hoping to duplicate his prior success, including Henry Avery in the powerfully armed warship Fancy, fellow Rhode Island pirate captains Joseph Faro and Thomas Wake, William May, and Richard Want. Tew and the other pirate captains decided to sail in concert. In September 1695, a 25-ship Mughal convoy approached the Mandab Strait, slipping past the pirates during the night. Tew and his fellow pirates pursued. The Amity attacked one of