AT THE AFRICAN COAST

Calais-born mariner Olivier Le Vasseur began his career of piracy in the Caribbean before making for the coast of Africa and sailing in to the Indian Ocean where he participated in one of the most profitable raids in the region.

It is from the testimonies of captured sailors like Captain William Snelgrave that we can obtain reliable information about the activities of pirates like Le Vasseur aka La Buse [the buzzard]. Snelgrave’s ship, the Bird was captured off Sierra Leone, and over the next few days he witnessed his valuable cargo thrown overboard and his stocks of food and wine plundered. The pirates, wrote Snelgrave ‘threw buckets of claret and French brandy upon one another’ and washed the desks with what remained in the casks. On the third day, La Buse’s crew were permitted on board the prize ship and finished what was left of the liquors and foodstuffs. In the book of his account of the time he spent with La Buse and the other pirates, a drawing of him being confronted by a pirate quarter master appears: Snelgrave attacked by the pirate quartermaster.

For more information about La Buse’s career, follow this link to purchase a copy of “LA BUSE: The Life and Legend of French Pirate Olivier Le Vasseur” (e-book).

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