Olivier Levasseur was a French pirate, nicknamed La Buse or La Bouche in his early days. He is known for allegedly hiding one of the biggest treasures in pirate history, estimated at over £1 billion, and leaving a cryptogram behind with clues to its whereabouts.
About Olivier Levasseur in brief
Olivier Levasseur was a French pirate, nicknamed La Buse or La Bouche in his early days. He is known for allegedly hiding one of the biggest treasures in pirate history, estimated at over £1 billion, and leaving a cryptogram behind with clues to its whereabouts. Born at Calais during the Nine Years’ War, he became a naval officer after receiving an excellent education. During the War of the Spanish Succession he procured a letter of marque from King Louis XIV and became a privateer for the French crown. When the war ended he was ordered to return home with his ship, but he instead joined the Benjamin Hornigold pirate company in 1716. After a year of successful looting he split, partnering briefly with Samuel Bellamy before deciding to try his luck on the Brazilian Coast on board a stolen 22 gun Merchant frigate La Louise.
He attacked many boats and ships on his way to the South of Brazil, most notably a Slave ship coming from Angola, whose crew was abandoned to sink in their ship after it was robbed and damaged. He then abandoned 240 stolen slaves on an island off Macae after a Portuguese armed boat gave him chase. Later that year, he was shipwrecked in the Mozambique Channel and stranded on the island of Anjouan in the Comores. His bad eye had become completely blind by now, so he started wearing an eyepatch. In 1719, he operated together with Howell Davis and Thomas Cocklyn for a time. In1720, he attacked the slaver port of Ouidah, Kingdom of Whydah, reducing the local fortress to ruins.
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This page is based on the article Olivier Levasseur published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 20, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
