← Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood
Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood
173. Olivier Levasseur - Hidden Pirate Treasure
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Katie Charlewood
Hello delicious friends, and welcome to who did what Now? The history podcast. That's not your your history class with me, your host, Katie Charlewood, history harlot and reader of books. So the cat is finally out the bag. I'm allowed to talk about it now. I am part of a companion piece for A docudrama that's going to be out on the BBC later this month, December 2025. So there is a docudrama which is a minute by minute, like, play of the sinking of the Titanic and. And the people, they're in. And it is called Titanic Sinks. Tonight it's going to be on BBC2. 9pm GMT. And it's the 28th, 29th, 30th and 31st of December. And when that's released, the companion piece, which is going to be on the iplayer with myself and Gareth Russell, who we weren't intentionally wicked coded. I need you to know that it wasn't planned, but the, like, there are certain rules when you're on tv and it's like, don't wear anything with a logo that shows your boobs. And I'm like, all right, no problem. So we worked with what we had. So our companion piece, Life After Disaster, it is. Oh, Ronsell diamond coat does exactly what it says in the tin. It's what happened after the Titanic disaster. You know, people like Charles Lighthall or Violet Jessup, Lady Duff Gordon, so on and so forth. And I am so grateful to have been a part of that. And GTH is such a delight. Like, I would work with him anytime, anywhere. Like, just. He's fabulous. He's amazing. 10 out of 10. And now we've talked about the good stuff this month. Let's. Let's switch lanes. Yeah. So I've been getting a lot of crap this month. My bosom seems to be a point of contention for quite a lot of women. Like, they are. Are very angry that I'm not intentionally hiding my cleavage all the time because I have one and I don't know where else I'm supposed to put it. Right? Like, where. Where do you want it to go? Like, it's attached now. I. It's quite funny because the amount of people that have seen my, like, just rants and clapbacks and whatnot and they've gone to look at my social media and it's December, you know, so I'm in Christmas jumpers and festive attire for the whole month. And they're like, where are the bibs? We were promised bibs. We want boobs. History and boobs. And I'm like, if my boobs are like that offensive to people as well, like, you can just listen to the podcast. Like, you don't see them there. Like, it's audio, you're fine. That being said, somebody did say this week, they were like, your facts are about as fake as your accent. And I'm like, yeah, it's correct because this is real. Like, I don't. I don't know. Mom. Call a mombula up. They said my accent isn't real. But yeah, it's been a fun month and I have great plans of things happening. But I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, katie, it's been three minutes, quit your jibber jabber. In fact me. In fact you. I will. But first we've got to get our source on. Our sources are captured by 22 first hand accounts of murder and mayhem on the high seas. Edited by John Richard Stevens Suratresse du Trezur de l' Abuse entre Histoire et legender Insulars by Janek Benavin under the Black Flag the Romance and the Reality of Life among the Pirates by David Cordingley Pirates in Their Own Eyewitness Accounts of the golden age of Piracy, 1690-1728 by E.T. fox. The Golden Age of the Truth Behind Pirate Myths by Bennerson Little. Pirates of the americas by david f. Marley, Captain Kidd, Henry Every and the Pirate Democracy in the Indian Ocean by John Rogozinski the Trials of eight Persons Indicted for British Piracy in the Golden Age History and Interpretation by Joel H. Bauer the Republic of Pirates Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the man who Brought Them down by Colin Woodward Memoirs of Captain Sam Bellamy the Prince of Pirates by John Boyd the Pirate of Cotinga Island, 1718. A historical and archaeological study of a mysterious shipwreck in the south of Brazil by Geraldo Hosten Les Filibustiers Mysterious by Charles Laurentier Treasures of the World by Robert Charroux Olivier Leversien by Alain Desailloux Explorateurs et Pyrenees Francaise by Charles de Laurentier and Labuse Christogram by the Cypher Foundation. Are you sitting comfortable? Good. Then let's begin. I am so excited to continue talking about pirates. Oh my goodness. I'm definitely going to do another Pirate Month. I don't know when exactly, but it's definitely on the cards because there's so much I wanted to talk about, but I just didn't have time this month because I've just been so busy. But I thought let's have some fun and talk about maybe possibly hidden pirate treasure. Like this is like the, the stories, you know, it's the swashbuckling adventures. Oh, you know, there's hidden pirate treasure and there never is because it's not a thing. Cartography was not really part of this whole scenario. But what if maybe there was though? Because like, let's have a little fun. Because like, yeah, let's talk about Olivier Leversure. La bouche. No, la boussse. Yeah. So there's a common misconception regarding pirates, right? Especially during the golden age of piracy. And that is that pirates often had hidden treasure. Treasure that could only be discovered by wit, intellect and decent orienteering skills. X marks the spot of booty and plunder buried beneath the sand, away from the lawmakers and feuding pirates popularized in tales like Robert Louis Stevenson's A Treasure island and the core point of many a swashbuckling saga from the golden age of Hollywood. Now this story lies within a tumultuous sort of time in history. When is there not one though? When is some crap not happening? I know you're shocked, but we are sort of kicking about sort of the end of the golden age of piracy. Like it's starting to wane for sure. So just a recap on the golden age of piracy. So at runs between like 1650 and 1720. Now I know some people got mad at me for calling it the golden age of piracy, but that's just what it's called, right? Like the Gilded Age or the Tudor period. Right, it's, it's just what we call that time period in that location. Like that's what it is. Okay. So yes, the golden age of piracy about 1650 to 1720. And this is split into three periods. You've got the Buccaneering period, the Pirate Round and the post Spanish Succession period. So the Buccaneering period, it's what, 1650 to 1680 lasts about 30 years. And this is generally around like Jamaica and Tortuga. And it's between like English and the French versus Spain.
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Katie Charlewood
So Spanish settlements, colonies, ships. Right. And the reason it's called the Buccaneering period is, is because of the Spanish and the French. Really? Because the Spanish, they're like in, you know, the Caribbean, they're on the west coast of Central America. Like that's where they're at. They're colonizing this area, building up their empire. And so you have these French boucain. A boucain is a grill for smoking meat which basically makes jerky. Right? That's, that's what it does. And so buccaneer comes from the French word boucon, which again, because English is, I don't know, four languages and a trench coat, maybe five at this point, whoms to say? And these French wild game hunters, they would be on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, which, for the record for everybody, is Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Because again, the lines don't matter because. Not geographically anyway, because geography is political and it just is. Okay, let's not going to get into it right now. Maybe one day I will, but not today. So the French hunters there, smoking meat, they're living there, but they're getting a bit of an issue because, like Hispaniola, I'm sure you can tell by the name, ruled by the Spanish. And so they're hunting there, but they're also attacking ships and stuff, which is not great for everybody involved. So eventually they're sort of chased off, the Buccanier as they're called. They get chased off. They're like, oh, oh no, we don't like this. And they move to other islands and then they join with other unscrupulous sorts and to start pirating, really. And that's Buccagnier, the Buccaneers, and that's how that comes from. Then, of course, we have. Well, then you've got the pirate round, which is the second period in the golden age of piracy, and that's between 1693 and 1700. In this sort of. This era, there were much longer voyages, like further distances from the America and. And it's basically trying to like plunder sort of, you know, Muslim and East India Company targets in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. So they're basically going beyond the Caribbean for. For loot and booty at this point. And it's kind of like a mix of this period and the previous period that like the Pirates of the Caribbean movies take place. But they mix them all a bunch together, although technically they should have been in the buccaneering period. I'm not, you know, I'm not going to get into it because that's. That's a rant for another day. So the last, the final period is the post Spanish succession period, which is between 1716 and 1726. And again, Ronciel Diamond Coat does exactly what it says on the tin. This was after the war of Spanish secession, which is. Yeah, we'll get into that in a minute. So Spain loses monarch. There's like a war that happens. And then after that, well, you've got all of these seamen, you know, privateers, who had been working for like the navies, and they're all without work once the war ends, because what they gonna do? And so these privateers turn to pirating and that's that basically third period. Third. And then the. You Know the big powers were like fucking pirates and really stamped down on it. And those are your three areas in the golden age of piracy. Right. So like all in all, I think the golden age of piracy lasts like 80 something years. It's not a huge amount really, but it's, it's enough. I think Zora tale is really around that golden age of piracy when you know, it's starting to wane. And our tale actually begins in France and ends in the Caribbean. Another French pirate. Yes, but a very, very different one. Very different era, region, the whole shebang. Olivier Leverseur was a man of many names and a mystery, an unsolved mystery of pirate treasure. Olivier Leversier was born in France in the 1600s. And like dart up maps sometimes this is anywhere between, depending on the account, the source and the historian, 1683-1695, which is a 12 year gap. Somewhere in there he exists, right? He is brought into the world. And Olivier, he is the second son of Paul Leversieur, a freebooter, which is a sort of privateer pirate, but more of like selling their service like okay, like a mercenary but on the water right. Now his mother, she died in childbirth. So he grew up just with his father. I don't know if his father remarried. I could not find that information. So Olivier was born in Calais, a port town which had belonged to the English crown for about two centuries before it was reclaimed by the French. So this was in like 1558 under the reign of Mary I of England. So so this is like a big loss for her and for sort of, you know, British owned areas. And she's like starting the plantations now in Ireland in sort of leash and Offaly as well. So that like Kings County, Queens county as they were called at the time. So she had sent English planters, colonists over and it didn't do well because they just kept getting, just having their arses kicked by the Irish. It's very funny, but when it comes to losing Calle, I'm actually surprised that it happens this late because it is so wild to me that it wasn't lost in one of Henry VIII's dick measuring contests with the King of France. So depending on when he was actually born, he was either born during or grew up through the nine years War, right? So the nine Years War, I love that. I sigh and I'm like, oh, now I've got to explain this fcking war because there's so many of them, right? Like if you're a military historian, like that's why they're so specific. They're like, I cover like the Napoleonic wars and this, you know, it's very again very specific because there's so many wars and so much going on and so many countries and nations just constantly at each other. It's so much. But yes, the Nine Years War it is when France is at war with everyone, everyone else. Right, so you've got France against England, Scotland, the Dutch Republic, the Holy Roman Empire, the Spanish Empire and the Savoyard State, also known as. This whole group is known as the Grand Alliance. But why was everyone fighting with France? Well because of. I'm sighing again, I'm like it's always some dude, isn't it? Fucking is. Right? It's because of Louis xiv, the Sun King. He believed in absolute rule and spent most of his reign fighting for greater French power which is why the country ended up being bankrupted near the end of the. Anyway, what led to the French Revolution this. And you're like but wouldn't it been Louis xvi? And I'm like yeah, yeah, yeah. But it was more of a domino falling sort of situation. Like there was a build up to this anyway, France got loads of money and things. It was like it did. But also they were constantly fighting wars and wars are expensive like this one. So yeah, he was consistently fighting for greater French power and in 1688 decided to invade the western fringes of the Holy Roman Empire which was one by I think, was it Leopold ii? Which is. Yeah, he fucking hated that man. Like they did not like each other at the best of times. So he's like yeah lets just invade. So it's mainly happening in the low Countries like the main theater for this war, but it's also happening in the colonies in Asia, the Americas, Africa and the Caribbean. And so here we have Olivier who was born and or grew up during this period of war. Now his father must have done fairly okay for himself because Olivier trained to be an architect. That being said, there is an allegedlies, allegedly being that it's from a memoir that no one saw the original manuscript of or were allowed to copy. So that's Pinchas salt. Time for this alleged Lise. Olivier was the second son of a French noble on the Hee de France near Paris and studied military history and religion. And as the spare as opposed to the heir, he was unlikely to inherit his bourgeoisie father's titles and estates. He became a priest at the age of 16 and wished to join the Knights of Malta which was like a chivalric sort of order. I say sort of it was. It was a chivalric order. This meant he had to serve upon one of the Knights of Malta's Mediterranean galleys, defending the Christian world from the Ottoman Empire. Again, allegedly. And so he's doing this and he's having to like train on the ship and learn to fight and defend everybody. Like it's a whole thing. Allegedly. Allegedly. But yeah. So Olivier, he, he was well educated. Like, he studied math, the science of the era. And he would have been afforded an education that separates him from that of a stereotypical pirate. Which is wild, because this man is like the most stereotypical pirate you could find. Like, the concept of pirate, like this dude, right? But he's got this very scientific math brain, you know, he's an architect, so he understands angles and shit. Like, he's very precise. It's gonna make sense. You're like, katie, he's an architect, so he understands angles. What pearls of wisdom are you going to share with us next? Black pearls of wisdom. Listen, sidebar. I spoke about this last week, but we were in the LEGO store in Dublin and my mum was eyeing up, like, the Black Pearl, Lego, like the ship. Because she knows how much I love pirates and how Pirates of the Caribbean was like one of my big comfort movies for years, which is very difficult to watch when half the cast are just like dodgy people. Like, main cast anyway. And. But like, my mum was eyeing it up and she was very much considering trying to buy it for me. Like, she was standing in the LEGO store trying to do mental mathematics to see if she could afford it. And it's very expensive. And so she was like, I don't think I'm gonna do that, which is completely fair. And I, I have no, I'm not, no issue with that whatsoever. It's expensive. But I, I'll probably, probably at some point, I don't know, next year I'll treat myself to it because, you know, we all deserve a little bit of pirate ships in our lives. I do have a jigsaw, a 3D jigsaw somewhere that I need to build of the Queen Anne's Revenge, because that's who I am as a person. I'm an old lady. I like Puzzles and Brothers originals. Okay, leave me be. So Olivier, the non stereotypical stereotypical pirate, like, the sea came a calling and the war of Spanish secession lured him and many others under the guise of privateering, which was just as we know, state sponsored piracy that led to many men gaining a fortune. Again, this is all part of that sort of. I don't want to Call it social mobility of the golden age of piracy, except it kind of was your stepping stone to sort of getting somewhere. So I should probably explain the fucking Spanish War of Succession, right? Okay, so it starts with the death of Charles ii, who had no heirs, which is unsurprising if you'd seen his chin. There's a reason we talk about the Habsburg chin. It's your family tree. Should not be a wreath. Oh, look, I made it festive. So it ends with the peace treaty of ERCOTET in 1713. Now, many men had been privateering for France. And when the war ended, the move to outright piracy was a fairly easy one and was gradual for many, many men like Lavasure and like depending on when you want to decide he was born, he's either a teenager or in his 20s. Like he's not that old going through this. So this is his first real step out into the world and he's privateering. And so he ends up making his way, like from Europe all the way across to the Caribbean. Whether he was part of a privateering force there or left after, we don't know. But we do know that he made it there. To be a pirate of the.
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Katie Charlewood
In 1716, so three years after the end of the War of Spanish Succession, Olivier Levasseur had managed to enter an alliance with famed pirate Benjamin Hornigold. I'm gonna say a lot of names in this episode that if you have played Assassin's Creed, Black Flag, you're going to recognize them. Like, you're gonna know these, and you're gonna go, wait a minute. So he manages to get into this connection, and he'd already earned some monikers before. Like, he gets here, he had been called La Bouche, which is the mouth. I. I'm just assuming he's sassy. Like, that's where I'm going with this. And also La buse, which is the buzzard. Now, again, allegedly, the. The buzzard he got from just the manner in which he moved when he was, like, fighting. Like, it's. No, I'm not sure that's the most complimentary of terms, but it is what it is, right? I'm just like, I am the mouth and the buzzard. I don't know what that combination is. Like, that is. That is. That is a choice. So. So Benjamin Hornigold, he has power and respect in Nassau, which is the pirate republic, and under him, because, remember, he's still relatively young here. Olivier, he learned the nuances of piracy, from engaging enemy vessels to navigating treacherous waters. Like, they capture, within their few months together, like, 50 ships. Which. That's a lot. Like, that's a lot to get in a couple months, right? A lot of the time, you're lucky to get, like, one or two a week. But they are just going at it. I mean, I do suppose you have, like, settlements and more trade routes happening, but, like, they're just going for it. So for a few months, like, they sailed as part of the flying gang. So you've got Benjamin Hornigold, who's with the Benjamin. Because, of course, he named the ship after himself. Levasseur, with the postilion. Right. Which was like an eight gunship. I think the amount of things I am learning about gunships here. It's all I'm saying. So after Hornigold, Olivier sailed with another legendary pirate, Samuel Bellamy. Right. So they plundered merchant vessels and brigades. They held the ships for ransom, and. And when the Spanish couldn't raise the funds, they left the captive crews Ashore and then burned the ships off the coast of Cuba. Like they're prowling the Cuban coast and they come across a bunch of English sloops. So sloops are these very quick and agile boats. They're sort of single masted with fore and aft sails. So pirates, traders, and then you've got naval sloops of war which have like gumbo. So a sloop is this single masted ship with like fore and aft sails. It's known to be like, agile and quick. So it was very common for pirates to use these because they did become like little gunboats or escort ships just because they were quick and they could quickly attack. And this was something that he used quite often. Like he would use speed and agility and he's quite ruthless with it. And so he would use this in order to like overtake and capture ships. So traders would also use these because they were quick and they were just a very useful type of boat. So they're prowling the Cuban coast and they come across this bunch of English sloops and they had nothing worth plundering. So they come across them and they, you know, they take them, they claim the ship, they try and get the goods on board, which is what pirates do. And there is nothing there. There's nothing there. They jettisoned their cargo, they dumped it before the pirates could get to them because they were like, no, we better dump our goods. That'll stop the bloodthirsty, greedy pirates who now no longer have the very thing they wanted. Yeah, they had basically dumped it at the Isla de los Pinos because they were like, let's be careful. And they were like, well, that's no fun. So by the end of 1716, he had captured this Portuguese frigate, La Luis, and converted it into a pirate vessel which would become his flagship. And it would be a symbol of terror, where his reputation for brilliance and brutality flourished. This is like a 22 gun frigate. It's like big ship loads of guns. And the sales, there's discussion about the sails where the scales like black with a cross. I know that at one point his sails were white with just like a skeleton on them. It was like a dead man. Which was really, really common for people just to have like bones on their flags. Like common, the Jolly Roger, things like that. Very, very common it with variations, but they were there. It was very much a thing. And when it comes to these flags, that's how they're recognized. And like in late November, like his 20 gunship, it was recognized at the Virgin Islands by Jonathan Rose who was, I think, the quartermaster of the HM frigate Seaford, which it gave chase and then. And then gave up, right? Because what they'd done is they had seen his, you know, flag, the white flag with the dead man on it, and they were like that. That pirate who's been stealing all her shit. And they tried to chase him, but he was too fast. Like, it's one of those things, like, when it comes to piracy, like a lot of pirates, they very much steal things that are useful, things that they can trade. It's very rare. They would just get treasure, like, because it's heavy, it weighs down a boat, and it's not really that useful for them in the long run. And so they usually just don't do that. Olivier is like Danny Ocean, in a way. He's just, like, always looking for that next big score. Like, he just seems to be chasing, chasing that dragon. He's just chasing that. Chasing that big score continuously. And there's all these tales of just, like, how brutal and horrific he was. Now, a lot of the time, he would just, you know, he would let a lot of the crew go. And it was something he learned, I think, from. From Bellamy. I can't remember if it was Bellamy or Hornigold, but he got it from someone in the flying gang, right, Which I think was probably Hornigold. And so he would leave a few people alive. He wouldn't kill everybody, because you need somebody alive to tell the story of the scary pirate. Like, where do the stories come from if there are no survivors? Somebody has to know, right? There has to be a word of mouth, you know, And I. I always think that he's slightly less brutal than he's portrayed a lot of the time. Not that, you know, murdering half a ship isn't bad. I mean, it's still bad, but, like, in relative terms, for example, right, he's out plundering and attacking many, many, many, many vessels, like so many. One of which was a Portuguese slave ship from Angola. So after attacking the ship and damaging it far beyond repair, he leaves the crew upon the sinking ship, their fate to be judged by the sea. The human cargo, however they were now the term used most often is abandoned. But the 240 stolen, enslaved people that were upon the ship, they are left ashore on the island of Macae, right, which is close to Rio de Janeiro. And he's like, well, you're free now. Be free. Right? Which I think, considering he could have just left everybody on the ship, and the fact that he was like, not today, lads. I I really appreciate that. Like, I mean, you may be a murderous pirate, but. But you saved a bunch of people who were stolen from their homeland and were going to be used as forced labor until they died. Now, the imperial powers, they weren't super impressed with him at this point anyway. But after this incident, that's when the Portuguese really set their sights on him. Now they are really gun informed at this point. They're actively seeking him because he's causing them so many problems. Like sinking the ship was bad enough, but when they heard that he freed people, they weren't too keen on that. So it's his ship. La Louise was attacked at Ubatuba and Ilagronde and lost enough men that they had to recoup at Cananea. And for a good few days, they had to just try and get the ship back in working order. And it's here that La Bouche hears about a wealthy French merchant and how this merchant ship was at Parnagua, which is a nearby bay. I would like to apologize for everybody. I don't speak Portuguese. I'm. I'm doing my best. Now, in a move that shocks absolutely no one, this pirate decides to go after the big, rich merchant ship. And while chasing it, there's a storm off of Cotinga island. And on the 9th of March, 1718, Olivier Levasseur's flagship, La Louise, sank. And with it, he loses 80 men. So in this storm, he loses 80 crew. And as the ship sinks, he manages to escape certain death with a few men, thanks to a small brigantine which had been escorting La Louise, which is just what they did. They traveled in packs, right? That's how fleets work. That's why if you've got a bigger ship, it's always handy to have a smaller, faster ship, just in case, you know, I'm not trying to teach people how to be international pirates. I think we've passed that stage. I'm just saying, this is what you do. So he takes this wee ship and he comes across this ship that is stocked with flour, and he's like, fantastic. That'll feed the fellas. Like, at one point, he also gets another ship which is like, it's full of cacao from Makaea. And he's like, yes, let's. Let's get some of this. And they're just eating, right, which is like, yeah, you want to feed your crew. It's kind of necessary. And also it's good for you. It's good for your boosting. Also dark chocolate, by the way, for the Record. Good for your teeth. So he's sailing away and he's heading to, so, Francisco de Sol. And, like, thanks to his precision, and I'm gonna also say aggression, he manages to overtake, like, that merchant ship, right, which is where he manages to get this now feeds his crew and once he does that, right, with the cassava flower, he heads back to Kananea, where he manages to steal another small ship and make his way to the Caribbean, like, continuously plundering as he goes, right? Like, he's deliberately stealing these small, swift ships, which are, you know, less swift, but when he has them, because they're continuously bogged down with all of this treasure, right? Like, at one point, he's being chased by the HMS Scarborough under, what was it, Captain Francis Hume, because he manages to surprise the pirate off the coast of Blanquilla, right? And he's hunting them and they manage to flee just about. And. And here's the thing, Olivier, he is becoming super aware that the Caribbean is sort of becoming a hot spot for anti piracy. And so he decides to get the heck at a dodge and head over to Africa. And he's sailing to, what, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, etc. Now, Olivier, he is sailing alongside sort of Howell Davis and Thomas Cocklan. I'm trying to remember if these are flying gang members or whether he's just sort of like, made up with them across the sea or whether they're just new. I think they might be flying gang. So they venture to Sierra Leone, which is where merchant ships took on cargoes of ivory and enslaved people on top of that as well. Like, in this area, you've got a lot of these ships sailing towards, you know, Mecca. So you've got these very. So you've got these ships that have a lot of treasure. You've got them coming from the East Indies. There's just so much going on. So there's a lot going on in this area specifically. So they absolutely wreck this port in Sierra Leone, which is something that they tend to do quite a bit, because they make their way to the slave port of Odea, which is in the kingdom of Whydah, which is. What was it? Whydah? And then it became Dahomey, and now it's Benin, right? So there was this fortress at the port and they're like, oh, a slave port with a fortress. Not for long. So they attack at dawn. They shot at the fort's crumbling walls until it was shrouded in smoke and flame. And then when it was destroyed, they just sailed on, like, they just left and he was doing fairly well because he had his sloop, he was going sailing through, plundering, destroying shit, as one does. And he's doing this. And then his sloop, he has to replace it because it had Teredo worms, otherwise known as Teredo navalis or the naval shipworm, which is basically a type of saltwater clam that sort of burrowed into the ship's hull and it was gonna like leak and then sink, like he needed to replace the ship. And in a crazy random happenstance, he manages to claim the frigate Snail Grave, which was in the Indian Ocean. He was like, want it? I got it. It's mine now. And then the unthinkable happens. Olivier Lavasseur is shipwrecked.
- [45:07]
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- [46:43]
Katie Charlewood
Today, One fateful day in 1720, Olivier Lavasseur and his crew is shipwrecked in the Comoro Islands, which are like east of Mozambique and north of Madagascar, right? Not geographically where we are. And this is where he meets some more pirates, right? In August 1720, you've got Edward England, who's Dutch, by the way, Just to clarify, his name was England, but he's Dutch. So him and his quartermaster, John Taylor, like them and their crew, they spot these three ships sailing sort of, they're coming home from the East Indies. Now, at least two of the boats are Dutch. I don't know what the third boat is, but at least two of them are Dutch. And they escape, right? Two of the vessels manage to flee, but one, the Cassandra, mastered by James McRae, like, the crew managed to escape with James McRae. They managed to escape to an island. And the pirates, right? So they come across the island and Edward England, he spared McCrae and his crew, right? So they were hiding in the jungle on this island. And eventually they're like, okay, we're starving. Like, we're either gonna die here or they're gonna kill us. Like, let's hope that maybe we can parlay a little. So they come out and Edward England's like, you know what? You can sail away in my damaged ship Fancy. The ship was called Fancy. And he's like, you can have it. Off you go. And this was not a great decision. So the whole crew, right again, floating democracies are pirate ships. And so the crew wanted to like, get rid of these guys, but he was like, no, no, let them not only survive, but let them sail away for reasons. And because of this, England's crew mutinied and he is marooned on another island. And John Taylor, he is voted in as the captain. So he goes from quartermaster to captain. And so he's sailing along to another Comoro island, where he met Leversure and his men. Now, I don't know what it was about this crew on an island that he thought, this is a good, this is a good bunch, we should join forces. But they decide to team up. And Taylor, he gives Olivier the ship victory, right? This was one of his prizes. He's like, this is your ship now. And sailing in consort, the two headed to Bourbon island, which is now known as Reunion, right? Which is south west of Mauritius. Okay, I'm giving a lot of geographical, like, descriptors this episode because I'm not again, great at geography. So I have spent a lot of time looking at maps with the compass and hoping that I'm right. So Bourbon island from named after, of course, the house of Bourbon, which is like one of the big ruling God classes families, the French royal family, the House of Bourbon. Also like the House of Windsor in England and the House of Habsburg in Spain. Don't mention the Habsburg chin again, Katie. You'll get in trouble. So in 1721, the crews arrive at the island, and we're now sort of in the climax of his career. Like, this is seen as one of the greatest exploits in pirate history, right? Second to that only of Henry Avery. So There is this 700 ton Portuguese carrack, the Nossa Senjora do Cabo, and it was anchored at Bourbon Island While the crew repaired damage it had sustained from a storm. This ship is stuffed to the gills with treasure from the Bishop of Goa and the Portuguese viceroy, the Count of Eressia, and they're both on board the ship. So you've got two important people and all their shit is on this ship, right? They are returning to Lisbon. The pirates, like, when they take the ship, they manage to get on board the vessel without firing a single shot, right? So this ship, the Nossa Senhora du Cabo, it had no cannons on account of chucking them overboard during the aforementioned storm, right? Do they dump any of the gold or valuables overboard to make the ship less heavy? Because they're really worried about it capsizing during the storm? Absolutely not. They're like, no, no, let's get rid of our protection, all of our cannons. Right? Right. I think. What was it? I can't remember if it's 17 or 20, but there was a lot of cannons and they just dumped them overboard. They're just like, no, we don't need this. So Olivier and his men, they plundered the ship, which was booty full. I fucking regret nothing, okay? I regret nothing. That might be a dad joke. I don't care. It's a good pun for this, and I stand by it. You have. It's booty full. It's full of booty. Fuck off. So this ship there is like half a million pounds worth in diamonds, right? Including the 120 karat great Moogle diamond, right? There are dozens of boxes of golden gas, right? Which is a golden coin. Like boxes, like, stuffed. They're like, full of these coins. Not like a couple of coins. Like, they are full. You have art. You have Chinese silks, spices, pearls, ebony, porcelain, rosewood furniture and other luxuries, right? Worth conservatively at the time, £375,000. Okay? On top of that, there is the Fiery cross of Gore, which is solid gold and encrusted with rubies and weighs 220 pounds. Then you've got gold bars and again, more gems. And on top of this, because there is more, right? There are priceless ancient books and Asian manuscripts. And there is so much, right, There is so much on this ship that, like, they take as much as they can, but, like, there's no point them trying to rob anybody. They don't rob anybody on this ship because they're like, we've got so much. There's no point. They've got all this. That being said, for the fun of it, Olivier ransomed the Count of arisia, right, for 400 pounds, which the governor of Bourbon paid to ensure his safe release. Like, this is basically the story in Treasure Island. Like, that's. That's it. Like they stole all this jewel. It's gone. It's like Robert Louis Stevenson. I see where you got the inspiration. So they end up, you know, sailing back to the Ile Saint Marie and the booty is divided up between all the pirate crew and they receive what, like 50 grand worth in golden Gagne coins and 42 diamonds each. And so John Taylor and Olivier Levasseur, they split the rest. And now I think this might actually be the biggest hole in pirate history, right? Olivier, he takes the cross, the Fiery Cross of Goa, the one that is solid gold and just encrusted with diamonds and rubies and emeralds and all of the jewels, right? And John Taylor, he takes the big ass diamond. I mean, I guess it's easier to carry. You know, it's a massive diamond. And they go, yeah, they go so much, so much, so much booty. Like, I'm trying to just like. Like in my head, it's like One Eyed Willy and the Goonies. It's just that ship full of treasure. Now, was it, I think it's December 1721 that Olivier seizes the slave ship La Duchesse de Noirs, right? And typically, right, typically when he captured a ship, especially at this point point, he would let most of the ship be. He let most of you, off you go. So this time, however, the ship was torched. Now, I don't know if enslaved people were on the ship at the time or not. Like, I don't have that specific piece of information because, like, what he's done up until this point, anytime he has attacked a slaver ship is he has freed the slaves upon it, but this time he just burnt it. Now, after about a year as well, with John Taylor, like, they parted ways and okay, John Taylor, what he does is he is like the best possible scenario you can get as, as a pirate, right? He sailed to Panama, received a pardon and became a pirate hunter. After that, he retired to Jamaica, got hitched and had four kids and lived out the rest of his days. Cuz see what's happening at this point, A lot of the big powers are trying to stamp out piracy, right? And it's again the waning, it's the end of the golden age of piracy. So the governor of Bourbon, he was offering pirates a French pardon if they just stopped pirating, right? And also. What was that? We'll get to it now. Some took it, they took the pardon and retired on bourbon, on Iris Saint Marie lavisure and his men did not in 1724. So like we're a few years more. Levasseur, he's like, he's considering it now, he's floating the idea. And so he sends a negotiator to meet with the Governor to discuss amnesty effectively, right? They're handing out pardons in exchange for return of plunder and giving back treasure. And Olivier Levasseur, he's like, fuck that for a game of soldiers and then just buggers off to the Seychelles, right? Like he changes his identity and he's basically a master of disguise. And he's out on the Seychelles. Archipelago, I cannot say this word. Archipelago, archipelago, archipelago, archipelago, archipelago, archipelago. Is that right? It sounds weird. You know what? I looked up how to pronounce and that's what showed up. If it's wrong, report that. Not me. Also maybe tell me if it's within like the first week of this being released. Tell me if it's after that assumes somebody has. So yes, 1725, the governor of Bourbon, he dies. Of what? I don't know, Dysentery, I don't know. And Pierre Benoit Dumas, he replaces the governor of Bourbon and he absolutely despised pirates and piracy. Basically anything pirate related he was not for, to be honest. And so instead of offering amnesty, he ordered pirate hunting to occur. And so for five years, Olivier manages to hide out in the Seychelles archipelago archipelago. The Seychelles archipelago witches. Like 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Like there's. There's a big anti piracy push happening and he's just hiding out, right? Doing what? Who knows? For five years, we don't know. He's just away. And eventually he is caught near Font Dauphin, Madagascar by Captain L'. Hermite. And on the 26th of April 1730, he was imprisoned in St. Paul on Bourbon, where he was interrogated and found guilty on the 3rd of July, and sentenced to death. So he was interrogated three times. Now, I think we can assume that this was not the most pleasant of scenarios to go through, but he's found guilty of acts of piracy. Just so many of them. And they're like, yeah, it's, it's the death penalty for you, bud. And so on the 7th of July, 1730, he was brought to the St. Denis Public Square to be executed. A gallows were installed just for him. How considerate. But before he reaches the gallows, as he's walking through the square, he throws a necklace with a cryptogram into the crowd and bellowed, find my treasure. The one who may understand it. Alleged lace. The necklace has been lost. However, treasure hunters have tried to decode the 17 line cryptogram, hoping to find the hidden pirate treasure. So this is, this is an interesting one. So he goes to the gallows and 7th of July, 1730, and he is hanged by the neck until dead, right? And then he's put on display for a period of time just basically to show, like, piracy bad, you know. Now his death, it leads to this big mystery. Oh, my God. I totally forgot to tell you this really important. Stereotypical pirate park. Oh, my God. Okay, okay. No, he had an eye patch, okay? So in his younger days, he gains an injury to his eye and he eventually goes blind in that eye. And he wears an eye patch because the eye, it just looks kind of scary and dodgy. So he wears an eye patch because he needs to wear one. He looks like your stereotypical pirate. He's so piratey, right? And his death leads this basic 300 year mystery about alleged hidden treasure. And this treasure, this alleged treasure, it is meant to be over 1.5 billion today. Like, it is huge. And of course, treasure hunters have been seeking it. So the real buzz from this happens in, like the 1930s, where this renowned French historian, Charles de Laurentier, he comes across this document, right? He's a navy historian, right? He's French Navy. And so he comes across this document in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, and he believes they're from the 18th century. And within it there is this 17 line cryptogram. And treasure hunters have been obsessed ever since, right? So you've got people like Joseph Thibault, who's. His nickname is Bibique. I love that Bibique. And so he spends quite a lot of his time, like on the west coast of Reunion trying to find, you know, this treasure on the island of Rodriguez. You've got people searching like digging for 20, 30 years trying to find stuff in a gully. You've got all these islands. People are sort of trying to orienteer and, like, find these clues and go around the islands and they're searching all over now. Reunion. People seem to think it's on Reunion island, as opposed to. As opposed to, like, one of the many other options. Considering, like, that's where he was most likely to be caught and captured. It is wild that he would put it there. Although I do like the idea of it being, like, a big fu. So it's this. This cryptogram. It's 17 lines. I'm gonna post it to. I'll post it to the official. The official Instagram. So it's. I think somebody said it was like a Franco Alphabet, but it might not be. It could be like, a completely different one. So it has. They look a little bit like runes to me, you know, like a little bit like traditional sort of Norse runes, but they're. They're not. So it's. It's like a. It's an Alphabet of some kind. But what language is it in? And does the Alphabet match up with it? It's so interesting. Now, there are theories that it's based on sort of Masonic symbolism, like the Masons, right. Which is, again, very Assassin's Creed. It's also connected with the Zodiac.
- [67:19]
GrowTherapy Advertiser
What?
- [67:19]
Katie Charlewood
Not the Zodiac Killer. That being said, it's almost as if a Zodiac killer went, oh, that's a cyber. Interesting. There is also a connection, allegedly, with the twelve Labors of Hercules or the Clavicles of Solomon. And you have to, like, solve this riddle in order to solve it. Right. It gets to the point that people are searching like they're on Marais, they're on Reuvenon. Like, they're finding pirates, sarcophagi coins, like Ganya's guns, the whole things. And then, like, they're going searching the island, and it gets to the point that, what was it? I think by the 2010s or by 2012? You've got 2012, 2014. There is this French researcher, Emmanuel Mazino, and he's like, I've deciphered the cryptogram. Doesn't share it with anybody, though. But he says he's deciphered it, and he says that the treasure is buried on Reunion. The French R is such. Hard for me. Reunion. So hard for me to say on Reunion Island. There we go. And he says that it's there. And now they think that it is basically under this big tomb. And so legally, they need Permission from the island to dig underneath it. But the island's like, no, because they don't believe in the treasure. Now, there is a transcription of the cryptogram which I'm going to read to you, which is very much alleged. So this is what it's supposed to be, right? Appr. Jimmie, un per de pigeons trisquez tout Charles feu Claud futet un clie demi of Orphe feu en fait. It doesn't say, where is mother or dog. No. Right, okay, right. This is bullshit, right? I don't mean to ruin your fun, but I don't think that's right. Now, there are a couple words, but this is like, if you have infinite monkeys and infinite typewriters, they are going to create the works of Shakespeare. Now, the fact that some words are appearing in it, I'm not entirely sure it's meant to be in French. And if it is, I don't think this is the. I don't think this is the way it's meant to be. I've been looking at it. So I was trying. I'm trying to decipher a cipher here. And I'm like, that just seems incorrect. But yes. 300 years, people have been searching the Seychelles for the mysterious, alleged hidden treasure of Olivier Leversur. Now the question is, did he really bury treasure or was he just fucking with them? And have we considered point number three? What if someone else got to the treasure before he was even executed? What if it was a real thing? What if it wasn't? Like, I mean, I understand that he could have been paranoid at that point. If we take that into consideration that perhaps he's paranoid, he's hidden his treasure because he can't get rid of it. He can't move fast enough to get it out. He's gonna get caught. He's already hiding out on these islands and he needs to be able to. Like, why? Like, it must be that he is trying to get someone else to find it. Like, why would you write it cryptically? Unless you couldn't remember, or you were worried about not remembering, or you were trying to help someone else find it. Like, why have the puzzle? Like, what is the purpose of the puzzle? Like, there has to be a reason, and you want to create a puzzle because you want people to either solve it or you want to be so smart that they can't. But anyway. Yo ho, me hearties, yo ho. And that is the end of Olivier Levasseur, La Bouche, Labuse, the second richest pirate, I think in pirate History. And if you liked my retelling of the story and my terrible pronunciation of Spanish. No, Spanish, Portuguese. I don't speak either of them. Guys. I'm doing my best. So that is that if you liked that rating. Review, 5 stars. If you want to say something bad, shut up. I don't. I'm kidding. I mean, I'm not really, but. Anyway, you can catch me on the television on the BBC iplayer. I'm gonna be doing a live show in Belfast. Links are on the website, so check that out. And, of course, follow me on the socials, interact, say nice things, share and care. So I guess it's recommendation time for watching. Listen, listen, I'm not going to recommend a Muppet Treasure island again. That would be wild. Even though I love it. I mean, I'm recommending Me. Watch Me, Watch Me this week, but out with me, you know what, for watching, of course, the Goonies. Because I've already mentioned it this episode, and it has a ton of tenuous pirate connection. So watch the Goonies. It's. It's a fun Christmas film for everybody. And it always surprises me how Sean Astin is, I think, the same age as. As Winona Ryder, because in my head, even seeing them as teenagers, I assumed he was younger than she was. He just because he's so small and petite and, you know, I had a crush on him when he got older. I didn't. I didn't. Anyway, that's not a point. I had a crush on Winona Ryder, obviously, because she's Winona Ryder and is beautiful, but that is recommendation for watching, for reading. I'm gonna recommend a fiction book. What? You're reading fiction? Shut up. Sometimes I do. So, yes. The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutsky. Right. It's. Trust me, trust me. So we have that for our reading and for listening. I've been listening to Crameless Hillbilly Heist. Listen, I. I love a heist. You know how much I love a heist, right? They. It's fun, it's good. Johnny Knoxville.
- [75:44]
Momentous Supplement Advertiser
Who?
- [75:45]
Katie Charlewood
Has he done anything bad recently? Has he? I think he's. He's fine now, right? He's good now, isn't he? Isn't he? Anyway, Hillbilly Heist has been my. My listening recommendation. And so with that, I'm gonna bid you all adieu. Adios. Au revoir, au vuirise, my friends. Bye.
- [76:08]
GrowTherapy Advertiser
Bye.
- [76:11]
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- [76:42]
Katie Charlewood
ACAST powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend. The world of commercial real estate is changing and fast. Welcome to in the Loop. We're diving into the topics that hit the hardest. We'll explore what's happening today. The benefits of biophilia in the workplace can be decreased stress and irritability tomorrow. How can you bring components of the.
- [77:12]
Momentous Supplement Advertiser
15 minute city, of the urban grid.
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Katie Charlewood
Of things people like, the gathering places and beyond? When you start thinking about the future and start thinking about these things are coming in 2030 or 2040 or 2050, then you can go, okay, now how do I actually take actions today to make that happen? Subscribe to in the Loop. You Wherever you get your podcast, ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast. Com.