Latest / Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood / 173. Olivier Levasseur - Hidden Pirate Treasure

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173. Olivier Levasseur - Hidden Pirate Treasure · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello, delicious friends, and welcome to Who Did What Now?
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: The history podcast That's not your history class with me,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: your host Katie Charlewood, History Harlotte and reader of books.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: So the cat is finally at the bag. I'm allowed
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: to talk about it now. I am part of a
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: companion piece for a docu drama that's going to be
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: out on the BBC later this month, December twenty twenty five.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: So there's a docu drama which is a minute by
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: minute like play of the sinking of the Titanic and
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: the people they're in and it is called Titanic Sinks Tonight.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: It's going to be on BBC two, nine PMGMT and
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: it's the twenty twenty nine, thirtieth and thirty first of December.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: And when that's released, the companion piece which is going
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: to be on The Eyeplayer with myself and Gareth Russell,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: who we weren't intentionally wicked coded. I need you to
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: know that it wasn't planned, but like, there are certain
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: rules when you're on TV, and it's like, don't wear
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: anything with a logo that shows your bibs, and I'm like,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: all right, no problem. So we worked with what we
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: had so our companion face life after a disaster. It
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: is roy and Seil diamond Coat does exactly what it
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: says in the tin. It's what happened after the Titanic disaster,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: you know, people like Charles Lighthall or Violet jess Up,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Lady Duff Gordon, so on and so forth. And I
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: am so grateful to have been a part of that.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: And Gareth is such a delight, like I would work
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: with him anytime anywhere, like just his fabulous He is amazing,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: ten out of ten. And now we've talked about the
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: good stuff this month. Let's let's switch lens. Yeah, so
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: I've been getting a lot of crap this month. My
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: bosom seems to be a point of contention for quite
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: a lot of women, Like they are very angry that
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: I'm not intentionally hiding my cleavage all the time because
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: I have one, and I don't know where else I'm
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: supposed to put it, right, like where do you want
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: it to go? Like it's attached now. It's quite funny
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: because the amount of people that have seen my like
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: just rants and clapbacks and whatnot, And they've gone to
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: look at my social media and it's December you know.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: So I'm in Christmas jumpers and festive attire for the
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: whole month, and they're like, where are the bibs. We
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: were promised bibbs. We want bibbs, history and bibbs. And
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: I'm like, if my ribs are like that offensive to
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: people as well, Like you can just listen to the podcast,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: like you don't see them there, it's audio. You're fine.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: That being said, somebody did say this week they were like,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: your facts are about as fake as your accent. And
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, it's correct because this is real. Like
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: I don't know, Mom, call amumb be like this said
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: my accent is it real? But yeah, it's been. It's
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: been a fun and I have great plans of things happening.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: But I know what you'll think. You're thinking, Kat, it's
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: been three minutes. Quite your deba Jabba in fact me,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: in fact, you are well. But first we've got to
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: get our source on our sources are captured by pirates.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Twenty two first hand accounts of murder and Mayhem on
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: the High Says, edited by John Richard Stevens. So Latres
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: de tressur de la bieuse entrees elegend Insula by Jannick Benevan.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Under the Black Flag, The Romance and the Reality of
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Life among the Pirates by David Cordingly. Pirates in their
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Own Words, Eyewitness Accounts of the Golden Age of Piracy
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: sixteen ninety to seventeen twenty eight by E. T. Fox,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: The Golden Age of Piracy, The Truth behind Pirate Myths
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: by Bennerson Little, Pirates of the Americas by David F. Marley.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Honor among Thieves Captain kid Henry every and The Pirate
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Democracy in the Indian Ocean by Jan Rogozinsky. The Trials
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: of Eight Persons Indicted for Piracy. British Piracy and the
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Golden Age History and Interpretation by Joel H. Bauer. The
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Republic of Pirates Being The true and surprising story of
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: the Caribbean Pirates and the man who brought them down
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: by Colin Woodward. Memoirs of Captain Sam Bellamy, The Prince
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: of Pirates by John Boyd. The Pirate of Katinga Island
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: seventeen eighteen, a historical and archaeological study of a mysterious
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: shipwreck in the South of Brazi by Giraldo Houstin La
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Filibustis by chan Larenzier, Treasures of the World by Robert Charux,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Olivier Lesion by Alan Desaillux, Explorers by Charle de la Renzier,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: and Labuse Christogram by the Cipher Foundation. I use it
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: incomfortably good. Then let's begin. I am so excited to
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: continue talking about pirates. Oh my goodness. I'm definitely going
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: to do another Pirate Month. I don't know when exactly,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: but it's definitely on the cards because there was so
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: much I wanted to talk about, but I just didn't
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: have time this month because I've just been so busy.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: But I thought, let's have some fun and talk about
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: maybe possibly headen pirate treasure, Like this is the the stories.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: You know, it's the swashbuckling adventures, or you know there's
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: hidden pirate treasure. There never is because it's not a thing.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Cartography was not really part of this whole scenario. But
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: what if maybe there was, though, because like, let's have
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: a little fun, because like, yeah, let's talk about Olivier Leversio,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: la boushe no labous. Yeah. So there's a common misconception
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: regarding pirates right especially during the Golden Age of piracy,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: and that is that pirates often had hidden treasure, treasure
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: that could only be discovered by wit, intellect, and decent
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: orienteering skills. X marks the spot of booty and plunder,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: buried beneath the sand, away from the lawmakers and feuding pirates,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: popularized in like Robert Louis Stevenson's A Treasure Island and
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: the Core Point of Many, a swashbuckling saga from the
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Golden Age of Hollywood. Now, this story lies within a
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: tumultuous sort of time and history. When is there not
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: one though? When is some crap not happening? I know
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: you're shocked, but we are sort of kicking about sort
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: of the end of the Golden Age of piracy, like
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: it's starting to wane for sure. So just a recap
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: on the Golden Age of piracy. So it runs between
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: like sixteen fifty and seventeen twenty. Now, I know some
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: people got mad at me for calling it the Golden
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Age of piracy, but that's just what it's called, right,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: like the Gilded Age or the Tudor period, right, It's
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: it's just what we call that time period in that location,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Like that's what it is, Okay, So, yes, the Golden
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Age of pirates, say about sixteen fifty to seventeen twenty.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: And this is what in two three periods. You've got
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: the buccaneering period, the Pirate round, and the post Spanish
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: succession period. So the buccaneering period it's what sixteen fifty
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: to sixteen eighty lasts about their years. And this is
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: generally around like Jamaica and Tortuga, and it's between like
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: English and the French versus Spain, so Spanish settlements, colonies, ships, right,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: And the reason it's called the buccaneering period is because
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: of the Spanish and the French. Really, because the Spanish
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: they're like in you know, the Caribbean, they're in the
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: west coast of Central America, like that's where they're at.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: They're colonizing this area, building up their empire. And so
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: you have these French bucon. Buco is a grill for
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: smoking meat, which basically makes jerky, right, That's that's what
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: it does. And so buccaneer comes from the French world boucon,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: which again because English is I don't know, four languages
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: in a Trench got maybe five at this point, hymns
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: to say, and these French wild game hunters, they would
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: be on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, which for the
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: record for everybody is Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Because
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: again the lines don't matter because not geographically anyway, because
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: geography is political and it just is okay, it's not
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: going to get into it right now. Maybe one day
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: I will, but not to day. So the French hunters,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: they're smoking meat, they're living there, but they're getting a
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: be a bit of an issue because like Hispaniola, I'm
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: sure you can tell by the name, ruled by the Spanish,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: and so they're hunting there, but they're also attacking and stuff,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: which is not great for everybody involved. So eventually they're
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: sort of chased off. The boukenye as they're called. They
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: get chased off. They're like, oh oh no, we don't
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: like this, and they move to other islands and then
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: they join with other unscrupulous sorts and just start pirrating really,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: and that's boukene the buccaneers, and that's how that comes from.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Then of course we have well, then you've got the
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: pirate round, which is the second period in the Golden
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Age of piracy, and that's between sixteen ninety three and
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: seventeen hundred, and this sort of this era, there were
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: much longer voyages, like further distances from the America, and
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: it's basically trying to like plunder sort of you know,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: Muslim and East India company targets in the Indian Ocean
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: and the Red Sea, so they're basically going beyond the
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Caribbean for for and booty at this point. And it's
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: kind of like a mix of this period and the
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: previous period that like the Pirates of the Caribbean movies take place,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: but they mix them all a bunch together. Although technically
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: they should have been in the buccaneering period. I'm not
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm not going to get into it because
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: that's that's a rant for another day. So the last
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: the Fenel period is the post Spanish Succession period, which
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: is between seventeen sixteen and seventeen twenty six And again
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Ron Sealed Diamond Coat does exactly what it says on
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: the tin. This was after the War of Spanish Secession,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: which is yeah, we'll get into that in a minute.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: So Spindless's monarch, there's like a war that happens, and
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: then after that, well you've got all of these seamen,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: you know, privateers who had been working for like the navies,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: and they're all without work once the war ends, because
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: what they're going to do. And so these privateers turned
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: to pirating and that's that basically third period. And then
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: the you know, the big powers were like fucking pirates
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: and really stamped down on it. And those are your
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: three areas in the Golden edge of piracy, right, So
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: like all in all, I think the Golden Age of
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: piracy last like eighty something years. It's not a huge
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: amount really, but it's it's enough, I think. So our
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: tail is really around that golden age of piracy when
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: you know it's starting to wane. And our tale actually
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: begins in France and ends in the Caribbean. Another French pirate, yes,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: but a very very different one, very different era region
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: the whole shebang. Olivier le Basur was a man of
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: many names and a mystery, an unsolved mystery of pirate treasure.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Ah Olivia Levarsia was born in France in the sixteen hundreds,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: and like dart map, sometimes this is anywhere between depending
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: on the account, the source and the historian sixteen eighty
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: three to sixteen ninety five, which is a twelve year
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: gap somewhere in there he exists, right, he is brought
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: into the world and Olivier he is the second son
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: of Paul Leversiu, a freebooter, which is a sort of
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: privateer pirate but more of like selling their service like okay,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: like a mercenary but on the water. Right. Now, his
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: mother she died in childbirth, so he grew up just
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: with his father. I don't know if his father remarried.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: I could not find that information. So Olivier was born
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: in Calais, a port town which had belonged to the
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: English crown for about two centuries before it was reclaimed
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: by the French. So this was in like fifteen fifty
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: under the reign of Mary the First of England. So
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: this is like a big loss for her in four
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: sort of you know, British owned areas, and she's like
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: starting the plantations now in Ireland and sort of leationian
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: awfully as well, so that like King's County, Queen's county
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: as they were called at the time. So she had
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: sent English plantis colonists over and it didn't do well
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: because they just kept kidding, just having their arses kicked
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: by the Irish. It's very funny, but when it comes
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: to losing Callay, I'm actually surprised that it happens this late,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: because it is so well to me that it wasn't
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: lost in one of Henry the eighths measuring contests with
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: the King of France. So depending on when he was
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: actually born, he was either born during or grew up
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: through the Nine Years War, right, So the Nine Years
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: War all that, I sigh, And I'm like, oh, neverould
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: explain this fucking war because there's so many of them, right,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Like if you're a military historian, Like, that's why they're
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: so specific. They're like, I cover like the Napoleonic Wars
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: and this, and you know it's very again, very specific,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: because there's so many wars and so much going on
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: in so many countries and nations just constantly at each other.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: It's so much. But yes, the Nine Years War, it
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: is when France is at war with everyone everyone else. Right,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: So you've got France against England, Scotland, the Dutch Republic,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: the Holy Roman Empire, the Spanish Empire, and the Savoyard
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: State also known as this whole group is known as
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: the Grand Alliance. But why was everyone fighting with France? Well,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: because I'm sighing again. I'm like, it's always some dude,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: isn't it fucking is right, It's because of Louis the fourteenth,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: this sun king. He believed in absolute role and spent
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: most of his reign fighting for greater French power, which
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: is lie in the country end, not being bankrupted near
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: the end of anyway, what led to the French Revolution?
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: This motherfucker right. And You're like, but wouldn't it been
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: Louis the sixteenth And I'm like, uh, yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: But it was more of a domino falling sort of situation,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: like there was a build up to this anyway, friends
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: got loads of money and things. It was like it did.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: But also they were called like fighting wars, and wars
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: are expensive like this one. So yeah, he was consistently
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: fighting for greater French power and in sixteen eighty eight
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: decided to invade the western fringes of the Holy Roman Empire.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: When she was one boy Leopold the second, which is yeah,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: he fucking hated that man, like they did not like
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: each other at the best of times. So he's like, yeah,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: let's just invade. So it's mainly happening in the low
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: countries like the main theater for this war. But it's
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: also happening in the colonies in Asia, the Americas, Africa
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: and the Caribbean. And so here we have Olivier who
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: was born and or grew up during this period of war. Now,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: his father must have done fairly okay for himself, because
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Olivier trained to be an architect. That being said, there
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: is an alleged lace, allegedly as being that it's from
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: a memoir that no one saw the original manuscript of
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: or were allowed to copy. So that's pinch asalt time
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: forness allegedlies. Olivier was the second son of a French
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: noble on the Ill de France near Paris, and studied
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: military history and religion, and as the spare as opposed
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: to the air, he was unlikely to inherit his villgeoisie
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: father's titles and estates. He became a priest at the
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: age of sixteen and wished to join the Knights of Malta,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: which was like a chivalric sort of order. I say
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: sort of it was. It was a chivalric order. This
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: meant he had to serve upon one of the Knights
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: of Malta's Mediterranean galleys, defending the Christian world from the
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Ottoman Empire again allegedies. And so he's doing this and
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: he's having to like train on the ship and learn
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: to fight and defend everybody like it's a whole thing
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: allegedly is allegedly is. But yeah, so Olivier he was
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: well educated, like he studied math, the science of the era,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: and he would have been afforded an education that separates
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: him from that of a stereotypical pirate, which is wild
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: because this man is like the most stereotypical pirate you
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: could find, like the concept of pirate, like this dude, right,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: but he's got this very scientific math brain. You know,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: he's an architect, so he understands angles and shits like.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: He's very precise. It's gonna make sense, You're like, Katie,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: he's an architect, so he understands angles. What perils of
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: wisdom are you going to share with us next? Black
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: pearls of Wisdom? Lessen sidebar I spoke about this last
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: week that we were in the Lego store in Dublin
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: and my mom was eyeing up like the black pearil Lego,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: like the ship because she knows how much I love
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: pirates and who Pirates of the Caribbean was like one
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: of my big comfort movies for years, which is very
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: difficult to watch when half the cast or just like
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: dodgy people like main cast anyway, And but like my
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: mom was eyeing up and she was very much considering
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: trying to buy it for me, Like she was standing
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: in the Lego store trying to do mental mathematics to
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: see if she could afford it. And it's very expensive,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: and so she was like, I don't think I'm going
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: to do that, which is completely fair, and I have
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: no I'm no issue with that whatsoever. It's expensive, but
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: I'll probably probably at some point, I don't know, next year,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: I'll treat myself to it, because you know, we all
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: deserve a little bit of pirate ships in our lives.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: I do have a jigsaw, a three D jigsaw somewhere
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: that I need to build of the Queen Ann's revenge,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: because that's who I am as a person. I'm an
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: old lady. I like puzzles and where there's originals, Okay,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: leave me be so olivier. The non stereotypical, stereotypical pirate
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: like the Sea came a calling, and the War of
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Spanish Secession lured him and many others under the guise
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: of privateer ring, which is just as we know, state
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: sponsored piracy that led to many men gaining a fortune. Again,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: this is all part of that sort of I don't
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: want to call it social mobility of the golden age
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: of piracy, except it kind of was your stepping stone
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: to sort of getting somewhere. So I should probably explain
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: the fucking Spanish War of succession, right, Okay. So it
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: starts with the death of Charles the Second, who had
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: no heirs, which is unsurprising if you'd seen his chin.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: There's a reason we talk about the Habsburg chin. It's
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: your family tree. Should not be a wreath. Oh look,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: I made it festive. So it ends with the peace
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Treaty of Erquitect in seventeen thirteen. Now many men had
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: been privateering for France, and when the war ended, the
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: move to outright piracy was a fairly easy one and
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: was gradual for many many men, like Lavasire and like
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: depending on when you want to decide he was born,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: he's either a teenager or in his twenties, Like, he's
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: not that old going through this. So this is his
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: first real step out into the world and he's privateering,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: and so he ends up making his way like from
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Europe all the way across to the Caribbean. Whether he
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: was part of a privateering force there or left after,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: we don't know, but we do know that he made
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: it there to be a pirate of the Caribbean. In
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: seventeen sixteen, so three years after the end of the
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: War of Spanish Succession, Olivier le Varseur had managed to
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: enter an alliance with famed pirate Benjamin Hornigold. I'm going
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: to say a lot of names in this episode that
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: if you have played Assassin's Creed Black Flag, you're going
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: to recognize them, Like you're gonna know this and you're
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: gonna go wait a minute, mm hmm. So he manages
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: to get into this connection, and he'd already earned some
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: monarkers before, like he gets here. He had been called LaBouche,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: which is the mouth. I'm just assuming he's sassy, Like
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: that's where I'm going with this. And also lebouse, which
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: is the buzzard. Now again allegedly it's the buzzard he
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: got from just the manner in which he moved when
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: he was like fighting, like it's now I'm not sure
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: that's the most complimentary of terms, but it is what
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: it is, right, I'm just like I am the mouth
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: and the buzzard. I don't know what that combination is
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: like that is that is, that is a choice. So
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: so Benjamin Hornigold he has power and respect in NASA,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: which is the Pirate Republic, and under him, because he's
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: still relatively young here Olivier, he learned the nuances of piracy,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: from engaging enemy vessels to navigating treacherous waters, like they
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: capture within their few months together, like fifty ships, which
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: that's a lot, Like that's a lot to get in
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: a couple months, right, A lot of the time you're
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: lucky to get like one or two a week. But
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: they are just going at it. I mean, I do
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: suppose you have like settlements and more trade routes happening,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: but like they're just going for it. So for a
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: few months, like they sailed as part of the Flying Gang.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: So you've got Benjamin Hornegold, who's with the Benjamin because
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: of course he named the ship after himself, and Levasile
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: with the postilions, right, which was like an eight gunship.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: I think the amount of things I am learning about
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: gunships here, it's all I'm saying. So after Horn of Gold,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: Olivier sailed with another legendary pirate, Samuel Bellamy, right, So
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: they plundered merchant vessels and brigates. They held the ships
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: for ransom, and when the Spanish couldn't raise the funds,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: they left the captive cruise ashore and then burned the
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: ships off the coast of Cuba. Like they're prowling the
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: Cuban coast and they come across a bunch of English sloops.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: So sloops are these very quick and agile boats. Their
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: sort of single masted with foreign aft sails, so pirates traders.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: And then you've got naval slips of war, which have
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: like gumboat. So a slip is this single masted ship
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: with like foreign aft sails. It's known to be like
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: agile and quick. So it was very common for pirates
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: to use these, because they did become like little gumboats
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: or escort ships, just because they were quick and they
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: could quickly attack. And this was something that he used
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: quite often, like he would use speed and agility, and
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: he's quite ruthless with it, and so he would use
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: this in order to overtake and capture ships. So traders
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: would also use these because they were quick and they
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: were just a very useful type of boat. So they're
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: browl in the Cuban coast and they come across this
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: bunch of English slops and they had nothing worth plundering.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: So they come across them and they, you know, they
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: take them. They clean the ship, they try and get
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: the goods on board, which is what pirates do, and
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: there's nothing there. Well, not there the jets in their cargo.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: They dumped it before the pirates could get to them,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: because they were like, no, we better dump our goods.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: That'll stop the bloodthirsty, greedy pirates who now no longer
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: have the very thing they wanted. Yeah, they had basically
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: dumped it at the Isla de los Pinos because they
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: were like, let's be careful, and they're like, well, that's
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: no fun. So by the end of seventeen sixteen, he
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: had captured this Portuguese frigate La Louise and converted it
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: into a pirate vessel, which would become his flagship, and
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: it would be a symbol of terror where his reputation
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: for brilliance and brutality flourished. It's just like a twenty
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: two gun frigate. It's like big ship load of guns.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: And the sales there's discussion about the sales where the
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: scales like black with a cross. I know that at
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: one point his sales were white with just like a
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: skeleton on them. It was like a dead man. Which
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: was really really common for people just to have like
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: bones on their flags, like common the Jolly Roger, things
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: like that, very very common with variations, but they were there.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: It was very much a thing. And when it comes
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: to these flags, that's how they're recognized. And like in
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: late November, like his twenty gunship, it was recognized at
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: the Virgin Islands by Jonathan Rose, who was I think
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: the quartermaster of the h M Frigate Seaford, which it
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: gave chase and then and then gave up right because
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: what they've done is they had seen his you know flag,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: the white flag with the dead man on it, and
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: they were like, that's that pirate who's been stealing all
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: their shit, and they tried to chase him, but he
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: was too fast. Like it's one of those things like
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: when it comes to piracy. Like a lot of pirates,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: they very much steal things that are useful, things that
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: they can trade. It's very rare they would just get treasure,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: like because it's heavy, it weighs down a boat and
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: it's not really that useful for them in the long run,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: and so they usually just don't do that. Olivier is
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: like Danny Ocean in a way. He's just like always
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: looking for that next big score. Like he just seems
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: to be chasing, chasing that dragon. He's just chasing that
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: chasing that big score continuously. And there's all these tales
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: of just like how brutal and horrific he was not
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: a lot of the time. He would just you know,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: he would let a lot of the crew go. And
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: it was something he learned, I think from from Bellamy.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: I care what was Bellamy hornicld, But he got it
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: from someone in the Flying Gang, right, which I think
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: was probably Hornicled. And so he would leave a few
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: people alive, wouldn't kill everybody because you need somebody alive
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: to tell the story of the scary pirate, Like where
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: do the stories come from if there are no survivors.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Somebody has to know, right, there has to be a
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: word of mouth, you know. And I always think he's
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: slightly less bruttal than he's portrayed a lot of the time.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Not that you know, murdering half a ship isn't bad.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: I mean it's still bad, but like in real terms.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: For example, right, he's out plundering and attacking many, many,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: many many vessels, like so many, one of which was
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: a Portuguese slave ship from Angola. So after attacking the
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: ship and damaging it far beyond repair, he leaves the
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: crew upon the sinking ship, their fate to be judged
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: by the sea. The human cargo, however they were now
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: the term used most often is abandoned. But the two
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: hundred and forty stolen enslaved people that were upon the ship,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: they are left ashore on the island of MacKaye, right,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: which is close to Rio de Janeiro. And he's like, well,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: you're free now, be free, right, which I think considering
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: he could have just left everybody on the ship, and
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: the fact that he was like not today, lads, I
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: really appreciate that, Like, I mean, you might be a
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: murderous pirate, but you saved a bunch of people who
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: were stolen from their homeland and were going to be
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: used as forced labor until they died. Now, the Imperial powers,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: they weren't super impressed with him at this point anyway,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: But after this incident, that's when the Portuguese really set
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: their sights on him. Now they're really gunning from at
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: this point. They're actively seeking him because he's causing them
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: so many problems. Like sinking the ship was bad enough,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: but when they heard that he freed people, they weren't
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: too keen on that. So it's his ship. Lalouise was
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: attacked at Obatuba and Ila Grande and lost enough men
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: that they had to recop a cananea and for a
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: good few days they had to just try and get
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: the ship back in working order. And it's here that
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: La Bouche hears about a wealthy French merchant and how
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: this merchant ship was at Paranagua, which is a nearby bay.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: I would like to apologize for everybody. I don't speak Portuguese.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: I'm doing my best now. In a move that shocks
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: absolutely no one, this pirate decides to go after the
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: big rich merchant ship, and while chasing it, there's a
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: storm off of Kotinga Island, and on the ninth of
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: March seventeen eighteen, Olivier le Varsour's flagship Lalouise sank and
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: with it he loses eighty men. So in the storm
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: he loses eighty crew, and as the ship sinks, he
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: manages to escape certain death with a few men thanks
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: to a small brigotine which had been escorting Laluise. Which
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: is just what they did. They traveled in packs, right,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: That's how fleets work. That's why if you've got a
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: bigger ship, it's always handy to have a smaller, faster
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: ship just in case. You know, I'm not trying to
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: teach people how to be international pirates. I think we've
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: passed that stage. I'm just saying this is what you do.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: So he takes this wee ship and he comes across
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: this ship that is stocked with flower and he's like, fantastic,
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: that'll feed the fellas. Like at one point he also
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: gets another ship which is like it's full of cacao
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: from Makea and he's like, yes, let's let's get some
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: of this. And they're just eating, right, which is like, yeah,
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: you want to feed your crew. It's kind of necessary.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: And also it's good for you. It's good for your boosting.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: Also dark chocolate, by the way, for the record, good
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: for your teeth. So he's sailing away and he's heading
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: to Southronchisco dissol and like, thanks to his precision, and
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna also say aggression, he manages to overtake like
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: that merchant ship right which is where he manages to
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: get this now feeds his crew. And once he does that,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: right with the Cassava flower, he heads back to Cannonea,
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: where he manages to steal another small ship and make
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: his way to the Caribbean, like continuously plundering as he goes, right,
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: Like he's deliberately stealing these small swift ships, which are
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: you know, less swift when he has them, because they're
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: continuously bogged down with all of this treasure. Right, Like
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: at one point he's being chased by the HMS Scarborough
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: under what was it, Captain Francis Hume, because he manages
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: to surprise the pirate off the coast of Blankea, right,
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: and he's hunting them and they managed to flee just
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: about And and here's the thing, Olivier, he is becoming
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: super aware that the Caribbean is sort of becoming a
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: hot spot for anti piracy and so so he decides
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: to get the heck at Dodge and head over to Africa.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: And he's sailing to Sierra Leone, Mozambique, et cetera. Now Olivier,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: he's sailing alongside sort of Howell Davis and Thomas Cochland.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to remember if these are Flying Gang members
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: or whether he's just sort of like made up with
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: them across the sea, or whether they're just new I
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: think they might be Flying Gang. So they ventured to
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Sierra Leon, which is where merchant ships took on cargoes
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: of ivory and enslaved people. On top of that as well,
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: like in this area, you've got a lot of these
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: ships sailing towards you know, Mecca. So you've got these
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: very so you've got these ships that have a lot
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: of treasure. You've got them coming from the east Dundee's.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: There's just so much going on. So there's a lot
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: going on in this area specifically. So they absolutely wreck
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: this port in Sierra Leone, which is something that they
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: tend to do quite a bit because they make their
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: way to the slave port of Odea, which is in
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: the Kingdom of Wida, which is I was at Wida
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: and then it became Dahomie and now it's Benin right.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: So there was this fortress at the port and they're like, oh,
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: a slave port with a fortress, not for long. So
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: they attack at dawn. They shot at the fort's crumbling
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: walls until it was shrouded in smoke and flame, and
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: then when it was destroyed, they just sailed on like
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: they just left. And he was doing fair well because
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: he had his slope. He was going sailing through, plundering
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: destroying ship as one does. And he's doing this and
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: then his slope he has to replace it because it
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: had terrado worms otherwise known as terradio novalis or the
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: naval shipworm, which is basically a type of saltwater clam
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: that sort of burrowed into the ship's hull and it
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: was gonna like leak and then sink. Like he needed
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: to replace the ship, and in a crazy random happenstance,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: he manages to claim the frigate snell Grave, which was
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: in the Indian Ocean. He was like, want it, I
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: got it, It's mine neck and then the unthinkable happens.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: Olivier Le Vosseur is ship one fateful day in seventeen twenty,
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Olivier la Varseur and his crew is shipwrecked in the
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: Comoro Islands, which are like east of Mozambique and north
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: of Madagascar, right not geographically where we are, and this
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: is where he meets some more pirates. In August seventeen twenty.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: You've got Edward England, who's Dutch, by the way, just
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: to clarify, his name was England, but he's Dutch. So
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: him and his quartermaster John Taylor, like them, and their crew,
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: they spot these three ship sailings sort of they're coming
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: home from the East Indies. Now at least two of
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: the boats are Dutch. I don't know what the third
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: boat is, but at least two of them are U
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: and they escape right. Two the vessels managed to flee,
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: but one, the Cassandra, mastered by James McCrae, like the crew,
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: managed to escape with James McCray, they managed to escape
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: to an island, and the pirates, right, so they come
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: across the island and Edward England, he spared McCrae and
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: his crew right so they were hiding in the jungle
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: on this island and eventually they're like, okay, we're starving,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: like we're either going to die here or they're going
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: to kill us. Like, let's hope that maybe we can
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: parley a little. So they come out and Edward England's like,
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: you know what, you can sail away in my damaged
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: ship Fancy. The ship was called Fancy, and he's like,
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: you can have it off you go. And this was
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: not a great decision. So the whole crew right again,
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: voting democracies are pirate ships, and so the crew wanted
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: to like get rid of these guys, but he was like, no, no,
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: let them not only survive, but let them sail away
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: for reasons. And because of this, England's crew mutinied and
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: he is marooned on another island and John Taylor he
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: is voted in as the captain, so he goes from
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: quartermaster to captain and so he's sailing along to another
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: Comoro island where he met le Vasieux and his men.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: Now I don't know what it was about this crew
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: on an island that he thought this is a good
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: this is a good bunch. We should join forces. But
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: they decided to team up and Taylor he gives Olivier
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: the ship Victory, right, this was one of his prizes.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: He's like, this is your ship now, and sailing in consort,
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: the two headed to Bourbon Island, which is now known
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: as Reunion, right, which is southwest of Mauritius. Okay, I'm
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: giving a lot of geographical descriptors this episode because I'm
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: not again great at geography, so I have spent a
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: lot of time looking at maps, the compass and hoping
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: that I'm right. So Burbon Island from named after, of course,
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: the House of Bourbon, which is like one of the
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: big ruling god classes families, the French royal family. The
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: House of Bourbon, also like the House of Windsor in
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: England and the House of Habsburg in Spain. Don't mention
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: the HAPs berg Chin again, Kerrie, You'll get in trouble.
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: So in seventeen twenty one, the crews arrive at the island,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: and we're now sort of in the climax of his career.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: Like this is seen as one of the greatest exploits
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: in pirate history, right, second to that only of Henry Avery.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: So there is this seven hundred ton Portuguese carrick the
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: Nassas and Jra Locabo, and it was anchored at Borbo
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: Island while the crew repaired damage it had sustained from
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: a storm. This ship is stuffed to the gills with
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: treasure from the Bishop of Goa and the Portuguese viceroy,
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: the Count of Ricia, and they're both on board this ship.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: So you've got two important people and all the shit
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: is on this ship. Right, they are returning to Lisbon.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: The pirates like when they take the ship, they manage
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: to get on board the vessel without firing a single shot. Right,
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: So this ship they knos us in horror cable. It
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: had no cannons on account of chucking them overboard during
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: the aforementioned storm. Right, do they dump any of the
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: gold or valuables overboard to make the ship less heavy
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: because they're really worried about it capsizing during the storm.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: Absolutely not. They're like, no, no, let's get rid of
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: our protection all of our cannons, right right, I think
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: what was it. I can't know if it's seventeen or twenty,
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: but there was a lot of cannons and they just
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: dumped them overboard. They're just like, no, we don't need this.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: So Olivier and his men they plundled the ship, which
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: was booty full. I fucking regret nothing, okay, I regret nothing.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: That might be a dad joke. I don't care. It's
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: a good pun for this, and I stand by it.
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: You have, it's bootyful. It's full of bitty fuck off.
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: So this ship, there is like half a million pounds
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: worth in diamonds, right, including the one hundred and twenty
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: carrot Great Goughle diamond. Right. There are dozens of boxes
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: of golden ganias, right, which is a golden coin like
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: boxes like stuffed. They're like full of these core not
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: like a couple of coins like there are full. You
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: have art, you have Chinese silks, spices, pearls, ebony, porcelain, rosewood, furniture,
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: and other luxuries right worth conservatively at the time, three
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: hundred and seventy five thousand pounds, okay. On top of that,
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: there is the Fiery Cross of Goa, which is solid
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: gold and encrusted with rubies and weighs two hundred and
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: twenty pounds. Then you've got gold bars and again more gems.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: And on top of this, because there is more right.
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: There are priceless ancient books and Asian manuscripts, and there's
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: so much, right, there is so much on this ship
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: that like they take as much as they can, but
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: like there's no point in them trying to rob anybody.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: They don't rob anybody on this ship because they're like,
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: we've got so much, there's no point They've got all this.
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: That being said, for the fun of it, Olivier ransomed
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: the Count of Erisia right for four hundred pounds, which
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: the governor of Bubo paid to ensure his safe release.
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: Like this is basically the story in Treasure Island. Like
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: that's that's it. Like they stole all this, Joe, it's gone.
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: It's like Robert Louis Stevenson, I see where you got
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: the inspiration. So they end up, you know, sailing back
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: to Ir Saint Marie, and the booty is divided up
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: between all the pirate crew and they receive what like
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: fifty grand worth in golden Gania coins and forty two
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: diamonds each, and so John Taylor and Olivia Leverseur they
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: split the rest. And now I think this might actually
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: be the biggest hole in pirate history, right, Olivier. He
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: takes the cross, the fiery Cross of Goa, the one
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: that is solid gold and just encrusted with diamonds and
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: rubies and emeralds and all of the jewels. Right, and
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: John Taylor he takes the biggest diamond. I mean, I
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: guess it's easier to carry, you know, it's massive diamond.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: And they go, yeah, they go so much, so much,
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: so much purdy. Like I'm trying to just like like
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: in my head, it's like one eyed Willie in the Guinnies.
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: It's just that ship full of treasure. Now, was it?
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: I think it's December seventeen twenty one that Olivier seizes
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: the slave ship La duchies Denls right and typically right,
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: Typically when he captured a ship, especially at this point,
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: he would let most of the ship be like most
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: of you off you go. So this time, however, the
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: ship was torched. Now I don't know if enslaved people
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: were on the ship at the time or not, Like
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: I don't have that specific piece of information, because like
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: what he's done up until this point, anytime he has
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: attack a slaver ship is he has freed the slaves
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: upon it. But this time he just burnt it. Now
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: after about a year as well with John Taylor, like
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: they parted ways, and okay, John Taylor, what he does
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: is he is like the best possible scenario you can
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: get as as a pirate, right, he sailed to Panama,
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: received a pardon and became a pirate hunter. After that,
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: he retired to Jamaica, got hitched and had four kids
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: and lived out the rest of his days. To see,
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: what's happening at this point, A lot of the big powers,
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: they're trying to stamp out piracy, right, and it's again
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: the waning to the end of the golden age of piracy.
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: So the governor of Bilbo, he was offering pirates a
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: French pardon if they just stopped pirating, right And also
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: what was that We'll get to it now. Some took it.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: They took the pardon and retired on Bourbon on Il
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: Saint Marie Lavasieur and his men did not in seventeen
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: twenty four, So like we're a few years more, Levarsieur
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: he's like, he's considering it now, he's floating the idea,
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: and so he sends a negotiator to meet with the
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: governor to discuss amnesty effectively, right, they are handing out
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: pardons in exchange for return of plunder and giving back treasure.
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: And Olivia Levarsau he's like, fuck that for a game
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: of soldiers and then just looking buggers off to the Seychelles,
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: right like, he changes his identity and he's basically a
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: master of disguise and he's out.
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: On the sea shells archpela. I cannot say this word. Archipelago, archipelago, archipelego,
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: A cappelago, A cappelago, a cappelago. Is that right? It
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: sounds weird. You know what I looked up how to pronounce,
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: and that's what showed up. If it's wrong, report that
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: not me. Also, maybe tell me if it's within like
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: the first week of this being released, tell me if
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: it's after that. Assume somebody has so. Yes. Seventeen twenty five,
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: the governor of Boobon he dies of what I don't know,
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: dysentery I don't know, and Pierre bunoits duma. He replaces
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: the governor of Bobon, and he absolutely despised pirates and
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: I basically anything pirate related. He was not for to
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: be honest, and so instead of offering amnesty, he ordered
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: pirate hunting to occur, and so for five years, Olivier
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: manages to hide out in the Seychelles, a capelago, a caipelago,
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: the Seay Shells, a caipelago, which is like one hundred
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: and fifteen islands in the Indian Ocean. Like there's there's
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: a big anti piracy push happening, and he's just hiding
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: out right doing what who knows? For five years, we
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: don't know, He's just away, And eventually he is caught
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: near Fotoupha, Madagascar by Captain Lelmite and on the twenty
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: sixth of April seventeen thirty, he was imprisoned in sample
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: on Burbon, where he was interrogated and found guilty on
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: the third of July and sentenced to death. So he
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: was interrogated three times. Now I think we can assume
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: that this was not the most pleasant of scenarios to
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: go through. But he's found guilty of act of piracy,
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: just so many of them, and they're like, yeah, it's
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: it's the death penalty for you, Bud. And so on
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: the seventh of July seventeen thirty, he was brought to
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: the Saldany Public Square, to be executed. A gallows were
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: installed just for him. How consider it. But before he
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: reaches the gallows, as he's walking through the square, he
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: throws a necklace with a cryptogram into the crowd and bellowed,
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: find my treasure, the one who may understand it alleged lace.
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: The necklace has been lost, However, treasure hunters have tried
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: to decode the seventeen line cryptogram, hoping to find the
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: hidden pirate treasure. So this is this is an interesting one.
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: So he goes to the gallows and seventh of July
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: seventeen thirty and he is hanged by the neck until
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: dead right, and then he's put on display for a
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: period of time just basically to show like piracy bad.
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: You know. Now, his death it leads to this big mystery.
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, I totally forgot to tell you this
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: really important stereotypical pirate part. Oh my god. Okay, okay, No,
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: he had an eye patch. Okay. So in his younger days,
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: he gains an injury to his eye and he eventually
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: goes blind in that eye, and he wears an eye
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: patch because the eye it just looks kind of scary
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: and dodgy. So he wears an eye patch because he
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: needs to wear one. He looks like your stereotypical pirate.
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: He's so piratey, right, And his death leads this basic
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: three hundred year mystery about alleged hidden treasure. And this treasure,
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: this alleged treasure, it is meant to be over one
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: point five billion today, like it is huge, and of
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: course treasure hunters have been seeking it. So the real
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: buzz from this happens in like the nineteen thirties, where
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: this renowned French historian, Charles de la Rencier, he comes
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: across this this document, right, he's a he's a navy historian, right,
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: He's French Navy. And so he comes across this documents
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: in the Biblio tech Nationale de France, and he believes
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: they're from the eighteenth century, and within it there is
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: this seventeen line cryptogram, and treasure hunters have been obsessed
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: ever since. Right. So you've got people like Joseph Tiveaux,
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: who's his nickname is Bibique. I love that BBQ. And
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: so he spends quite a lot of his time, like
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: on the west coast of Reignon trying to find you know,
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: this treasure on the island of Rodriguez. You've got people searching,
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: like digging for twenty thirty years, trying to find stuff
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: in a gully. You've got all these islands. People were
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: sort of trying to orienteer and like find these clues
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: and go around the islands, and they're searching all over.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: Now Runyon. People seem to think it's on Ryunong Island
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: as opposed to as opposed to like one of the
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: many other options, considering like that's where he was most
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: likely to be caught and captured. It is wild that
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: he would put it there, although I do like the
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: idea of it being like a big ef you. So
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: it's this charyptogram. It's seventeen lines. I'm gonna post it
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: to a post it to the official the official Instagram.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: So it's I think somebody said it was like a
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: Franco alphabet, but it might not be. It could be
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: like a completely different one. So it has they look
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: a little bit like ruins to me, you know, like
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: a little bit like traditional sort of Norse ruins, but
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: they're not. So it's it's like a it's an alphabet
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: of some kind, but what language is in and does
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: the alphabet match up that it's so interesting. Now there
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: are theories that it's based on sort of Masonic symbolism,
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: like the Mason's right, which is again varioussassins creed. It's
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: also connected with the Zodiac what not the Zodiac Killer.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: That being said, it almost as if the Zodiac Killer went, oh,
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: that's a cyber interesting. There is also a connection allegedly
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: is with the twelve labors of Hercules or the clavicles
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: of Solomon, and you have to like solve this riddle
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: and all this solve it, right, It gets to the
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: point that people are searching like they're on Marie, they're
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: on Reignon, like they're finding pirate sarcophag guy coins like
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: Ganya's guns, the whole things, and then like they're going
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: searching the island. And it gets to the point that
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: what was it? I think by the twenty tens of
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: twenty twelve, you've got twenty twelve, twenty fourteen. There is
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: this French researcher, Emmanuel Medzino, and he's like, I've deciphered
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: the cryptogram. Doesn't share it with anybody though, but he
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: says he's discipled it and he says that the treasure
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: is buried on reunon the French ur is such hard
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: for me, regugnon, regigno, so hard for me to on
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: Reunion Island. There we go and he says that it's there.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: And now they think that it is basically under this
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: big tom and so legally they need permission from the
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: island to dig underneath it. But the island's like no,
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: because they don't believe in the treasure. Now there is
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: a transcription of the cryptogram which I'm going to read
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: to you, which is very much alleged. So this is
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: what it's supposed to be, right, pre Jim Tudores demill
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: of mid per thes brenet do le case minel four
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: not cou on them, trent v enough lave re u
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: to allen h sorry petition. It doesn't say whereas my
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: little dog now lend de la mare debi and concierca
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: even cephel dance to be on difficult court flu right, Okay, right,
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: that's right. I don't mean to ruin your fun, but
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: I don't think that right. There are a couple of words,
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: but this is like if you have infinite monkeys and
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: infinite typewriters. They are going to create the works of Shakespeare. Now,
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: the fact that some words are appearing in it, I'm
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: not entirely sure it's meant to be in French. And
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: if it is, I don't think this is the I
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: don't think this is the way it's meant to be.
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: I've been looking at it where I was trying. I'm
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: trying to decipher a cipher here, and I'm like, that
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: just seems incorrect. But yes, three hundred years people have
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: been searching the Seychelles for the mysterious alleged hidden treasure
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: of Olivier Leversau. Now the question is did he really
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: bury treasure or was he just fucking with them? And
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: have we considered point number three? What if someone else
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: got to the treasure before he was even executed. What
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: if it was a real thing, What if it wasn't
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: like I mean, I understand that he could have been
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: paranoid at that point. If we take that into consideration,
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: that perhaps he's paranoid. He's hidden his treasure because he
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: can't get rid of it. He can't move fast enough
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: to get it out. He's gonna get caught. He's already
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: hiding out on these islands and he needs to be
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: able to like what like it must be that he
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: is trying to get someone else to find it, Like
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: why would you write it cryptically unless you couldn't remember,
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: or you were worried about not remembering, or you were
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: trying to help someone else find it, Like why have
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: the puzzle? Like what is the purpose of the puzzle?
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: Like there has to be a reason. And you want
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: to create a puzzle because you want people to either
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: solve it or you want to be so smart that
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: they can't. But anyway, yoho, me hearties, yo ho. And
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: that is the end of Olivia le vorse LaBouche labouse,
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: the second richest pirate I think in pirate history. And
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: if you liked my retelling of the story and my
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: terrible pronunciation of Spanish, no Spanish, Portuguese, I don't speak
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: either of them, guys. I'm doing my best. So that
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: is that if you liked that rate and review of
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: five stars, you want to say something bad, shop at
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: I'm kidding, I mean, I'm not really, But anyway, you
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: can catch me on on the television on the BBC
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: I Player. I'm going to be doing a live show
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: in Belfast links are on the website, so check that out,
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: and of course follow me on the socials interacting nice things,
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: share and care. So I guess it's a recommendation time
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: for watching, Listen, listen. I'm not going to recommend a
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: mubb at Treasure Island again, that would be wild, even
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: though I love it. I mean, I'm recommending me, watch me,
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: watch me this week, but out with me. I you
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: know what for watching, of course the Goonies, because I've
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: already mentioned it this episode and it has a tenuous
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: pirate connection. So watch the Goonies. It's a fun Christmas
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: film for everybody, and it always surprises me. How Sean
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: Aston is I think the same age as as we
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: on a writer because in my head, even seeing them
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: as teenagers, I assumed he was younger then she was.
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: He just because he's so smart and petit, and you
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: know I had a crush on him when he got older.
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't anyway, that's not a point. I
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: had a crush on on a writer obviously, because she's
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: on a writer and is beautiful. But that is recommendation
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: for watching. For reading, I'm going to recommend a fiction book.
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: What you're reading fiction. Shut up? Sometimes I do so. Yes,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: The Abyss surrounds Us by Emily Skrutsky, Right, it's trust me,
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: trust me. So we have that for our reading and
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: for listening. I've been listening to Crimeless Hillbilly Heist. Listen.
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: I love a heist. You know how much I love
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: a heist? Right? They it's fun, it's good. Johnny Knoxville,
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: who has he done anything bad? Recently? Has he? I
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: think he's He's fine now? Right, He's good now, isn't he?
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: Isn't he? Anyway? Heilbally Heist has been my my listening recommendation,
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: And so with that, I'm gonna bid you all of
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: you adios au revoir of is my friends. Bye bye