Oliver Lavasseur

[Jackdaw]

Hi

I'm looking for serious in-depth academic info on this man aka La Buse, Buzzard and if the internet is to be believed Nozzle ( what ??!! )

I've trawled the web and get the usual short biogs ( and, yawn, repeated short biogs ) but nothing of any real consequence.

I'm interested in finding contemporary accounts ( newspapers, trial transcripts etc ) or academic books or papers etc about his life, trial and hanging.

The subsequent treasure hunt is of limited appeal to me, but interested if the supposed throwing to the crowd of the cryptogram sparked a piratical rush to find the treasure. It must have caused a bit of a stir at the time if true.

Thanks for any info you can offer ( I've seen all the obvious googled stuff on the web )

Jackdaw

[adam cyphers]

if you look here on the pub mate some one has this in there signature.and maybe a thread.good luck.

[Jackdaw]

if you look here on the pub mate some one has this in there signature.and maybe a thread.good luck.

Thanks but couldn't find him

Help

Cheers

Jackdaw

[Brit.Privateer]

Well, La Bouse (I have seen more spellings closer to that, I can't even remember if I've ever seen the "Lavasseur" spelling or anything close to it) is one of those pirates that just because he didn't get his own chapters in Charles Johnson's history has been ignored. Plus, non-Anglo-Ammerican pirates don't seem to get anywhere near the amount of attention. Here is a summary of what I have found in period documents I have looked at:

I believe La Bouse first appears in documents is 1716 when he was in consort to Hornigold, and then Samuel Bellamy when Hornigold was voted out for passing up taking English and Dutch vessels. He commanded the sloop Postilion that contained a mostly French crew. La Bouse sailed with Bellamy until January 1717 when Bellamy obtained the Sultana, and made Paulsgrave Williams in the old Marraine his consort [the documents don't give explanation why, but I imagine that La Bouse thought the profits would be cut too small with three vessels, "three is a crowd" after all]. La Bouse then went solo and raided along the North American Coast, were he got attention in the newspaper, the Boston Newsletter. He eventually obtained a ship of force, but lost it when he had to escape in a sloop that was faster tha a British warship that was chasing him. He eventually ended up raiding the African coast in 1719 (for New Providence was taken over by Woodes Rogers) and went into consort with two other pirates (Cocklyn and Davis), and then broke up with them as well. He eventually made it into raiding the Indian Ocean in the early 1720s, and retired on one of the small French islands, but was taken in by the authorities in 1730.

The wiki page on this guy won't help you much, I would say over half their entry is based off of old repeats of "trade book" (mainstream book store) writings that more often takes the truth and stretches it to the extreme.

There so far hasn't been any academic paper written on this pirate (unless it be some remote masters or doctorate thesis); that is in English. There is a book in French, but I'm not sure if it's academic: http://www.worldcat.org/title/buse-olivier-levasseur-dit-la-buse-un-pirate-dans-locean-indien/oclc/77524488&referer=brief_results. Jackdaw, you pretty much have started down a trail no one has really started. To start your quest, I would suggest doing some "end note mining" as I call it in Woodard's Republic of Pirates. Also mine any sources on the pirates I previously mentioned were in consort with La Bouse, you'll find references to him in there. Charles Johnson's history won't help that much, the Bellamy chapter doesn't even mention Bellamy's first year of activities (besides other reasons not to trust it).

Just IM me if you got any other questions Jackdaw. Just curious, what's this research for? school? college? just for fun?

[adam cyphers]

the gentleman i be referring too be no other than oderlesseye

[oderlesseye]

Click on the link below my Signature..It is a link to a Smithsonian article about the Buzzard..

Edited July 18, 2010 by oderlesseye

[Jackdaw]

Click on the link below my Signature..It is a link to a Smithsonian article about the Buzzard..

Thanks!