Laurens De Graff (or whateveryouwannacallhim)

[dasNdanger]

Laurens de Graff, Laurent de Graff, Lorenzo, Lorencillo, de Graf, de Graft, or de Griffe...whatever you want to call him, I'm intrigued by this pirate of a thousand names, and I would like to know as much about him as possible. The only information I have on him is from the book, The Lost Fleet ~ by Barry Clifford, and I'm not sure how respected that information is. All I can find on-line is are bits and pieces that are already covered in the aforementioned book. Outside of what is in The Lost Fleet, is there any other GOOD source information about this man and his piratical career? He seems to be an amazing person and pirate, and I'd like to know all there is about him.

Also - what are your impressions of him? I'm interested because there is so little mention of him here, when others (ones I would consider less successful considering their fate) are spoken of quite often. Any info (and discussion) would be appreciated!!

das

[corsair2k3]

Greetings,

I myself have yet to find a satisfactory bio of him--what was in THE LOST FLEET is pretty good, but, frankly, was targetted to the general reader. The bio in Marley's encyclopedia is next best--but that has a few errors in

Trouble with "de Griffe" is not that there's too little primary source documentation, but rather too much (and a lot of it that's contradictory)

To do a satisfactory and scholarly job of it, one would have to be fluent in French, Spanish (and ARCHIVAL Spanish--not just conversational Spanish!) as well as English.

People with that kind of skill-set generally don't write about pirates.

Just once--instead of some rehashed bio on Kidd or Morgan--I wish somebody would go at "de Griffe".

Something else I wish for--that I've mentioned before--is that some ambitious and enterprising young'un would go after the pirates/privateers of the 1800's.

Granted, it isn't as stylish to re-enact Charles Gibbs as it is Henry Morgan, but the raw material to do something fresh is definitely there.

Again, I think the stumbling block is the matter of language aptitude. I wish to high heaven that I had studied French and Spanish in high school and college instead of all those mandatory sociology and psychology courses.

The Corsair

[Longarm]

OK now I'm disappointed and bummed-out. After reading The Lost Fleet I was hopeing to find more on de Griff as well. Now I hear that finding out more just might be imposible without some kind of extensive degree in lanquages and reseach.

This guys career and life sounds like it beats the heck out of, as corsair said, all the rehashes of Kidd, Morgan and the others, ie.. Bonney, Rackem and even ol' Blackbeard hisself.