Jean Baptiste du Casse
Jean Baptiste du Casse (born August 2, 1646 in Saubusse or Pau , Béarn, † June 25, 1715 in Bourbon-l'Archambault ) was a French flibustier and admiral .
Life
Since his parents were Huguenots , du Casse was not accepted into the French civil service, whereupon he entered the service of the Compagnie de Sénégal, a French trade organization for the African region. There he worked as a slave trader and sold his goods in the French branches in the Caribbean .
After a successful voyage, he used his winnings to equip a ship in Saint Domingue with which he hijacked a fully loaded Dutch merchant ship. On his return to France he gave half of the booty to the crown, whereupon he was accepted as a lieutenant in the French navy by Louis XIV .
In 1691 he was appointed governor of Saint Domingue , where he soon earned the respect of the local Flibustier. In the following months he and his crew regularly robbed the English possessions in the area, including several times Port Royal, which had been badly damaged by an earthquake .
In April and May 1697, together with a French expeditionary force led by Captain de Pointis, he led a successful raid on the wealthy Spanish coastal city of Cartagena (now Colombia), but was cheated out of the agreed 1/5 share of the booty by de Pointis with his men . He then sailed to France to personally claim his part from the king and actually received 1.4 million francs in compensation for himself and his flibustiers. He was also promoted to Admiral for the sack of Cartagena and knighted by the Order of St. Louis .
In 1708 Spain and France formed an alliance and Casse, in Spanish service, took over the protection of the annual silver fleet . Thanks to his extensive Caribbean experience, the Spanish galleons survived the crossing to Europe almost unscathed in the next few years. For his services with the Order of the Golden Fleece, Casse received one of the highest awards from the Spanish Crown, the nation that he had terrified years before through his pirate trips.
He was one of the last Caribbean flibu animals to disappear from the scene after the Franco-Spanish peace.
literature
- Peter Wood / collective of authors: Adventurers of the Caribbean . Bechtermünz (licensed edition), Eltville am Rhein 1992, ISBN 3-86047-025-6 .
Web links
- Biography in Corsaires du Roy (French)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Du Casse, Jean Baptiste |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French flibustier and admiral |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 2, 1646 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Saubuses |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 25, 1715 |
| Place of death | Bourbon l'Archambault |