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Back in the day, if someone took your ship they were either doing so under the auspices of a country (privateer) or for their own benefit (pirate, buccaneer, corsair, etc.)...either way, whomever it was, you will probably find him (or her) listed here...
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L'escayer

bornactivedied
unknown1680sunknown
A French filibuster. In 1685, in company with Grogniet, Davis, and Swan, sacked Paita and Guayaquil and blockaded Panama. Afterwards sailed with Townley and his English pirates and again plundered Guayaquil. Suffered a severe defeat at the hands of the Spaniards at Quibo, afterwards being rescued by Townley, with whom he and his crew of buccaneers sacked Gra...
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Notes (1)


Francois l'Ollonais

aka: François, Jean-David Nau
bornactivedied
16351660-16681668
a French pirate active in the Caribbean during the 1660s. L'Olonnais first arrived in the Caribbean as an indentured servant during the 1650s. By 1660 his servitude was complete. He began to wander various islands before arriving in Saint-Domingue - in what is now Haiti - and becoming a buccaneer. He preyed upon shipping from the Spanish West Indies and Span...
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Links (7)Notes (3)


La Cata

bornactivedied
unknown1820sunknown
A most blood-thirsty pirate and one of the last of the West Indian gangs. In 1824, when La Cata was cruising off the Isle of Pines, his ship was attacked by an English cutter only half his size. After a furious fight the cutter was victorious, and returned in triumph to Jamaica with the three survivors of the pirates as prisoners. One of these was found out ...
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Notes (2)


Captain M La Vivon

aka: La Veven, La Vivion
bornactivedied
unknown1660sunknown
French filibuster. Commanded the Cour Valant of La Rochelle. In December, 1668, his ship was seized by Captain Collier for having robbed an English ship of provisions.
Notes (2)


Abraham Lacy

bornactivedied
1702 ca1720s1723
From Devonshire, England. Hanged at Rhode Island in 1723, age 21.
Notes (1)


Jean Lafitte

aka: Lafite, Laffite, The Corsair, The Buccaneer, The King of Barataria, The Terror of the Gulf, The Hero of New Orleans
bornactivedied
1776 ca1803-18261826 ca
a French-American smuggler, privateer, pirate and slaver in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 19th century. A wanted fugitive by the US, he later participated, during the War of 1812, in the Battle of New Orleans on the side of Andrew Jackson and the Americans. ...
more
Timeline (1)Links (12)Notes (1)


Pierre Lafitte

bornactivedied
17701803-18211821
a privateer in the Gulf of Mexico and smuggler in the early 19th century. He also ran a blacksmith shop in New Orleans, his legitimate business. Pierre was the historically less-well-known older brother of Jean Lafitte. While not as much of a sailor as his brother...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Architects

Barthelemy Lafon

bornactivedied
17691790-18201820, Sep 29
a notable Creole architect, engineer, city planner, and surveyor in New Orleans, Louisiana. He appears to have had a double life, as a respectable architect, engineer, and citizen; but also as a privateer, smuggler, and pirate. In later life his association with piracy, specifically with more
Links (1)


Captain Lagarde

bornactivedied
unknown1670s-1680sunknown
A French filibuster of San Domingo, who in 1684 commanded a small ship, La Subtille (crew of thirty men and two guns).
Notes (2)


John Lambert [2]

bornactivedied
1660 ca1703-17041704, Jun 30
an English officer, pirate, he worked in the Caribbean. He was a member of the crew of the pirate ship The Charles, led by Captain Daniel Plowman. The Charles sailed from Boston in July 1703 on a pirate expedition against the French and Spanish s...
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Notes (2)


Mrs. Peter Lambert

bornactivedied
unknown1580s-1590s caunknown
Born in Aldeburgh, Suffolk.


Jonas Berntsson Lambert-Wenman

bornactivedied
1665 ca1680s-1720s1732
Jonas Berntsson Lambert-Wenman was born in Ume, Vsterbotten, Sweden in approximately 1665. He was the son of Bernt Johan Lambert and Brita Jonsdotter Wenman, as one of at least 7 children. For unclear reasons, Jonas left Ume while in his 20's for parts unknown. No-one in the family knew where he had disappeared to until after his death in approximately 1732,...
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Links (1)


Robert Lamley

bornactivedied
16841696-1699 ca1750 ca
Age 12...an English pirate and an associate of pirate captain William Kidd. He sailed on the ship Captain William Kidd ADVENTURE GALLEY in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. When he was twelve years old broke him as a lifeguard ship's cook Able Owens. He was ...
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Notes (1)


Sir James Lancaster

bornactivedied
15541591-16031618
a prominent Elizabethan trader and privateer, active in India during the late 16th century. In 1594 he led a privateering expedition against Pernambuco and Recife in Brazil, aimed at seizing the cargo of a storm-damaged Portuguese carrack which had put in there on its way back from India.Later a chief director for the East India Company.
Timeline (1)Links (1)Notes (1)


Daniel Lander

bornactivedied
unknown1689-1690unknown
One of Captain Pound's crew.
Notes (2)


Captain Michel Landresson

aka: Breha
bornactivedied
unknown1680sunknown
Filibuster. Accompanied Pain in his expedition against St. Augustine in 1683. He was a constant source of annoyance to the Jamaicans. His ship was called La Trompeuse, but must not be confused with the famous ship of that name belonging to Hamlin. Landresson, when he had got a good booty of gold, jewels, cocoa, etc., would go to Boston to dispose of it to th...
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Notes (2)


Captain Lane

bornactivedied
unknown1720sunknown
In 1720 Lane was one of Captain England's crew when he took the Mercury off the coast of West Africa. The Mercury was fitted up as a pirate ship, named the Queen Ann's Revenge, and Lane was voted captain of her. Lane left Captain England and sailed to Brazil, where he took several Portuguese ships and did a great deal of mischief.
Notes (1)


Captain James Langton

bornactivedied
1550 ca1585-1594unknown
English captain and pirate. In his youth, he sailed as a seaman on board the Lords of Cumberland. In 1585 James joined the fleet of Francis Drake, who commissioned and funded the queen commanded punitive expedition to Spain. The aim was to free the captured Eng...
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Captain Thomas Larimore

aka: Larramore
bornactivedied
unknown1700s1704, Jun 11
Commanded the Larimore galley. In 1704 was with the pirate John Quelch and several other pirates, and, among other prizes, seized a Portuguese ship, the Portugal, from which they took gold dust, bar and coined gold, and other treasure, and at the same time "acted d...
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Notes (1)


Nicholas Lawrence

bornactivedied
unknown1700sunknown
Tried for piracy with the rest of John Quelch's crew at Boston in 1704.
Notes (1)


Richard Lawrence

bornactivedied
1670 ca1703-17041727 ca
an English pirate, he worked in the Caribbean. He was a member of the crew of the pirate ship The Charles, led by Captain Daniel Plowman. The Charles sailed from Boston in July 1703 on a pirate expedition against the French and Spanish ships. Not...
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Notes (2)


Edward Lawson

bornactivedied
1703 ca1720s1723, July
Born in the Isle of Man. One of Captain Harris's crew. Hanged at Newport, Rhode Island, in July, 1723, at the age of 20.
Notes (1)


Nicholas Lawson

bornactivedied
1670 ca1703-17041710/1726 ca
an English pirate, he worked in the Caribbean. He was a member of the crew of the pirate ship The Charles, led by Captain Daniel Plowman. The Charles sailed from Boston in July 1703 on a pirate expedition against the French and Spanish ships. Not...
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Notes (1)


Michel Le Basque

aka: Michael
bornactivedied
unknown1660sunknown
A French filibuster. In company with the butcher L'Onnais and 650 other buccaneers, he pillaged the town of Maracaibo in Venezuela, in the year 1667. A very successful but ruthless buccaneer.
Notes (1)


Francois Le Clerc

aka: Francis Le Clerc, Francois LeClerc, Jambe de Bois (Peg Leg)
bornactivedied
unknown1550s-1560s1563
a 16th-century French privateer, originally from Normandy. He is credited as the first pirate in the modern era to have a "peg leg". He was often the first to board an enemy vessel during an attack or raid. It was this brazen style that eventually caused him to suffer the loss of a leg and severe damage to one arm while fighting the English at Guernsey in 1...
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Links (2)


Pierre Le Grand

aka: Peter the Great
bornactivedied
unknown1620 or 1660-1680 caunknown
a French buccaneer of the 17th century. He is known to history only from one source, Alexandre Exquemelin's Buccaneers of America, and may be imaginary. Pierre was born in Dieppe, France. Nothing is known of his life before his arrival in Tortuga at some time in the mid-17th century. Pierre le Grand is known only for his attack on a Spanish galleon near the ...
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Links (3)Notes (1)


Cross-listed in ExplorersGovernance

Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville

aka: Sieur d'Iberville, Sieur d'Iberville et d'Ardillières
borndied
1661, Jul 161706, Jul 9
a soldier, ship captain, explorer, colonial administrator, knight of the order of Saint-Louis, adventurer, privateer, trader, member of Compagnies Franches de la Marine and founder of the French colony of La Louisiane of New France. He was born in Montreal of French colonist parents. Destined for the priesthood, he chose a life of adventure. At the age of 12...
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Captain Pierre Le Picard

bornactivedied
16241660s-1689?1690 ca
a 17th-century French buccaneer. He was an officer to Francois l'Ollonais, and he and Moise Vauquelin left to pursue a career on their own. Later, he teamed ...
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Links (2)Notes (1)


Captain Francois Le Sage

aka: François, La Sage
bornactivedied
unknown1684-1687unknown
officer under Laurens de Graaf
Timeline (1)


Johan Le Sage

borndied
unknownunknown
Privateer in the service of the Dutch West Indies Company. Later became a ship owner who fitted out privateers for the WIC. One of these ships was the Orange on which his son Touissant Le Sage was the captain.


Cross-listed in ExplorersCartographers

Guillaume Le Testu

aka: Guillaume Le Têtu
bornactivedied
1509 ca1560s-1570s1573
a French privateer, explorer and navigator. He was one of the foremost cartographers of his time and an author of the Dieppe maps. His maps were distinguished by their sophistication and detail; they influenced generations of cartographers, navigators and explorers. Le Testu was successful as a privateer during the early years of the French Wars of Religion....
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Links (6)Gallery (1)


Jean Le Vasseur

bornactivedied
unknown1642-1652 unknown


LeBour

bornactivedied
unknown1710sunknown
Notes (1)


Lemame

bornactivedied
unknown1800 caunknown
Corsair


Jan Lens

bornactivedied
unknown1700sunknown
Dutch privateer in the 18th century. Sold one of the prizes he captured, together with Erasmus Muller, on 31 July 1705 in Amsterdam. The prize consisted of a flute with the name Stad Bordeaux, a supply and ammunition ship. The cargoe was: 1300 dry hides,...
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Leroi

bornactivedied
unknown1800 caunknown
Corsair


Captain Lescuyer

bornactivedied
unknown1685unknown


Captain Lessone

bornactivedied
unknown1675-1680unknown
In 1680 he joined Sharp, Coxon, and other English buccaneers in an attack on Porto Bello. Putting 300 men into canoes, they landed some sixty miles from the city and marched for four days, arriving in a weak state through hardship and lack of food, but in spite of this they took the city on February 17th, 1680.
Notes (1)


Olivier Levasseur

aka: Oliver Le Bouche, La Bous, La Buze, La Buse, LaBouche
bornactivedied
16801716-17301730
a pirate, nicknamed La Buse (The Buzzard) or La Bouche (The Mouth) in his early days, called thus because of the speed and ruthlessness with which he always attacked his enemies. He is also known for allegedly hiding one of the biggest treasures in pirate history, estimated at over £1 billion, and leaving a cryptogram behind with its whereabouts.
Links (4)Notes (2)


Leveille

bornactivedied
unknown1800 caunknown


Sam Levercott

bornactivedied
unknown1720s1722, Mar 11
Member of Captain George Lowther’s crew. Hanged with the rest of Lowther’s crew on the island of St. Kitts, March 11, 1722.
Notes (2)


John Levit

bornactivedied
unknown1710s-17181718, Nov 8
From North Carolina. Crew member of Revenge/Royal James, commanded by Major Stede Bonnet. Hanged November 8, 1718, at Charleston, South Carolina.
Notes (2)


Captain James Lewis

bornactivedied
unknown1690s1696
After being a prisoner in France, he managed to reach Spain, and was with Avery when he seized the ship Charles the Second. Tried for piracy at the Old Bailey in 1696 and hanged.
Notes (1)


Nicholas Lewis

bornactivedied
unknown1720s1722, Mar 11
Member of Captain George Lowther’s crew. Hanged on the island of St. Kitts, March 11, 1722.
Notes (2)


Captain William Lewis

bornactivedied
unknown1710s-1720sunknown
from Nassau. Lewis lasted longer than most pirates; his career went on at least from 1717 to 1726. In his “Morning Star” he captured several vessels off the Carolina coast. Was murdered in his sleep by his own superstitious crew members because they felt he was too intimate with the devil…….Lewis was an accomplished linguist, able to speak fluently m...
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Links (1)Notes (1)


Francis Leyton

bornactivedied
1684 ca1720s-17231723, Jul 19
One of Captain Charles Harris's crew. Hanged for piracy at Newport, Rhode Island, on July 19th, 1723. Age 39.
Notes (2)


Li Dan

aka: Andrea Dittis
bornactivedied
unknown1600s-1620s1625
a prominent early 17th century Chinese merchant originally from Quanzhou in Fujian province. Li operated out of Manila for a time before moving to Hirado, in Japan and becoming a part of the shuinsen trade, with a formal vermillion seal license from the Tokugawa shogunate. He served as the head of the Chinese community in Hirado, and maintained a residence i...
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Links (1)


Manuel Lima

bornactivedied
unknown1820s1823
Taken by H.M. sloop Tyne, and hanged at Kingston, Jamaica, in February, 1823.
Notes (1)


Limahong

aka: Lim Hong, Lin Feng
bornactivedied
unknown1570sunknown
a notorious Chinese pirate and warlord who invaded the northern Philippine Islands in 1574. He built up a reputation for his constant raids to ports in Guangdong, Fujian and southern China. He is noted to have twice attempted, and failed, to overthrow the Spanish city of Manila in 1574.
Links (1)


Captain Linch

bornactivedied
unknown1670s-1680sunknown
Buccaneer. Of Port Royal, Jamaica. In 1680 Lionel Wafer, tiring of the life of a civil surgeon at Port Royal, left Jamaica to go on a voyage with Captains Linch and Cook to the Spanish Main.
Notes (1)


Maria Lindsey

aka: Maria Cobham
bornactivedied
1700 ca1720s-1740s1760+
a pirate in the early 18th century who with her husband, Eric Cobham, practiced piracy in the Gulf of St. Lawrence from their base in Newfoundland. They were both born in England – Eric Cobham from Poole and Maria Lindsey from Plymouth. the Cobhams were among the first St. Lawrence pirates to become known for giving “no quarter”, meaning all the captur...
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Links (2)Notes (1)


Captain William Ling

borndied
unknownunknown
Notes (1)


Thomas Linisler

borndied
unknownunknown
Notes (1)


Captain Lithgow

borndied
unknownunknown
Notes (1)


Liu Xiang

aka: Jan Glaew
bornactivedied
unknown1620s-16361636
Timeline (1)


William Livers

aka: Liver, also Evis or Elvis
bornactivedied
unknown1710s-17181718, Nov 8
Crew member of Revenge/Royal James, commanded by Major Stede Bonnet. Hanged at Charleston, South Carolina, November 8, 1718.
Notes (2)


Cross-listed in GovernanceWritersPhysicians

Thomas Lodge

borndied
15581625
an English physician and author during the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Lodge, disregarding the wishes of his family, took up literature. When the penitent Stephen Gosson had (in 1579) published his Schoole of Abuse, Lodge responded with Defence of Poetry, Music and Stage Plays (1579 or 1580), which shows a certain restraint, though both forceful and le...
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Links (1)Notes (1)


Gabriel Loffe

bornactivedied
unknown1699 ca1720 ca
Swedish Pirate. He sailed on Captain William Kidd's ADVENTURE PRIZE in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. Transferred from the frigate MOCHA to Kidd's ship ADVENTURE GALLEY in April 1698 at Madagskaru. He was a loyal member of the crew, as well as other known me...
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Notes (1)


Hendrick Corneliszoon Loncq

bornactivedied
unknown1628-1630unknown


Zachariah Long

bornactivedied
unknown1710s-17181718, Nov 8
From Holland. Crew member of Revenge/Royal James, commanded by Major Stede Bonnet. Hanged at Charleston, South Carolina, November 8, 1718.
Notes (2)


John Lopez [1]

bornactivedied
unknown1710s-17181718, Nov 8
From Oporto, Portugal. Crew member of Revenge/Royal James, commanded by Major Stede Bonnet. This Portuguese pirate was hanged with the rest of Bonnet’s crew at Charleston, South Carolina, November 8, 1718.
Notes (2)


John Lopez [2]

aka: John Russell
bornactivedied
unknown1720sunknown
Captain Lowe's quartermaster


Cross-listed in Military

Narciso Lopez

bornactivedied
1797, Nov 21850-18511851, Sep 1
a Venezuelan adventurer and soldier, best known for an expedition aimed at liberating Cuba from Spain in the 1850s. His troops carried a flag that López had designed, which later became the flag of modern Cuba. He was executed in Havana by the royalists in 1851.
Links (1)


John Lord

bornactivedied
unknown1680s1689
A soldier. Deserted from Fort Loyal, Falmouth, Maine. Killed at Tarpaulin Cove in 1689.
Notes (1)


Sam Hall Lord

aka: Sam Lord
bornactivedied
17781800s-1840s1844, Nov 5
one of the most famous buccaneers on the island of Barbados. Sam Lord as he was usually known, amassed great wealth for his castle-mansion in Barbados. He did this through the direct plundering of ships stranded in the coral reefs just off the coast of his estate. According to legend, Sam Lord would hang lanterns high in the coconut trees around his estate. ...
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Links (4)Notes (2)


The Lord of Wackene

bornactivedied
unknown1600sunknown
The lord of Wackene, Cathen and Capelle (Anton) was born in the house of Burgundy. He was a privateer who was active at the beginning of the seventeenth century. In August 1600 he commanded a fleet of privateers that sailed from Duinkerken. The fleet consisted of nine fly-boats and two other ships. Among the commanders of the fleet were Michel and Mathieu Ja...
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Joris Louijssen

borndied
unknownunknown
Seventeenth century Dutch privateer in the service of the Dutch West Indies Company. In the the first half of the fifties he captured a small portuguese vessel and transported its "living cargoe" of slaves to the Dutch colony of Berbice (South-America).


Peter Love

bornactivedied
unknown1590s-16101610
an English pirate, said to have been born in Lewes, Sussex. He was the captain of the Priam, and for a time occupied a base on the island of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides, when he entered into an agreement with the Hebridean outlaw Neil MacLeod. From his base of operations on Lewis, Love captured numerous ships and seized their cargo. MacLeod, however, betray...
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Links (1)Notes (1)


Edward Low

aka: Ned Low, Ned Loe
bornactivedied
1690 ca1721-1724 ca1724 ca
a notorious English pirate during the latter days of the Golden Age of Piracy, in the early 18th century. He was born around 1690 into poverty in Westminster, London, and was a thief from an early age. Low moved to Boston, Massachusetts, as a young man. His wife died in childbirth in late 1719. Two years later, he became a pirate, operating off the coasts of...
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Links (9)Gallery (1)Notes (2)


George Lowther

bornactivedied
unknown1720s1723
an 18th-century English pirate who, although little is known of his life, was active in the Caribbean and Atlantic. One of his lieutenants was Edward Low. Not much is known about him before becoming the 2nd Mate on the slave ship, Gambia Castle, which was under the ...
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Links (6)Notes (3)


John Lucas

bornactivedied
unknown1663unknown


Hendrick Jacobszoon Lucifer

bornactivedied
158316271627
a Dutch-born pirate. Hendrick's last name, Lucifer, referred to a lighting stick, not to the fallen angel Lucifer, and was most likely used as a nickname due to his use of fire and smoke to surprise enemies. Hendrick captured 1.2 million guilders from a Honduran treasure fleet, but was mortally wounded in the process.
Links (2)Notes (1)


Captain Ludbury

borndied
unknownunknown
Notes (1)


Matthew Luke

borndied
unknownunknown
Ship: Vengence or Venganza, Brig
Notes (1)


Captain Lushingham

borndied
unknownunknown
Notes (1)


Raveneau de Lussan

bornactivedied
16631684-1688unknown
a French buccaneer. He belonged to a noble but impoverished family, and embraced a military career at the age of 14. In 1679 he embarked for Santo Domingo in search of fortune, but was unsuccessful, and joined the buccaneers under Laurens de Graaf, sailing from Petit-Goâve, 22 November 1684.
Links (1)Notes (1)


Cross-listed in Military

Kazimierz Lux

bornactivedied
17801795-18461846
an officer of the Polish Legions and a pirate in the Caribbean Sea during the early 19th century. In 1803 on Napoleaon's order, his semibrigade, commanded by general Charles Leclerc, was sent to San Domingo to restore French rule over the island which rebelled in 1801. After pacifying the rebellion, Lux started a career of piracy - shooting and boarding an A...
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Links (1)


Philip Lyne

borndied
unknownunknown
Notes (1)

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