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Jean Thomas Dulaien
French Privateer
Early in the eighteenth century, the French
authorities forbade the use of Tortuga as a base for
corsairs and by a decree of 1718, King Louis XV
offered a full pardon to all such pirates as would
abandon their evil ways.
However, many of the filibusters found it hard to
retire from their chosen profession and in the year
1727, Captain Jean Thomas Dulaien was off the
Mexican coast with a mixed crew of Spanish and
French cutthroats. He was then only 23 years old and
had been well educated in Paris, where he gained his
pilot’s certificate. Taking advantage of a dispute
between his motley crew, the captain sided with his
countrymen and the Spaniards were beaten and thrown
overboard. The crew thereupon proclaimed Dulaien as
their filibuster captain, renamed the ship "Sans
Pitie" and hoisted the corsair flag. It was properly
described in a letter of that day by the Mayor of
Nantes as follows: "The flag is made of black
materials with white marking upon it, seems like
representations of a head cut off with a cutlass,
together with bones and a sandglass."
In order to avoid the French naval patrols,
Dulaien established a base on the island of West Caicos, where today one can
still see the remains of his pirate lair.
When at anchor, the masts of his ship were usually
disguised by tree branches, while his spies watched for innocent merchantmen
plying the Caicos Passage. In less than a year the pirate acquired a small
fortune, and in January 1738 he decided to test his luck no further. While
at Tortuga, he allowed most of his crew to go ashore and, with ten chosen
men; he hoisted sail and deserted the port of France. After a month at sea,
the pirates arrived at Nantes and Dulaien received the King’s promised
amnesty for himself and his crew. By the time authorities decided to seize
his ship, however, most of the valuable contents had already disappeared.
The ship owners of Nantes, who had often suffered at the pirate’s hand, now
protested to the authorities and, on further investigations, much of the
loot was traced to its various recipients. Dulaien and his crew were than
arrested. After another appeal to the King, the men were released, but the
captain was made to languish in prison for several years thereafter.
The original flag has been preserved in
the
Bibleotheque Nationale in Paris |
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