Olivier Levasseur

They called him La Buse—“The Buzzard”—and he earned the name in blood and thunder. Born in Calais, France around 1688, Olivier Levasseur left a comfortable life for the edge of the world, cutting his teeth as a privateer under French command before turning his guns on everyone.

When the War of the Spanish Succession ended, Levasseur refused to give up the life. He joined Hornigold’s outlaw fleet in 1716 but soon struck out on his own, eyepatch across his face. Some say he wore an it over a battle scar; others say he just liked the fear it inspired. Whatever the truth, his ship moved fast, hit hard, and vanished before the smoke cleared.

By 1721, Levasseur ruled the Indian Ocean like a sea hawk. That year, he and fellow pirate John Taylor captured the Portuguese galleon Nossa Senhora do Cabo, stranded near Réunion after a storm. The treasure ship’s hold was bursting with diamonds, pearls, gold, and the legendary Flaming Cross of Goa. No broadside, no mercy—Levasseur took it all. It became one of the greatest plunders in pirate history.

When the French crown offered him amnesty in 1724—on the condition he hand over his treasure—Levasseur laughed it off. The Buzzard didn’t surrender. Instead, he disappeared among the islands of the Indian Ocean, allegedly burying his fortune in secret before French forces finally captured him years later.

Even his death couldn’t end the legend. Some accounts say that before the hangman’s rope dropped in 1730, Levasseur tore a pendant from his neck, tossed it to the crowd, and bellowed: “Find my treasure, he who may understand it!” Inside was a 17-line cipher—the key, perhaps, to a hoard still hidden somewhere in the Seychelles.

Levasseur was a tactician as much as a killer. He didn’t rely on brute force—he read the sea like scripture, using currents, storms, and timing as his allies. Crews under his command feared him but followed him without hesitation. His code was simple: speed, precision, and silence. Those who broke it didn’t last long.

And when he sailed, other pirates took notice. Some sought to join him, others to outrun him—but none could match him. Legends say that entire fleets altered course when they learned La Buse was near, his black flag cutting across the horizon like a shadow over prey. Centuries later, treasure hunters still chase his cipher, hoping to find what kings, corsairs, and fortune-seekers could not: the last great secret of the Buzzard of the Indian Ocean.