Jean Fantin (

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1681–1689) was a French pirate active in the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

and off the coast of Africa. He is best known for having his ship stolen by

William Kidd William Kidd (c. 1645 – 23 May 1701), also known as Captain William Kidd or simply Captain Kidd, was a Scottish-American privateer. Conflicting accounts exist regarding his early life, but he was likely born in Dundee and later settled in N ...

and

Robert Culliford Robert Culliford (c. 1666 – unknown; last name occasionally reported as Collover) was a pirate from Cornwall who is best remembered for repeatedly ''checking the designs'' of Captain William Kidd. Early career and capture Culliford and Kidd f ...

History

The ship ''Le Trompeuse'' (The Trickster) passed through several pirate and

privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...

hands in its career, including Laurens de Graaf, Pierre le Pain, and eventually

Jean Hamlin Jean Hamlin (fl. 1682–1684) was a French pirate active in the Caribbean and off the coast of Africa. He was often associated with St. Thomas's pirate-friendly Governor Adolph Esmit. History Hamlin began his career in 1682, sailing from Jama ...

. In 1681 Jean Fantin was aboard when Le Pain put ''Trompeuse'' into

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. French language original, as reprinted in ''Le Diable Volant : Une histoire de la flibuste : de la mer des Antilles à l'océan Indien (1688-1700)'' / ('The Flying Devil : A History of the Filibusters : From the Antilles to the Indian Ocean (1688-1700)'). By 1684 he had switched ships, serving under Dutch buccaneer Jan “Yankee” Willems. Alongside Jacob Evertson they were active off

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

, and

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

in the intervening years, absorbing some of Jean Hamlin's former crew as well. Willems dropped Fantin and others off at Roatan in early 1688 and may have died shortly afterwards. Some of Willems’ crew continued on to serve under George Peterson. Fantin and a few others were instead picked up from Roatan by Jean Charpin aboard the frigate ''Sainte Rose'', a former Spanish ship which had also been part of de Graaf's flotilla. Also aboard were William Kidd and Robert Culliford, picked up at

Île-à-Vache Île-à-Vache, ( French, , also expressed Île-à-Vaches, former Spanish name Isla Vaca; both translate to Cow Island; ) is a Caribbean island, one of Haiti's satellite islands. It lies in the Baie de Cayes about off the coast of the country's ...

, two of the few Englishmen among an almost entirely French crew. There in early 1689 they captured a heavily laden Dutch ship under a privateering commission. Charpin sailed back to

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

to sell off their cargo and resupply. The crew deposed Charpin from command and elected Fantin as captain. They sailed to the west coast of Africa, joining up with the ship ''Le Hasardeux'' of French

buccaneer Buccaneers were a kind of privateer or free sailors, and pirates particular to the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. First established on northern Hispaniola as early as 1625, their heyday was from the Restoration in 1660 u ...

Jean-Baptiste du Casse Jean-Baptiste du Casse (2 August 1646 – 25 June 1715) was a French Navy officer, privateer, slave trader and colonial administrator who served as the first governor of Saint-Domingue from 1691 to 1700. Born on 2 August 1646 in Saubusse, Fran ...

at the

Cape Verde Islands Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...

. Du Casse led them back toward the Caribbean; en route they caught a lone Spanish

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...

which had sailed from

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. Du Casse wanted its treasure but his privateering commission only allowed him to attack the Dutch. Fantin had no commission and so he took the ''Sainte Rose'' to capture the Spanish ship, transferring to it afterwards. Du Casse led a raid on the Dutch colony at Surinam but was repulsed with heavy losses. He attacked

Berbice Berbice () is a region along the Berbice River in Guyana, which was between 1627 and 1792 a colony of the Dutch West India Company and between 1792 and 1815 a colony of the Dutch state. After having been ceded to the United Kingdom of Great Brita ...

nearby but was stopped and departed with little gain. Some of du Casse's crew began to argue over division of the treasure from the Spanish frigate. England and France declared war in the meantime and so du Casse turned his attention to English colonies, attacking St. Christopher in the summer of 1689. Fantin, reinforced with fresh troops from

Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...

, joined du Casse for the land assault. While he was ashore Kidd, Culliford, and the other Englishmen surprised and murdered the few French sailors left aboard and sailed off in the ship, which they took to

Nevis Nevis ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea that forms part of the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain of the West Indies. Nevis and the neighbouring island of Saint Kitts constitute the Saint Kitts and Nevis, Federation of Saint Kitts ...

and renamed the ''Blessed William''. After the attack on St. Christopher the buccaneers went their separate ways, Fantin leaving with 70 men aboard a

brigantine A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square-rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast: a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail (behind the mast). The main mast is the second and taller of the two masts. Ol ...

, while Charpin's former quartermaster Mathurin Desmarestz bought a ship of his own and sailed with many of the remaining French. Little is recorded of Fantin's later activities, though the fates of two of his ships are known. The ''Sainte Rose'' ended up beached during du Casse's expedition, and the ex-Spanish ''Blessed William'' – stolen from Fantin by Kidd and Culliford – was in turn stolen from Kidd by Culliford, who grew weary of privateering and land attacks with little reward and turned to outright piracy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fantin, Jean Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown French pirates 17th-century pirates 17th-century French criminals Caribbean pirates

History

See also

References