Jean Fantin

Jean Fantin (fl 1681-1689) was a French pirate active in the Caribbean and off the coast of Africa. He is best known for having his ship stolen by William Kidd and Robert Culliford.

The ship Le Trompeuse (The Trickster) passed through several pirate and privateer hands in its career, including Laurens de Graaf, Pierre le Pain, and eventually Jean Hamlin. In 1681 Jean Fantin was aboard when Le Pain put Trompeuse into Jamaica. By 1684 he had switched ships, serving under Dutch buccaneer Jan “Yankee” Willems. Alongside Jacob Evertson they were active off Panama, Venezuela, and Honduras 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, 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 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 Jean-Baptiste du Casse at the Cape Verde Islands. Du Casse led them back toward the Caribbean; en route they caught a lone Spanish frigate which had sailed from Havana. 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.

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Wikipedia