Louis Guittar

Louis Guittar (d. 1700) was a French pirate active in the Caribbean and West Indies during the late 1690s and early 1700s.

Based in St. Malo, Guittar commanded the 28-gun "La Paix" and was a former privateer and would attack merchant shipping in the Caribbean and Mid-Atlantic area during the late 1690s.

In early 1700, after plundering and sinking five merchant ships in Chesapeake Bay, he was surprised by the fifth-rate frigate HMS "Shoreham" under Captain William Passenger after chasing the remaining "Quaker" into Lynnhaven Bay, Virginia on May 3, 1700.

Although evenly matched, with the Passenger's 115 crew and 28 guns to the Guittar's crew consisting between 150 and 160 sailors and 20 mounted guns (with eight more in the hold), Guittar was forced to surrender after a 12 hour battle. With 26 men killed, HMS "Shoreham" took on the surving crew members of which more than half being wounded. Transferred to England, Guittar and 23 of his crew were tried for piracy and hanged in London several months later.

Further reading

*Middleton, Arthur Pierce. "Tobacco Coast: A Maritime History of Chesapeake Bay in the Colonial Era". Newport News, Virginia: Mariners' Museum, 1953.

References

*Earle, Peter. "The Pirate Wars". New York: St. Martin's Press, 2005. ISBN 0-312-33579-2
*Peabody & Essex Museum. "The American Neptune". Salem, Massachusetts: Peabody Museum of Salem, 1941.

External links

* [http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=118333&ran=120655 The bloodiest pirate battle to hit these waters] by Ann C. Dearman
* [http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1994/940619/06160458.htm The Virginian-Pilot: Tombstone Recalls Victim of Bloody Naval Battle]