Nossa Senhora do Cabo is under sail in Alberto Cutileiro painting. Wiki Commons.
On the gallows as he was about to be hanged for piracy, Olivier Levasseur supposedly tore a string of lettered beads from his neck and flung them into the milling throng saying: “Find my treasure, the one who may understand it.” Although the original bling has long been lost, treasure hunters and marine archeologists have been poring over the 17-line cryptogram on it for nearly 300 years hoping to find his ship, the Nossa Senhora do Cabo, and the fate of its $138 million in treasure.
This summer, after 16 years of research led by the Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation, archeologists believe they have found the remains of the Cabo in the shallow water of the harbor of Ilot Madame, a small island near Nosy Boraha, off Madagascar’s northeast coast. It was known as Ile Sainte-Marie in the “Golden Age of Piracy” of the early 1700s. Recovered artifacts strongly support the debris field as being Levasseur’s “Lady of the Cape” prize ship. However, the whereabouts of the vast treasure it once may have held is still be up for grabs by the clever cryptologist who deciphers the puzzle.
Suspected wreck site is in shallow water off Ilot Madame, a small island near Madagascar’s northeast coast. Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation.
Levasseur, nicknamed “La Buse” or “The Buzzard”, practiced his trade of relieving ships of their cargo while traveling freely in the Indian Ocean’s Mascarene Islands until his capture in 1730. His regular base on Reunion Island has long been a target of treasure hunters, but he may have hidden the trove on Seychelles, Rodrigues, Madagascar, Mayotte or Ile Sainte-Marie. His legendary capture of the Cabo became the basis of Robert Lewis Stevenson’s novel “Treasure Island” in which the ill-fated ship is called “The Victory of the Indies” and Levasseur narrates the story as the fictional character Long John Silver.
Oddly, capturing the Cabo may have been Levasseur’s easiest heist. The Portuguese developed the Man-O-War as a heavily armed galleon with a 200-foot length studded with at least 72 cannons. Three masts with square-rigged sails powered the 700-ton ship, which was typically crewed with 50 or more fighters in addition to an even larger contingent of sailors. The Cabo had nearly 200 slaves on board as well as a mindboggling cargo of treasure: gold and silver bars, coins, silks, precious gems, fine china and religious items including the Fiery Cross of Goa. The centerpiece of the Cathedral in Goa, India, the crucifix was cast in pure gold and inlaid with diamonds, rubies and emeralds. It was so heavy that it took three men to carry it aboard the Cabo before it departed Goa in early 1721. The treasures were the property of the Bishop of Goa, the Patriarch of the East Indies, who was aboard the ship along with the outgoing Portuguese Viceroy as the two headed home to Lisbon.
Cryptogram and the key to deciphering it might pinpoint where Levasseur hid his share of the Cabo’s treasure.
While crossing the Indian Ocean, the Cabo was hammered by a heavy storm that broke its masts. Many of its cannons were cast overboard during the tempest as their weight was threatening to cause the top-heavy ship to capsize in the raging seas. Once the fury subsided, the captain and crew sought the shelter of calm waters near Reunion Island to repair the storm damage, intent on continuing their trip to Portugal. On April 8, Levasseur, who had teamed up with fellow pirate John Taylor, found the Cabo at anchor while many of its crew were ashore foraging food and wood for ship repairs. Those left on board initially thought the approaching pirate ships were from British Company, and were hopeful for their help. As the ships neared, the Cabo crewmen realized their error, and they could offer little resistance to the surprise attack, surrendering without firing a shot.
The key to the cryptogram.
After capturing the Cabo, Levasseur and Taylor towed it 400 miles west to Ile Sainte-Marie where repairs could be made and its treasure divvied up among the victors. Each of the crewmen received at least $50,000 worth of golden Guineas, diamonds and pearls. Reports conflict over the fate of the human cargo, with some accounts holding that many of the slaves perished and surviving ones were set free or sold to others. The viceroy and archbishop were traded for ransom to Portugal. Levasseur renamed the refurbished ship Victorieux, but its fate remains a question, pending verification of the recent archeological findings. Some say that the Cabo was simply scuttled to destroy evidence while others claim Levasseur continued his piracy with the Victorieux, sailing it on to conquests in the Indian Ocean until it shipwrecked at Cape Amber. Much of Levasseur’s share of the treasure likely was offloaded and stashed in any of the islands he visited, so decoding his cryptogram continues to challenge treasure-hunting sleuths.
Ship wreckage rises about three feet above the sea floor in sonar image. Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation.
The Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation makes a strong case for the Cabo’s remains being at Ile Sainte-Marie. The island was a hub for pirates preying on European ship traffic to and from their Asian colonies. It offered secluded harbors just off the shipping lanes from which pirates could launch attacks then retreat to a safe harbor offering freshwater, timber for repairs and food for crews. Since 2010, archeologists mapping the seabed with side-scan sonar have identified between seven and 10 debris fields that are likely the remains of pirate ships. Divers mapped and collected artifacts from the shallow waters, with the one believed to be the Cabo yielding possible clues to its identity.
Ceramic shards might have been the Cabo’s cargo. Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation.
Among the more than 3,300 objects cataloged at the Cabo target site are ceramics and glazed pottery from the Mughal empire that ruled the Indian subcontinent in Levasseur’s day. The shards are notable for their fine clay, deep cobalt and green glazes and incised decoration. European coins, African shells and remnants of spices add to the evidence. Figurines of religious origin may have been among items transported by the Archbishop of Goa. Of special interest is an ornate small ivory plaque incised with the gilded letters INRI – the Latin inscription for Jesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum that is traditionally affixed on a crucifix – which might have once adorned the Fiery Cross of Goa. Further exploration of the site’s ballast stones and timbers may provide additional evidence of the ship’s origin and name.
Gold coins are on the sea floor at the Cabo target site. Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation.
Levasseur seemed an unlikely man to pursue piracy. He was born in Calais, France, to a wealthy bourgeois family and received a fine education pointing to a career in architecture. During the War of Spanish Succession, he received a letter of marque from King Louis XIV to become a privateer for the French crown. At the end of the war, he rejected orders to return home with his ship, instead joining the pirate
Ivory incised with INRI might have adorned the Fiery Cross of Goa.
company of Benjamin Hornigold. A scar on one eye limited his sight, but he proved to be a good shipmate and leader. He left Hornigold’s company in 1716 to partner with the English pirate Samuel “Black Sam” Bellany in plundering ships along South America and in the Caribbean. Levasseur was then recruited by English pirate Francis Hume and an associate William Moody. Their pillaging shifted across the Atlantic to the African slave port of Ouidah. Their crews became disgruntled with the leadership, and elected Levasseur to take over the captain’s hat in 1720. By then, his bad eye had gone completely blind and he began wearing his signature eye patch as he moved his base to the Indian Ocean with its lucrative bounty of European ships rounding the Cape of Good Hope on Africa’s southern tip on trips to and from Asian colonies.
Flowers rest on Olivier Levasseur’s grave at Saint Paul, Reunion Island. Wikipedia.
Hoping to stem the damage to commerce, French authorities announced an amnesty for pirates willing to give up their trade, so in 1724, Levasseur sent a negotiator to the governor on Bourbon Island, now known as Reunion, with a goal of retiring and avoiding a dance on the end of a rope. However, the French wanted the bulk of the stolen cargo returned, a deal Levasseur spurned either from greed or an inability to deliver after splitting the spoils with his crew. He went into hiding as best as a man with a distinctive eye patch could on the Seychelles archipelago until he was tracked down and captured near Fort Dauphin, Madagascar. From there, he was taken to Saint-Denis, Reunion, to be hanged at 5 p.m. on July 7, 1730.
Madonna carving is among the religious items recovered from the wreck site. Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation.
Of the treasure hunters attempting to decode Levasseur’s clues, Joseph Tipveau may have been the most diligent. He spent much of his life searching the west and south coasts of Reunion Island, coming up empty handed. Another hopeful, the grandfather of 2008 Literature Nobel Prize winner J.M.G Le Clezio, spent 20 years digging in a gully on the island of Rodrigues, finding only a sore back in his shovels of dirt. In 1947, Englishman Reginald Cruise-Wilkins claimed Masonic symbolism complicated the cryptogram’s code, further skewed with references to the Zodiac, Clavicles of Solomon and the 12 Labors of Hercules. His interpretation holds that the treasure is underground and
Brandon Clifford suits up to explore the suspected Cabo site. Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation.
must be excavated carefully to prevent flooding. His search of a cave on the island of Mahe yielded some guns, coins and a pirate sarcophagus, but nothing of value. After Cruise-Wilkins’ death on May 3, 1977, his son John, a Seychellois history teacher, has continued his father’s quest, but so far has found only where the treasure is not.
French researcher Emmanuel Mezino recently claims to have broken the code by deciphering it in the Francacan alphabet. He says that Levasseur’s treasure must be buried on Reunion Island. He documented his treasure hunt along with a team of amateur researchers in his 2014 book “Mon Tresor a Qui Saura le Prendre”. A lack of exploration permits has prevented him from further seeking the mother lode, and he has said he rues that the site is being plundered of pieces that should be in a museum instead of the open market.
Robert Lewis Stevenson’s fictional Long John Silver, based on Olivier Levasseur, is depicted by William Nicholson. Wikipedia.
Another book by French chemist Cyrille Lougnon “Olivier Levasseur dit la Buse, iraterie et contrbande sur la route de Indes au XVIIIe siècle” was published in 2023 by Riveneuve. Lougnon, the grandson of Reunion Island historian Albert Lougnon, says the cryptogram places the treasure under a megalithic structure on the island, less than 1,000 meters from Cremont Road.
Other historians note that the cipher was first mentioned in the 1934 book “Le Flibustier Mysterieux: Histore d’un Tresor Cache” by Charles de La Ronciere, and can find no mention of the cryptogram, necklace or gallows speech in period sources. So the “Buzzard’s” legendry gallows humor might be just fiction worthy of Robert Lewis Stevenson.
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