Louis Le Golif
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The Memoirs of Louis Adhemar Timothée Le Golif, called Borgnefesse, Captain of the Buccaneers (Cahiers de Louis Adhemar Timothée Le Golif, dit Borgnefesse, capitaine de la flibuste) was published in French in 1952 by Grasset.
This account of the voyages, gallant conquests, battles, boarding and pillaging of a prominent character in the Caribbean Sea during the time of Louis XIV was presented in 1952 as the authentic memoirs of 17th century freebooter captain Louis Le Golif. His manuscript, discovered by chance in an old trunk following the bombing of Saint-Malo in 1944, was deciphered by Gustave Alaux and Albert t'Serstevens. An English translation was published in 1954 as The Memoirs of a Buccaneer: Being a Wondrous and Unrepentant Account of the Prodigious Adventures and Amours of King Louis XIV’s Loyal Servant, Louis Adhemar Timothée Le Golif, Known for His Singular Wound As Borgnefesse, Captain of the Buccaneers, Told by Himself.
For a long time accepted by lovers of literature, this presentation was from the beginning rejected by historians and specialists of naval research as a forgery.[1]
The fictional Golif was active between 1660 and 1675. Arriving on a Tortuga plantation as an indentured servant, he escaped with a friend and joined a pirate crew. When their captain was killed attacking a Spanish treasure ship, Golif took over and successfully captured the galleon. During the battle he was struck in the buttocks by a cannonball, giving him his nickname "Borgne-Fesse" (half-ass). The pirates return to a hero's welcome given by Tortuga's Governor Bertrand d'Ogeron. After a number of other buccaneering conquests alongside Laurens de Graaf, Roc Brasiliano, and others (and after many sexual escapades), Golif retires a rich man to Brittany.[2]
