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Jellas de Lecat

THE HISTORY LOCKER · PIRATE PROFILE

Jelles de Lecat

The Captain Jamaica Couldn’t Catch

Better known as Yellahs, Jelles de Lecat was a Dutch buccaneer who sailed with Roche Braziliano and joined Henry Morgan’s expedition against Panama. By 1672, he was seizing English merchant ships under a Spanish commission, and Jamaica had sent Captain John Morris to bring him in.

From Braziliano’s First Mate to Captain

 

Little is known about de Lecat’s early life. By 1668, he was sailing as Roche Braziliano’s first mate aboard a captured Spanish brigantine. The two men cruised off the Spanish Main and took another vessel. Braziliano took command of the new prize, and de Lecat took charge of the brigantine.

The following year, Spanish ships scattered a group of buccaneers off Campeche. Braziliano’s vessel was wrecked during the escape, and de Lecat picked him up. De Lecat later sailed with the Dutch buccaneer Jan Erasmus Reyning, and both men joined Henry Morgan’s expedition against Panama in 1670–71.​

QUICK FACTS

   

Nationality:

Dutch

Born:

Unknown

Active:

Late 1660s to at least 1674

Rank:

First mate, then captain

Base of operations:

Port Royal and the Cayman Islands, later the Bay of Campeche

Known for:

Sailing with Henry Morgan and taking English logwood ships under a Spanish commission

Associated with:

Roche Braziliano, Jan Erasmus Reyning and Henry Morgan

Commands:

A captured Spanish brigantine and later the Seviliaen

Also known as:

Yellahs, Yallahs and Captain Yellows

Fate:

Unknown

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Dates and biographical details are approximate. Even Braziliano’s real name and ultimate fate remain uncertain.

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Dead Man's Debt by Martin Blackshaw

HISTORY MEETS FICTION

Yellahs in Dead Man's Debt

Jacob first hears the name Yellahs when Braziliano tells his rum story in The Pirate's Wake, but it's not until Dead Man's Dead that we meet the man.

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The historical accounts tell us who Yellahs sailed with, whose ships he took and who tried to catch him. They leave room to imagine what he was like in close quarters. In Dead Man’s Debt, I wanted to give him a purpose of his own and see what it might cost Jacob to owe him a favour.

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