With his aristocratic elegance and manners and his preference for expensive, well cut clothes Captain Lefanu seems like he would be more at home in the court of King Louis than sailing the high seas as a pirate. Indeed his father is no less than the Vicomte de Clairvaux. Unfortunately his mother is a Irishwoman of no standing, who fled Ireland in the days of Cromwell and eked out a living as a doxy in France where she caught the Vicomte's roving eye. In 1647 she gave birth to young Jean.

The Vicomte was not about to recognise an illegitimate son born to an illiterate foreign harlot as his heir but he did provide a limited income so that mother and son would not go hungry. The young Jean proved a bright and ambitious boy who was proud of his blue blood but always conscious that he was seen as inferior because he was born out of wedlock. He did what he could to educate himself, spending his limited coin on books and studies. Unfortunately his resentment of his status grew to and in 1665 he fell out over a woman with his legitimate stepbrother Henri, the Vicomte's heir. The two men duelled and Jean emerged the victor, costing Henri an eye. To escape the executioner Jean fled France, taking passage aboard a boat bound for Martinique.

Unfortunately - or perhaps fortunately - the ship never reached it's destination, taken by the pirate Phillip O'Neil captain of the Queen Grace. Impressed by young Jean's wit and swordplay, and the fact that he was half-Irish O'Neil offered the young man a lace in his crew. Jean readily accepted and over the next few years rose from the rank of cabin boy to become one of O'Neil's officer's. In 1671 Jean was placed in command of a prize crew of a captured Dutch ship... which was how he outlived both Phillip O'Neil and the Queen Grace which were sent to the bottom by the Dutch.

Now a captain in his own right Jean Lefanu renamed his ship the Enchanteresse and began his career. He might not be the nobleman he so desperately wants to be but at least he can be rich and make a name for himself!