Elie Boucheret, a Huguenot captain in an age of discovery, 1621–1636

In Dieppe, one of France’s leading ports, contact with the wider world helped foster the establishment of Protestantism, notably among its mariners. Evidence for the voyages between 1621 and 1636 of Captain Elie Boucheret reveals how religion shaped his career choices and prospects. Plundered and captured by pirates during the course of his voyages to west Africa and the Caribbean, he appealed as a co-religionist for help from the English government and became entangled in Anglo-French naval engagements. While Huguenot sailors were indispensable to French colonial expansion, religious wars and anti-Huguenot policies challenged loyalties, just as the lines between piracy and privateering were blurred.