Early Pirate Career
De Graaf began his pirate career not long after marrying de Guzmán, though no records of his activity were made until 1682 when Sieur de Pouancay, the governor of Saint Domingue, recorded that de Graaf had been sailing "on the account" since approximately 1675 or 1676 as the captain of a French privateer crew.
There are some later records of his involvement, in March 1672, in a raid on Campeche by a band of pirates who attacked and torched a partially built frigate and captured the town. The next day, the same pirates captured a merchant ship loaded with over 120,000 pesos in silver and cargo, when it sailed unknowingly into the harbor.
During the late 1670s, de Graaf is reported to have captured a number of vessels, converting each in turn to piracy. Starting with a small vessel he would capture a larger one, then use that vessel to capture a larger one again. Finally, in the autumn of 1679, de Graaf attacked the Spanish Armada de Barlovento and captured a frigate of 24-28 guns, which he renamed the Tigre (Tiger).
After 1682, records of de Graaf's activities are far more substantial. De Graaf had become so successful that Henry Morgan, governor of Jamaica, sent the frigate Norwich, under command of Peter Haywood, pirate-hunting with de Graaf as its primary quarry.
Read more about this topic: Laurens De Graaf
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