French privateer a member of the Legion of Honour
Robert Surcouf was a French privateer and slave trader who operated in the Indian Ocean between 1789 and 1801, and again from 1807 to 1808. Surcouf started his career as a sailor and officer on the slave ships Aurore, Courrier d'Afrique and Navigateur. Having risen to Captain, and in spite of the prohibition of slave trading by the National Convention in 1793, he engaged in the business himself as a captain on Créole.