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TYPICAL DUTCH GIFTS
The Dutch pirate
The son of a sea captain, Piet Hein was born in November 1577 in Delfshaven, now part of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. He turned to the sea at a young age becoming a sailor as a teenager. He was since captured twice by the Spanish. The first time, he was held as a slave on a Spanish galleon for four years before being freed in a prisoner exchange. He was again captured off the coast of Cuba and held between 1603 and 1607. Hein joined the Dutch East India Company in 1607 and left for Asia. He returned to the Netherlands five years later as a Captain, settled in Rotterdam, and became a member of the local government.
In 1623 Hein joined the Dutch West India Company (WIC) as Vice Admiral and sailed to the Caribbean. Between 1623 and 1627 he captured over thirty Portuguese ships laden with sugar, as well as the Portuguese colony of Salvador. Though classified as a pirate by many, Piet Hein was a privateer in the eyes of his home country having been given a “Letter of Marque” by the Dutch West India Company to undertake privateering activities. The work of a pirate and a privateer is the same – raiding and plundering enemy ships – but privateering involves an individual, ship or company commissioned and sanctioned by the respective country to carry out such activities.
The son of a sea captain, Piet Hein was born in November 1577 in Delfshaven, now part of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. He turned to the sea at a young age becoming a sailor as a teenager. He was since captured twice by the Spanish. The first time, he was held as a slave on a Spanish galleon for four years before being freed in a prisoner exchange. He was again captured off the coast of Cuba and held between 1603 and 1607. Hein joined the Dutch East India Company in 1607 and left for Asia. He returned to the Netherlands five years later as a Captain, settled in Rotterdam, and became a member of the local government.
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