Since the advent of the popular media, pirates have become beloved boys in our culture. As a theme they return in films, amusement park attractions, and children's parties. The image of the pirate as a villain has been replaced by that in which the pirate is always the hero. Is that idolization something of this time?
Not necessarily. In the past too, the exploits of privateers and buccaneers were slightly exaggerated, in order to instill fear or, on the contrary, to arouse awe for alleged heroic deeds. Of course, the 'hero or villain' content depends on the perspective in the historiography.
As a country, the Netherlands has produced a whole arsenal of pirates. Think of Simon the Dancer, and Claes Compaen. Let's take a look at some of these pirates to see if our image of them is correct.
Pete Hein
Piet Hein!, Piet Hein!,Piet Hein, his name is small,His deeds are great,His deeds are great:He has won the Silver Fleet
You probably know this song -at least in part - well. Piet Hein (1577-1629) is praised in this song for his victory in 1628 over a Spanish fleet with which he captured an enormous amount of Spanish silver. In our experience, Piet Hein was a Dutch pirate who fearlessly tricked the Spaniards. But was that really the case?
The Spaniards will indeed have regarded Piet Hein as an ordinary pirate. But in reality Piet Hein was a lieutenant admiral and commander of the West India Company (WIC). In 1623 he received letters of marque from the WIC. These letters gave him permission from the Dutch authorities to board and capture foreign ships (even if they were not warships). Piet Hein lived in the period of the independence struggle of the Netherlands against Spain (Eighty Years' War, 1568-1648). And undermining the Spanish armada was of course very smart from a strategic point of view.
The WIC wanted to hit Spain as hard as possible. What better way to do that than by cutting off Spain's supply of gold and goods? In this way, Spain could afford the war less well, and the Netherlands all the better. The WIC knew that the Spanish silver fleet departed from Cuba to Spain every year, and ordered Piet Hein to intercept it. By an unfortunate coincidence -for the Spaniards at least - part of the treasure fleet was cut off from the rest.
Piet Hein's fleet caught sight of them and gave chase. The Spaniards fled in blind panic towards the bay of Matanzas, only to be stranded on a sandbank. The Dutch fleet also ran aground on the sandbank, but were close enough to board the treasure fleet. The panic among the Spaniards was so great that they surrendered almost immediately. Piet Hein was therefore able to conquer the Silver Fleet without firing a shot. This was not only a financial victory for the republic, but above all a moral victory that went down very well in the Netherlands. Piet Hein was welcomed in the Netherlands as a hero.
The conquest of the silver fleet is Piet Hein's most famous feat of arms, but he has done much more. In the last few months of his life, for example, he was actively involved in the renewal and professionalization of the war fleet. Thanks in part to his ideas, the Netherlands was able to compete in the 17 e century to become a world power at sea.
Cornelis Jol (1597-1641)
If there was ever a man whose 'pirate life' is worth making a film, it is Cornelis Jol. His career is related to events that have earned him the nickname 'el Pirata' for a reason. The fact that Cornelis -due to injuries - having a wooden leg didn't help to shake off that cliché image of 'pirate'.
If we look beyond his epic reputation, we discover that Cornelis was also a privateer, employed by the WIC. Although coming from a humble skipper family, he had quickly worked himself up to admiral. Its activities were mainly concentrated in the South American region; Brazil and the Caribbean. Here he thwarted the Spaniards and the Portuguese in various ways. He robbed Spanish ships of gold and goods, and led several successful attacks on Spanish colonies in the West.
He even made an attempt, like Piet Hein, to intercept a Spanish silver fleet. Unfortunately, this failed due to mutiny in his fleet. Captains of other ships refused to assist him in this. We're not quite sure why they refused. This could be due to envy of his position and his rapid promotion to admiral, dissatisfaction with his approach, or simply cowardice.
So no silver coins or 'apples of Orange' for Cornelis, but many other successes:he fought in the Battle of Duins. With a squadron of seven ships under his command, he closed off the escape route for the Spanish armada. With this victory under his belt, the Dutch Republic as the dominant naval power had to be taken into account. Two years later, he sailed from South America to Africa, where he captured the city of Luanda and the island of Soa Tomé. The WIC was at its largest after this expansion. That same year Cornelis Jol died of malaria on Sao Tome.
Rock the Brazilian (1635-1671?)
Rock de Brazilian is the 'Jack Sparrow' among the Dutch pirates. Not only from abroad, but also in the Netherlands he was considered a pirate.
Many aspects of Rock's life remain mysterious to us. For example, we don't know his real name. What we know, we know from the book by Alexandre Exquemelin (1645-1707?), 'De Americaensche Zee-Roovers'. This writer himself sailed on pirate ships for years before he decided to write a book to give the public an insight into the life of pirates. But we must be careful of using this book as "historical work." Chances are, he's occasionally juicierized details in the story to make it all a bit more exciting for his readers.
We know that Rock was born in Groningen as the son of a merchant. As a child he emigrated with his parents to the Dutch colony in Brazil, which earned him his nickname 'the Brazilian'. When Rock was nineteen, the Dutch left this colony. The Dutch Republic had withdrawn from these regions because it could no longer defend them, and had become involved in the First Anglo-Dutch War. Rock himself left for Jamaica, where he -out of sheer financial necessity - joined a gang of buccaneers. He started on board as a simple sailor, but by bending mutiny to his will he managed to work his way up to captain.
While Piet Hein and Cornelis Jol were known for their humane treatment of crew and prisoners of war, Rock the Brazilian was an extremely cruel pirate. Discipline prevailed on board, not out of respect for Rock, but rather out of fear for his unstable personality.
The Spaniards were especially the victims of his efforts. He hated them terribly, and did everything he could to bother them. But whether this had to do with the Eighty Years' War that the Dutch Republic was in at the time, or simply a personal aversion is not clear. In any case, his robbery activities had mainly focused on Spanish ships. He sailed with a flag depicting a skeleton, with the text 'Corpse of a Spaniard' below it. His hatred for Spain therefore ran quite deep. For example, there are also stories about Rock in which he had Spanish prisoners of war eat each other, or had them roasted on a spit. He also liked to torture Spanish prisoners and put them to the sword for no reason.
However, he must also have played pranks at the expense of other countries. If this had not been the case, Rock would undoubtedly have been recorded as a 'hero' in our history, and his statue now adorns that of Piet Hein in Delft.