Piet Hein who robbed the Spanish Silver - Piratesunday

Dear Pirates,

Some of the heroes of the past are no longer considered heroes nowadays do you know that? Concurrers are called oppressors and trading slaves is no longer considered ok..

Well on Piratesunday everything is allowed !

This statue in the Netherlands is for Piet Hein a navy commander of the West Indie Companie who in 1628 robbed the whole silver fleet of the Spaniards.

Before I go into detail I first wanna share a song of this period describing what Piet Hein did . The song is still known by every little kid today although it is not considered woke anymore (f 'm)

The song talks about the Spanish fleet carrying a lot of "Spaansche matten" and Orange appels (gold)

The Dutch word for the silver 8 real in that time was Spaanse Mat

So what happened exactly in 1628?

On april 13 Piet Hein left for the carribean with 31 ships and 4000 men to intercept the Spanish fleet returning from Peru and steal the silver, indigo and cochenille aboard. However the Spanish 'Terra Firma' fleet was warned and did not sail out. The other "Saintiago" fleet however was not warned and sailed to Cuba and due to a storm had to look for cover near Havana exactly where the Dutch ships were waiting and in fact were almost going back home as it all took too long.

What followed is the Battle of the Bay of Matanzas and without much of a fight the Dutch took the silver worth a staggering amount of 11 million guilders which after costs was 7 million of which the Dutch reign got 700K (10%).

Be aware that the Spaniards robbed the silver from Peru so no big deal !

This event in time caused the Habsburg empire to fall due to lack of money but at that moment Piet Hein still had to get home. The good news had already been transfered though.

Pirate ships near Dunquerque therefore were aware of his succes and tried to intercept some of the ships. Piet Hein sailed to Falmouth England and succeeded with 5 ships to get home with most of the treasure. Other ships stayed in England.

Shares of the WIC increased 225% ; many sailors and captains thought they did not get enough share and this quarrel went on and on.

Piet Hein died a year later at sea while attacking "kapers" of Oostende as he caught a canon shot in the right shoulder during the attack.

Have a nice sunday
Goldrooster