Privateers and Pirates
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Captain Samson
- English pirate who was active in the seventeenth century. Captured the ship the Vergulde Leeuw, Captained by Roeloff Jansen of Amsterdam, in 1624. Died of his wounds the day after the capture of this ship.
- Goole Janfe Schelvis
- Dutch privateer in the eighteenth century. He was the captain of the ship the Vliegende Vis. He captured two British merchant ships in 1782: the United Grocers that was commanded by Henry Beatfon and the Tyne, commanded by captain Philip Wilkenfon. The cargoe of these two brigs was sold on 15 July 1782 in Amsterdam. The cargoe of the United Grocers consisted largely of coal. The cargoe of the Tyne consisted of window-glas , grindstones, english pottery and mustard.
- Pieter Schouten
- Dutch privateer from Vlissingen who sailed in the service of the Dutch West Indies Company in 1624 and 1625. He commanded three ships when he left on 26 January 1624: the Hoop with 24 canons Captained by Willem Jacobszoon, the Eendracht with 14 canons Captained by Hillebrandt Janszoon and the yacht Trouwe with 8 canons Captained by Hendrik Worst. Schouten arrived with his squadron at Barbados in the Caribbean on 15 May 1624. While sailing along several Islands and the coasts of Venezuela, Haïti, Jamaica and Cuba Schouten managed to capture several small vessels. He was unable to do anything against the faster and more heavily guarded Spanish galleons, however. Schouten left the area of Cuba in August 1624, but stayed until the first quarter of 1625 in the Caribbean area. In 1625 he sailed home again with his ship the Hoop. Meanwhile the ship the Eendracht had lost sight of the Hoop earlier on and was sailing on its own. The ship met two Spanish vessels that were sailing from Honduras. Janszoon managed to capture one of them, the San Juan Baptista. With this prize they ran aground at Tortuga Cays (North of Havana). The crew had to abandon the Eendracht and sailed home on the captured Spanish vessel. They arrived in the harbour of Vlissingen on 13 September 1624. The cargo of the captured Spanish vessel was: 1600 chests of sugar, 3000 animal skins, a large amount of Salsaparilla, balm oil, and several chests full of silver.
- Lewis Scot
- According to Esquemeling he was the first buccaneer who started attacking cities on the coasts in the Caribbean in the seventeenth century. He was said to have attacked and plundered the city of Campeche (page 55 of The Buccaneers Of America).
- Seffar Reis
- Corsair on the barbary coast in the seventeenth century. Alias: Thomas de Gauwdief.
- J.W. Sextroh
- Sextroh, who lived in Zierikzee, was active as a privateer in the eighteenth century. A highly controversial action of Sextroh involved his capture on 28 October 1782 of the British packetboat the Dolphin. The capture was controversial because of agreements between the Dutch Republic and Great Britain to refrain from attacking such ships. Sextroh received permission despite of this, because the Dutch authorities suspected treason among the Dutch upper circles. The letters from the packetboat provided no evidence, however, and the Dutch government had to apologize to the British government. Later that year Sextroh captured the British East India Merchant the Marianne on 20 November 1782.
- Johan Sieuwertszoon
- Dutch privateer active in the 16th century. On 15 May 1570 he received a Letter of Marque from Willem van Oranje
- Simon the Dancer
- Jean St. Faust
- Frenchman who was the Commander of a fleet of Dutch eight privateer ships in 1803. The ships sailed out in small squadrons in order to cause the most damage to the enemy. In September and October of 1803 several British merchant ships were captured by the Dutch privateers under his command. On 3 March 1804 the British man-of-war the Amethis under the command of Captain Campbell, carrying 48 cannons, was attacked by four Dutch privateers. These ships were the Bataafse Trouw (16 cannons), the Unie (16 cannons), the Deugd (4 cannons) and the Eer (8 cannons). After a big battle the British ship was forced to flee with heavy casualties (25 dead and 60-70 wounded men). The Dutch privateers were unable to chase after the Amethis due to heavy damage to the masts and the rigging. After several captures the fleet met with ill luck and was eventually disbanded. One of the ships was captured by a British ship and 3 other privateers were lost to the sea. The other privateers were unable to capture anything. Meanwhile St. Faust broke his commission and at the same time several more privateers were captured by British ships. This proved to be the deathstroke for the privateer fleet.
- Claus Storzenbecher (.... - 1401)
- Privateer from Hamburg who died in 1401
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