Picture of Rochussen

Isaac Rochussen (1631-1710)


Isaac Rochussen was born in 1631 in the city of Vlissingen. Not too much is known about him. Some of the facts about his life as a privateer are preserved, however, because he was one of the few privateers who managed to acquire some fame during his own lifetime. The reason for this was his capturing the English East India merchant The Falcon. He captured this ship in the area of the Scilly Isles on 7 July 1672. When The Falcon was brought in by him and his ship De Eendracht, she was sold for the sum of f 350.000.= (guilders).

That was a huge sum for that time: most of the captured ships and their cargoe were usually sold for only a few thousand or several tens of thousands guilders. The Falcon was thereafter often referred to by the Dutch as De Gouden Valk (the golden falcon). Rochussen received a gold medal from the ships´ owner for this capture. In later years he became a privateer, a business which his son Isaac Rochussen jr. inherited.


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For this text I drew heavily on:
Prud'Homme van Reine, R.B. + EWvdO
Kapers op de kust : Nederlandse kaapvaart en piraterij 1500 - 1800 / R.B. Prud'Homme van Reine, E.W. van der Oest. - Vlissingen : ADZ Vlissingen, 1991
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