PIRATES from Netherlands

Top 3

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Dutch Pirates of all time. This list of famous Dutch Pirates is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Jan Janszoon (1570 - 1641)

With an HPI of 59.70, Jan Janszoon is the most famous Dutch Pirate.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages on wikipedia.

Jan Janszoon van Haarlem, commonly known as Reis Mourad the Younger (c. 1570 – c. 1641), was a Dutch pirate who later became a Barbary corsair in Ottoman Algeria and the Republic of Salé. After being captured by Algerian corsairs off Lanzarote in 1618, he converted to Islam and changed his name to Mourad. He became one of the most famous of the 17th-century Barbary corsairs. Together with other corsairs, he helped establish the independent Republic of Salé at the city of that name, serving as the first President and Commander. He also served as Governor of Oualidia.

2. Piet Pieterszoon Hein (1577 - 1629)

With an HPI of 58.39, Piet Pieterszoon Hein is the 2nd most famous Dutch Pirate.  His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Piet Pieterszoon Hein (25 November 1577 – 18 June 1629) was a Dutch admiral and privateer for the Dutch Republic during the Eighty Years' War. Hein was the first and the last to capture a large part of a Spanish treasure fleet which transported huge amounts of gold and silver from Spanish America to Spain. The amount of silver taken was so large that it resulted in the rise of the price of silver worldwide and the near bankruptcy of Spain.

3. Roche Braziliano (1630 - 1671)

With an HPI of 54.37, Roche Braziliano is the 3rd most famous Dutch Pirate.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Roche Braziliano (c. 1630 – disappeared c. 1671) was a Dutch pirate from the town of Groningen. His piratical career lasted from 1654 until his disappearance c. 1671. He was first made famous in Alexandre Exquemelin's 1678 book The Buccaneers of America; Exquemelin did not know Braziliano's real name, but historians have argued his probable real name was Gerrit Gerritszoon and that he and his parents had moved to Dutch Brazil. He is known as "Roche Braziliano", which in English translates to "Rock the Brazilian", due to his long exile in Brazil.