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The Most Famous

PIRATES from Netherlands

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This page contains a list of the greatest Dutch Pirates. The pantheon dataset contains 25 Pirates, 3 of which were born in Netherlands. This makes Netherlands the birth place of the 2nd most number of Pirates.

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.

Photo of Jan Janszoon

1. Jan Janszoon (1570 - 1641)

With an HPI of 58.22, Jan Janszoon is the most famous Dutch Pirate.  His biography has been translated into 15 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.

Photo of Piet Pieterszoon Hein

2. Piet Pieterszoon Hein (1577 - 1629)

With an HPI of 58.06, Piet Pieterszoon Hein is the 2nd most famous Dutch Pirate.  His biography has been translated into 22 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.

Photo of Roche Braziliano

3. Roche Braziliano (1630 - 1671)

With an HPI of 53.05, Roche Braziliano is the 3rd most famous Dutch Pirate.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Roche Braziliano (sometimes spelled Rock, Roch, Roc, Roque, Brazilliano, Brasiliaan or Brasiliano) (c. 1630 – disappeared c. 1671) was a Dutch Brazilian pirate born in the town of Groningen. His pirate career lasted from 1654 until his disappearance around 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 found he was probably born as Gerrit Gerritszoon and that he and his parents moved to Dutch-controlled Brazil. He is known as "Roche Braziliano", which in English translates to "Rock the Brazilian", due to his long exile in Brazil.

Pantheon has 3 people classified as pirates born between 1570 and 1630. Of these 3, none of them are still alive today. The most famous deceased pirates include Jan Janszoon, Piet Pieterszoon Hein, and Roche Braziliano. As of April 2022, 2 new pirates have been added to Pantheon including Jan Janszoon and Roche Braziliano.

Deceased Pirates

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Newly Added Pirates (2022)

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