Piet Hein – his name is short …
This story falls under the category:
1500–1795 (Ancien Régime)
In 1628, the West India Company sent three fleets to the Americas with the aim of intercepting the Spanish silver fleet. Every year, that fleet returned to Spain from the colonies in Latin America with a rich cargo.
TheSpanish Armada
In early August, the ships set sail from the port of Veracruz in Mexico. This was quite late in the year, as the hurricane season often began as early as the end of that month. The fleet was under the command of Admiral Juan de Bazan y Benavidez. The first port of call was Havana.
Piet Hein
Piet Hein was 50 years old when, in April 1628, he set sail from the Republic as Captain-General and Admiral at the head of a fleet of 31 ships. He had extensive experience. He had sailed for the VOC for almost five years, and his voyage in 1628 was already the third he had undertaken for the West India Company. He had even spent several years rowing as a slave on a Spanish galley.
The Battle of Matanzas Bay
North of Cuba, Piet Hein’s fleet lay in wait for the Spanish ships. Just as the Dutch were on the verge of abandoning the expedition, the Spanish ships came into view in the early morning of 8 September 1628. The fleet had been scattered by a hurricane. A number of ships fell immediately into Dutch hands, but the four largest galleons had been blown past the harbour of Havana by the storm. They entered the Bay of Matanzas, some 100 km further east. Pursued by the Dutch ships, the Spanish galleons ran aground. In a panic, the crew fled ashore without setting the ships alight or sinking them to keep the silver out of Dutch hands. Virtually without firing a single shot, the Dutch were able to seize the cargo.
Loot
After a long and arduous voyage, the Dutch fleet returned to the Republic in early 1629. In total, the booty consisted of 135 pounds of gold, more than 37,000 hides, chests full of sugar and the precious dyes indigo and cochineal. And over 177,000 tonnes of silver. When sold, the cargo fetched more than 11.5 million guilders.
Stadtholder Frederick Henry
The capture of the Silver Fleet was celebrated in grand style in the Republic. Piet Hein and his second-in-command, Hendrick Lonck, were received by the States General to give an account of their actions. Both were rewarded with a gold chain. They were also invited to lunch by Stadtholder Frederick Henry. As chief administrator of the WIC, the Stadtholder received 10 per cent of all the booty. Frederik Hendrik also presented Piet Hein with a gold medal on a chain.
The Stadtholder’s medal
The medal that Piet Hein received from the stadtholder has been preserved. Through family ownership, the item found its way into the Rijksmuseum’s collection. It is a fairly simple, engraved medal bearing the stadtholder’s coat of arms on the obverse and the inscription ‘JE MAINTIENDRAIJ’ on the reverse. It is highly likely that gold from the Silver Fleet was used to make the medal.
Benavidez, incidentally, fared much worse: in 1634, he was beheaded in Seville for dereliction of duty.
A more extensive version of the story about Piet Hein will appear in December 2026 in the journal *Decorare*, published by the Study Group on Orders of Knighthood and Decorations.
