Stories of Dordrecht (No. 32): Dordrecht hijackers on the coast
€4,95
Product description
Dordrecht has a pirate district! Part of Voorstraat-Noord refers to a special episode in the history of Dordrecht. Between Kerksteiger (new) and Boomstraat, privateers and pirates lived on both sides in the period 1550-1700: mostly independent entrepreneurs who were sometimes deployed when the Republic of the United Netherlands was at war. Privateers worked with a commission letter from the States General, pirates did not and that made them criminals.
Cees Esseboom has investigated who a number of seventeenth-century inhabitants of the Dordrecht pirate district were and where they developed their activities. They were both privateers and pirates. Their modus operandi hardly differed, but one group achieved heroic status while the other was judged criminal.