Piet Pieterszoon Hein (or Pieter Pietersen Heyn) (November 25, 1577 – June 18, 1629) was a Dutch naval officer and folk hero during the Eighty Years' War between the United Provinces and Spain.
Hein was born in Delfshaven (now part of Rotterdam), the son of a captain, and he became a sailor while he was still a teenager. In his twenties, he was captured by the Spanish, and served as a galley-slave for about four years, when he was traded for Spanish prisoners.
In 1607, he joined the Dutch East India Company and left for Asia, returning with the rank of captain five years later. He settled in Rotterdam, and later became a member of the local government (schepen).
In 1623, he became a vice-admiral and sailed to the West Indies the following year for the Dutch West India Company (WIC). In Brazil, he briefly captured the Portuguese settlement of Salvador. In a subsequent trip, he captured several Portuguese ships with a large cargo of sugar. Piracy was condoned by the WIC, but Hein, though often called a pirate, was what in modern terms would be named a merchant raider as the Republic was at war with the Habsburgs and this was what would make Hein most famous.
 Pieter Pietersen Heyn |
In 1628, Hein, with Witte de With as his flag captain, sailed out to capture the Spanish treasure fleet loaded with silver from their American colonies. Part of this fleet had been warned because a Dutch cabin boy had lost his way on an island and was captured, betraying the plan, but the other half continued its voyage, unaware of the threat. Twelve Spanish ships were intercepted; six merchants were talked into a surrender; six fleeing galleons were trapped off the Cuban coast in the Bay of Matanzas. After some musket volleys from Dutch sloops their crews surrendered also and Hein captured about twelve million guilders of booty in gold, silver and other expensive trade goods, as indigo and cochineal, without any bloodshed. The Dutch didn't take prisoners: they gave the Spanish crews ample supplies for a march to Havana. The treasure was the company's greatest victory in the Caribbean. As a result, the money funded the Dutch army for eight months allowing it to capture the fortress 's-Hertogenbosch and the shareholders enjoyed a cash dividend of 70% for that year. |
He returned to the Netherlands in 1629, where he was hailed as a hero. Watching the crowds cheering him standing on the balcony of the town hall of Leyden he remarked to the burgomaster: "Now they praise me because I gained riches without the least danger; but earlier when I risked my life in full combat they didn't even know I existed...".
He became Lieutenant-Admiral of Holland and West Frisia in 1629, taking as flag captain Maarten Tromp. He died the same year, fighting the (in)famous Dunkirker Raiders, the enormous fleet of Habsburg commerce raiders and privateers operating from Dunkirk trying to intercept all Dutch trade. He is buried in the Oude Kerk in Delft.
The Piet Hein Tunnel in Amsterdam is named in his honor, as is the former Dutch frigate Hr. Ms. Piet Heyn.
A direct descendant of Hein was Piet Hein, a famous 20th century physicist and poet.