Hans Pothorst ( 1440 – 1490) was a

privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...

, likely from the German city

Hildesheim Hildesheim (; or ; ) is a city in Lower Saxony, in north-central Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim (district), Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of t ...

. In 1925, researcher Sofus Larsen proposed that Pothhorst may have landed in North America, along with

Didrik Pining Didrik Pining ( 1430 – 1491) was a German privateer, nobleman, and governor of Iceland and Vardøhus. In 1925, researcher Sofus Larson proposed that Pining may have landed in North America in the 1470s, almost twenty years before Columbus' v ...

, in the 1470s, almost twenty years before Columbus' voyages of discovery. English and American scholars now view this as unlikely but the theory has more support with Nordic and Portuguese historians (since both sides have a clear bias for either position the consensus is that is neither proven nor disproven and likely unprovable).

Biography

In what little is known about Pothorst, he is often linked with Didrik Pining. Like Pining, Pothorst was likely from

.Hughes, 2004, p. 507. Pothorst's service on the

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

warship ''Bastian'' seems to have been officially terminated on 1 July 1473. Sometime in the 1470s, Pining, Pothorst and Corte-Real were sent by King

Christian I of Denmark Christian I ''(Christiern I)'' (February 1426 – 21 May 1481) was a German noble and Scandinavian monarch under the Kalmar Union. He was king of Denmark (1448–1481), King of Norway, Norway (1450–1481) and King of Sweden, Sweden (1457 ...

on a naval expedition to the North-Atlantic. During the later years of the reign of Christian I, Pothorst and Pining are said to have distinguished themselves "not less as capable seamen than as matchless freebooters."Nansen and Chater, 1911. Pothorst's home in Denmark is presumed to have been

Helsingør Helsingør ( , ; ), classically known in English as Elsinore ( ), is a coastal city in northeastern Denmark. Helsingør Municipality had a population of 63,953 on 1 January 2025, making it the 23rd most populated municipality in Denmark. Helsin ...

, where his

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

and a simple portrait were painted (possibly shortly after his death) among eight ceiling frescoes in the local St. Mary's Church. The ceiling ensemble remains one of the most celebrated 15th century Danish artworks, and if Pothorst funded its creation as it has been assumed, historians note that he must have been rather wealthy. Later, he is mentioned as a privateer, and in the

Skibby Chronicle The ''Skibby Chronicle'' (, ) is a Danish chronicle written in Latin and dating from the 1530s. It is preserved in a manuscript now held at the Arnamagnæan Institute. The manuscript was found during 1650, walled in behind the altar of Skibby Ch ...

Pothorst and Pining are mentioned among many pirates who "met with a miserable death, being either slain by their friends or hanged on the gallows or drowned in the waves of the sea."Nansen and Chater, 1911.

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* * 1440s births 1490 deaths Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact German explorers Danish pirates Christopher Columbus Age of Discovery {{pirate-stub

Biography

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