Isaac Rochussen or Isaac Rockesen (1631–1710) was a 17th-century Dutch corsair and privateer during the

Second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

and

Third Anglo-Dutch War The Third Anglo-Dutch War, began on 27 March 1672, and concluded on 19 February 1674. A naval conflict between the Dutch Republic and England, in alliance with France, it is considered a related conflict of the wider 1672 to 1678 Franco-Dutch W ...

. His capture of ''The Falcon'', a merchantman belonging to the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

, was one of the most valued ships captured during the late 17th century.

Biography

Isaac Rochussen was born in the city of

Vlissingen Vlissingen (; ) is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the island of Walcheren. With its strategic location between the Scheldt river and the North Sea, Vlissingen has been an importan ...

, although little of his life is recorded. An active corsair during the

and

, he captured the English East India merchantman ''The Falcon'' near the

Isles of Scilly The Isles of Scilly ( ; ) are a small archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, Isles of Scilly, St Agnes, is over farther south than the most southerly point of the Great Britain, British mainla ...

on July 7, 1672. The prize was sold at as 350,000 gilders, the highest paid for the time when an average ship and cargo went for only a few thousand or, at best, tens of thousands of gilders. The Falcon was thereafter referred to by the Dutch as ''De Gouden Valk'' (or The Golden Falcon). Rochussen himself received a gold medal from the ships´ owner for this capture. He later became a successful privateer in his later years, a trade followed by his son Isaac Rochussen Jr., before his death in 1710.

Biography

References

Further reading