Pieter Willemsz Verhoeff ( – 22 May 1609) was a Dutch admiral of the

Admiralty of Amsterdam The Admiralty of Amsterdam was the largest of the five Dutch admiralties at the time of the Dutch Republic. The administration of the various admiralties was strongly influenced by provincial interests. The territory for which Amsterdam ...

, notable for his voyage to

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

between 1607 and 1612. Verhoeff was in the service of the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

. In 1601, he was involved in the

Siege of Ostend The siege of Ostend was a three-year siege of the city of Ostend during the Eighty Years' War and the Anglo–Spanish War (1585), Anglo–Spanish War. A Spanish Empire, Spanish force under Archduke Albert (1559–1621), Archduke Albrecht besieg ...

as part of the Eighty Years War. During the Battle of Gibraltar, in 1607, he was flag captain of the ''Aeolus'', the flagship of Admiral

Jacob van Heemskerk Jacob van Heemskerck (3 March 1567 – 25 April 1607) was a Dutch explorer and naval officer. He is generally known for his victory over the Spanish at the Battle of Gibraltar, where he ultimately lost his life. Early life Jacob van Hee ...

. A fleet of 13 ships commanded by him left

Texel Texel (; Texels dialect: ) is a municipality and an island with a population of 13,643 in North Holland, Netherlands. It is the largest and most populated island of the West Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea. The island is situated north of Den ...

in December of 1607, with secret orders to capture

Malacca Malacca (), officially the Historic State of Malacca (), is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the Peninsular Malaysia#Other features, southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca ...

from the Portuguese. He arrived in the Straits of Malacca in 1608 and after a series of unsuccessful attempts to capture the city, he retreated. He died during an attempted conquest of the

Banda Islands The Banda Islands () are a volcanic group of ten small volcanic islands in the Banda Sea, about south of Seram Island and about east of Java (island), Java, and constitute an administrative district (''kecamatan'') within the Central Maluku ...

, where he and many of his crew were ambushed and killed by local chieftains while negotiating with them for the

. This was a direct cause of the Dutch conquest of the Banda Islands (1609–1621).

Footnotes

Bibliography

* 1570s births 1609 deaths Admirals of the navy of the Dutch Republic Sailors on ships of the Dutch East India Company Explorers of South Asia People from Dutch India Naval officers of the Dutch East India Company {{Netherlands-bio-stub