Hans Pothorst ( 1440 – 1490) was a

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare 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 or deleg ...

, likely from the German city

Hildesheim Hildesheim (; nds, Hilmessen, Hilmssen; la, Hildesia) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of the L ...

. 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' vo ...

, in the 1470s, almost twenty years before Columbus' voyages of discovery. Scholars now view this as unlikely.

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 (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

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 (February 1426 – 21 May 1481) was a Scandinavian monarch under the Kalmar Union. He was king of Denmark (1448–1481), Norway (1450–1481) and Sweden (1457–1464). From 1460 to 1481, he was also duke of Schleswig (within Den ...

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 ( , ; sv, Helsingör), classically known in English as Elsinore ( ), is a city in eastern Denmark. Helsingør Municipality had a population of 62,686 on 1 January 2018. Helsingør and Helsingborg in Sweden together form the northe ...

, where his

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

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'' (Danish: ''Skibbykrøniken'', Latin: ''Chronicon Skibyense'') 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 w ...

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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