floruit
''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...
c. 1625–1637) was a
Flemish
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
admiral who served as
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 ...
and one of the
Dunkirkers
During the Dutch Revolt (1568–1648), the Dunkirkers or Dunkirk Privateers were commerce raiders in the service of the Spanish monarchy. They were also part of the ''Dunkirk fleet'', which consequently was a part of the Spanish monarchy's ''Fl ...
in
Spanish Habsburg
Habsburg Spain is a contemporary historiographical term referring to the huge extent of territories (including modern-day Spain, a piece of south-east France, eventually Portugal, and many other lands outside of the Iberian Peninsula) ruled be ...
service during the
Dutch Revolt
The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt ( nl, Nederlandse Opstand) (Historiography of the Eighty Years' War#Name and periodisation, c.1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and t ...
.
He was responsible for the capture or destruction of at least 150 fishing vessels, bringing 945 captured sailors back to his base in
Dunkirk
Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.Claes Compaan who escaped from him after sighting the corsair off the Spanish coast.
Biography
From 1633 until 1637, Collaart served as Vice Admiral with the Royal Squadron operating out of Dunkirk and, in 1635, his attacks against Dutch herring redders would cost the city of Flushing (''Vlissingen'') over two million guilders in income.
Although the city of Dunkirk was under a Dutch blockade during early 1635, the blockade was temporarily weakened as several warships under Lieutenant-Admiral
Philips van Dorp
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered ...
were supporting French naval forces in the Gulf of Biscay and, on 14 August, Collaert sailing out of Dunkirk successfully broke through the Dutch blockade with a fleet of twenty-one vessels.
Within three days, Collaart's fleet located a herring fleet numbering 160 under the guard of a single
man-of-war
The man-of-war (also man-o'-war, or simply man) was a Royal Navy expression for a powerful warship or frigate from the 16th to the 19th century. Although the term never acquired a specific meaning, it was usually reserved for a ship armed wi ...
, armed with 39 guns and an 85-men crew. Easily disabling the escort, 74 vessels were either sunk or set afire with the surviving vessels escaping to the
Vlie
The Vlie or Vliestroom is the seaway between the Dutch islands of Vlieland, to its southwest, and Terschelling, to its northeast. The Vlie was the estuary of the river IJssel in medieval times. In 1666 the English Admiral Robert Holmes burnt a ...
.
On 19 August, after chasing off the six men-of-war escorts, Collaart's forces destroyed around 50 herring boats near
Doggersbank
Dogger Bank (Dutch language, Dutch: ''Doggersbank'', German language, German: ''Doggerbank'', Danish language, Danish: ''Doggerbanke'') is a large shoal, sandbank in a shallow area of the North Sea about off the east coast of England.
During ...
. Of the surviving fishermen, 150 sailors including wounded as well as the young and the elderly were put on a merchant vessel from
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
and returned to the
Dutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...
while the remaining 775 were held captive for ransom.
After this latest attack, a Dutch fleet was soon raised by the
States-General of the Netherlands
The States General of the Netherlands ( nl, Staten-Generaal ) is the supreme bicameral legislature of the Netherlands consisting of the Senate () and the House of Representatives (). Both chambers meet at the Binnenhof in The Hague.
The States ...
who ordered all available vessels to set out after the Collaart's fleet. Sailing from
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
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 De ...
with
Philips van Dorp
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered ...
, recently returning from
La Rochelle
La Rochelle (, , ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''La Rochéle''; oc, La Rochèla ) is a city on the west coast of France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department. With ...
, and Vice Admiral Quast.
Collaart soon encountered the Dutch fleet of Van der Burch and Van Dorp, consisting of a combined twenty warships, and managed to damage four before the arrival of Quast's fleet forced Collaart to abandon the fight. In part due to bad weather, Collaart was able to escape to Dunkirk, arriving with 975 captive fisherman on 8 September 1635.
The following year, while sailing with two other privateers, Collaart and Mathieu Romboutsen were captured (the third captain managing to escape to an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
port) near
Dieppe
Dieppe (; Norman: ''Dgieppe'') is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France.
Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to Newha ...
after a five-hour battle against Captain
Johan Evertsen
Johan Evertsen (1 February 1600 – 5 August 1666) was a Dutch admiral who was born in the 17th century.
Early life
Like his five brothers, Evertsen started his military career as a lieutenant after the death of his father, "Captain Jan". He q ...
on 29 February 1636.
Collaart died of an illness at
A Coruña
A Coruña (; es, La Coruña ; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality of Galicia, Spain. A Coruña is the most populated city in Galicia and the second most populated municipality in the autonomous community and s ...
in August 1637.R. A. Stradling, ''The Armada of Flanders: Spanish Maritime Policy and European War, 1568-1668'' (Cambridge Studies in Early Modern History).
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press
A university press is an academic publishing hou ...
, 1992. p. 101. He had a son who was also a privateer, Jacques Collaert the Younger, and was the father-in-law of the later English Vice-Admiral
Edward Spragge
Sir Edward Spragge (name also written as Spragg or Sprague) (circa 1620 – 21 August 1673) was an Irish-born English admiral of the Royal Navy. He was a fiery, brilliantly accomplished seaman who fought in many great actions after the restoration ...
.
References
Further reading
*Van Der Hoven, Marco, ed. ''Exercise of Arms: Warfare in the Netherlands, 1568-1648''. Brill Academic Publishers, 1997.
*Roding, Juliette and Lex Heerma van Voss, ed. ''The North Sea and Culture (1550-1800)''. Larenseweg, Netherlands: Uitgeverij VerLoren, 1996.
*Stradling, R.A. ''The Armada of Flanders: Spanish Maritime Policy and European War, 1568-1668'' (Cambridge Studies in Early Modern History).
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press
A university press is an academic publishing hou ...