Buccaneers > Dutch Buccaneers > Michiel Andrieszoon
Michiel Andrieszoon
Background
Michiel Andrieszoon was a Dutch buccaneer that served as a lieutenant to Laurens de Graaf. Not much is known about his early life or how he arrived in the West Indies but eventually he commanded his own ship the le Tigre which carried a crew of 300 buccaneers and 30-36 guns. He is known to have famously participated in the Sack of Veracruz in 1683 and in the Blockade of Cartagena that same year. Not much is known about this buccaneer.
Sack of Veracruz (1683)
Andrieszoon was with de Graaf when they met up with the rest of the buccaneering fleet from Petit-Goave in February of 1683 that was preparing to strike the Spanish city of Veracruz. At this time the two captains had a bark and a sloop along with five hundred buccaneers. The two buccaneers next sailed to the Bay of Honduras and began capturing Spanish ships for several weeks off the coast while they waited for everything to be in place for the raid on Veracruz.
In May of 1683 he was part of the invasion force that was led by Michel de Grammont, Nikolaas van Hoorn and de Graaf on the Spanish city of Veracruz, one of the last major buccaneering raids of the Buccaneering Era. Many other buccaneers and captains participated in this raid including Yankey Williams. On the dawn of 17 May after the buccaneers scouted the location out they invaded the city and successfully managed to capture the Spanish garrison, the stronghold and the citizens. The buccaneers ransomed the citizens back to the Spanish and left.
Blockade of Cartagena (1683)
See Blockade of Cartagena (1683)
In late November of 1683 Andrieszoon met up with de Graff, Yankey Williams and Francois le Sage along with many other buccaneers in order to attack the Spanish city at Cartagena de Indias in what became known as the Blockade of Cartagena (1683). As the buccaneers were grouping up and plotting their invasion Viceroy Juan de Pando Estrada became aware of the buccaneers intentions and was informed of the gathering fleet so he organized three Spanish warships to go out and meet the pirates first.
On 23 December the Spanish fleet consisting of the 40-gun San Francisco, the 34-gun Paz, and the 28-gun Galliot carrying 800 Spanish soldiers left the port of Cartagena and sailed out to engage the pirates. However, the buccaneers were ready for the Spanish and using their smaller ships they sailed around the warships and engaged them in a naval battle. The buccaneers were able to defeat the Paz after four hours of fighting and the San Francisco was knocked out early when it ran aground. The Galliot was captured by Yankey Williams and in the end only twenty buccaneers and ninety soldiers were killed in the engagement.
The buccaneers took the warships with Laurens de Graaf taking the San Francisco as his flagship. The Spanish troops were all taken prisoner and eventually released to the governor along with a note thanking the Spanish for the Christmas present. The buccaneers maintained the blockade of Cartagena for another three weeks and Andrieszoon was likely with it throughout. Eventually de Graff headed back to Roatan and Saint-Domingue.
