Laurens de Graaf - Van Hoorn and Veracruz

Van Hoorn and Veracruz

De Graaf's next foray was a trip to Cartagena with privateer Michiel Andrieszoon. Finding few potential targets, they departed for the Gulf of Honduras. There they found two empty galleons and de Graaf decided to wait for them to be loaded with cargo. The buccaneers retired to Bonaco Island to careen. But de Graaf and Andrieszoon had their plans ruined when Nicholas van Hoorn attacked the ships and captured them empty. Having captured the vessels, van Hoorn reached Bonaco Island and proposed to join forces with de Graaf but was turned away. Later de Graaf relented and joined forces with both van Hoorn and Michel de Grammont for an attack on Veracruz. Their raiding party consisted of 5 large vessels, 8 smaller vessels and around 1300 pirates.

The pirates arrived off Veracruz on 17 May 1683, leading with van Hoorn's two captured Spanish ships to mislead the town. Meanwhile, de Graaf and Yankey Willems slipped ashore with a small force of men. They proceeded to remove town's fortifications and incapacitate the town's defensive militia. Van Hoorn, marching overland, joined with de Graaf and attacked the town.

On the second day of plundering, the Spanish plate fleet, composed of numerous warships, appeared on the horizon. The pirates retreated with hostages to the nearby island of Los Sacrificios (the sacrificed) and waited for ransoms. A quarrel erupted between van Hoorn and de Graaf over the treatment of the hostages and the division of spoils. According to some sources the two fought a duel on a nearby beach to settle the dispute. Though neither was seriously injured during the duel, van Hoorn did receive a slash across the wrist. The wound later became gangrenous and van Hoorn died as a result of the infection two weeks later. Finally, giving up on further plunder the pirates departed, slipping past the Spanish without hindrance.