Baltazar de Cordes (16th century–17th century), the brother of Simon de Cordez, was a Dutch corsair who fought against the Spanish during the early 17th Century.

Born in the Netherlands in the mid-16th century, Baltazar de Cordes began sailing for the Netherlands against Spain during the Eighty Years' War. Baltazar possibly arrived in the Pacific during the 1598 Magellano Company expedition attempting to circumnavigate South America. This expedition, under the command of Admiral Jacques Mahu, consisted of five ships. One of the vessels, the Liefde ("Love" or "Charity"), reached Japan in 1600, pilot William Adams among the surviving crew. He succeeded Captain Jurriaan van Bokholt (or Van Boekhout) who died around August 23, 1599 shortly after crossing the Straits of Magellan.

In early 1600, (whether this occurred before or after the capture of Chiloe is unknown), Cordes occupied the Spanish colony of Castro, Chile. In April 1600, with combined Dutch and native forces, Cordez organized the capture of the island of Chiloé off the coast of Patagonia (Chile). However Cordez's forces suffered heavy losses upon the recapture of the city by the Spanish, executing all but 23 Dutch and over 300 natives (thought to be Huilliches). Cordes ship the Trouw (Faith) sailed to the Portuguese colony of Tidore, an East Indies trading post, with the surviving sailors, where they were imprisoned in January 1601.

Jacques de Sores was a French pirate who attacked and burnt Havana, Cuba in 1555.

Other than his attack on Havana, little is known of de Sores. He was nicknamed "The Exterminating Angel" ("L'Ange Exterminateur"). He was the leader of a band of Huguenot pirates and a lieutenant or former lieutenant of another French pirate, François le Clerc, who was called "Pegleg" or "Jambe de Bois" on account of his wooden leg. Le Clerc and Sores had set out from France in 1553 with three royal ships and a number of privateers under commission from Francis I of France who was envious of the riches returning to Spain from the New World. Le Clerc had raided Santiago de Cuba in 1554, and some accounts mention a raid on Santiago de Cuba by de Sores, although whether this was as part of the attack by le Clerc is not clear. He may have used Cayo Romano and Cayo Coco in the archipelago of Jardines del Rey adjacent to the northern Cuban coast as a base of operations.

Details of the attack on Havana are also sketchy: the number of ships that de Sores used in the attack varies in different accounts from 2 to 20. Regardless of the number of ships involved, de Sores had little trouble in capturing the lightly defended town. Most accounts make it clear that he was expecting to find stores of gold in the town, while some claim he ransomed important members of the population. All agree that whatever his intention he was frustrated: he did not find vast reserves of gold in the city, and if he ransomed the population the ransom was mostly not paid. He destroyed the fortress of La Fuerza Vieja in today's Calle Tacón and burnt most of the town. He also burnt the shipping in the harbour and laid waste to much of the surrounding countryside, and seems to have found time to organise a play "to insult the pope". The ease with which de Sores had captured the town prompted the Spanish crown to start a massive fortification programme. The Castillo de la Real Fuerza was built to replace the Vieja Fuerza and later the Castillo de los Tres Reyes Magos del Morro and the smaller Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta were built on opposite sides of the entrance to Havana habour.

In 1570 he murdered 40 Jesuit missionaries and threw their bodies into the sea off Tazacorte in the Canary Islands of La Palma- crosses on the sea floor still mark the site at Malpique today.

John Nutt (fl. 1620–1632) was a 17th-century English pirate. He was one of the more notorious brigands of his time raiding the coast of southern Canada and western England for over three years before his capture by Sir John Eliot in 1623. His arrest and conviction caused a scandal in the English court, Nutt having paid Eliot £500 in exchange for a pardon, and was eventually released by the Secretary of State George Calvert.

Born in Lympstone, near Exmouth in Devon, England, John Nutt arrived in Newfoundland as a gunner on a Dartmouth ship around 1620. He decided to settle in the area permanently and moved his family to live in Torbay, Newfoundland and Labrador. He soon organized a small crew with whom he seized a small French fishing boat as well as two other French ships (another account claims the ships were English and Flemish) during the summer of 1621 before returning to the western coast of England. He would continue using unemployed sailors, particularly those conscripted to press gangs, and actually lured away a significant number from the Royal Navy paying regular wages and commissions. He would also offer his services to protect French and English settlements including the Colony of Avalon then under the leadership of George Calvert.

He would continue raiding shipping both in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Irish Sea for over three years, often avoiding attempts to apprehend him, before he requested a royal pardon from John Eliot, the Vice Admiral of Devon. Eliot agreed in exchange for a £500 bond, however he was arrested by Eliot and imprisoned once back in England. Tried and convicted for piracy, Nutt was about to be hanged when George Calvert, then Secretary of State, intervened on his behalf having been a friend and associate of his while Nutt and his family were living in the Avalon Colony. Nutt was given his pardon and also granted £100 in compensation while Eliot, for his betrayal, was charged with malfeasance in office and imprisoned.

Sir James Lancaster (died 1618) was a prominent Elizabethan trader and privateer. Lancaster came from Basingstoke in Hampshire. In his early life, he was a soldier and a trader in Portugal. On the 10th of April 1591 he started from Torbay in Devon, with Raymond and Foxcroft, on his first great voyage to the East Indies; this fleet of three ships is the earliest of English oversea Indian expeditions. Reaching Table Bay (1 August 1591), and losing one ship off Cape Corrientes on 12 September, the squadron rested and refitted at Zanzibar (February 1592), rounded Cape Comorin the following May, and reached the Malay Peninsula in June. During this voyage, Lancaster's ships attacked for plunder every ship they encountered.

After a later crossing to Ceylon, the crews insisted on returning home. The return voyage was disastrous with only twenty-five officers and men surviving to reach England in May 1594. Lancaster himself reached Rye on 24 May 1594. His Indian voyage, like Ralph Fitchs overland explorations and trading, was an important factor in the foundation of the East India Company. In the same year he led a privateering expedition against Pernambuco. Unlike the East Indies voyage, this was (according to Hakluyt's account) highly professional in its conduct and very successful; after picking up a chance-met separate squadron under Captain Middleton, he led an assault landing, seized the town and (with the assistance of a flotilla of Dutch traders who also threw in their lot with him) held it for several weeks and embarked the carrack's cargo along with local produce such as Brazil-wood (source of a valuable red dye used in the woolen textile industry).

In 1600 he was given command of the company's first fleet (which sailed from Torbay towards the end of April 1601); his vessel was the Red Dragon. He was also accredited as Queen Elizabeth's special envoy to various Eastern potentates. Going by the Cape of Good Hope (1st of November 1601) Lancaster visited the Nicobars (from 9 April 1602), Aceh and other parts of Sumatra (from 5 June 1602), and Bantam in Java. An alliance was established with Aceh, the first English East India Company factory established at Bantam and a commercial mission despatched to the Moluccas. The return voyage from 20 February to 11 September 1603 was speedy and prosperous, and Lancaster (whose success both in trade and diplomacy had been brilliant) was rewarded with a knighthood in October 1603.

Lancaster continued to be one of the chief directors of the East India Company until his death in May 1618. Most of the voyages of the early Stuart time both to India and in search of the Northwest Passage were undertaken under his sponsorship and direction. In July 1616, Lancaster Sound, north-west of Baffin Bay (74° 20' N.), was named by William Baffin after Sir James.

His will (dated 18 April 1618)[1] established two charitable trusts administered by the Skinners' Company. One was for the benefit of officials and poor people in Basingstoke, and was subsequently transferred by court order to Basingstoke Corporation in 1717. The other was for poor divinity students at Oxford and Cambridge, to whom the Skinners' Company still makes grants today.

Emanuel Wynn (or Emanuel Wynne) was a French pirate of the 18th century, and is often considered the first pirate to fly the Jolly Roger. His design incorporated an hourglass beneath the bones to represent that time was running out.

British Admiralty Records, in the Public Records Office in the UK show, in a report dated 18 July 1700, that HMS Poole, commanded by Captain John Cranby, engaged Wynn's ship off the Cape Verde islands. Cranby chased Wynn into a cove at Brava Island but, assisted by Portuguese soldiers, Wynn escaped Poole.

Most historians agree that Cranby's account is the first mention of a Jolly Roger, which Cranby described as "a sable ensign with cross bones, a death's head, and an hour glass." Wynne is believed to be the first (or some sources contend one of the first) pirate to fly the now familiar form of the jolly roger.

His flag, showing the distinctive skull and crossbones motif, was augmented with another common pirate symbol: an hourglass (meant to signify to his prey that only by timely surrender could they evade death).

Wynne began his piratical career raiding English merchantmen off the coast of the Province of Carolina near the end of the 17th century. He later moved to the more profitable waters of the Caribbean, attacking both English and Spanish ships.

Richard Worley set out from New York with eight others in a small open boat; they were ill equipped and carried a few supplies. The crew set out in late September 1718. Their ship was hardly seaworthy so they set out down the coast and up the Delaware River where they captured a shallop laden with household goods (this was not constituted as piracy, but rather burglary since it did not take place upon the sea). 

The next prize taken by these men was more in keeping with their needs, a sloop out of Philadelphia. They took the sloop and increased the size of their band to 12. Within a couple more days they had taken another slop that they felt more well kept than the prior ship and transferred to it.

At this time the governor issued a proclamation for the apprehension of all pirates who had not availed themselves of the King's pardon, and ordered out the Phoenix, a ship of 20 guns, to enforce this proclamation. However, Worley and his band set out to sea and missed the Phoenix which was searching for them in the coastal waters.

Six weeks later the pirates returned, having taken another sloop and a brigantine among the Bahama Islands. The company had increased to 25 during this trip and their sloop now mounted 6 guns. Captain Worley and his crew had also adopted the skull and crossbones in their ensign. Articles were signed and the crew were officially 'on account' that they would fight to the end, no quarter asked or given.

They were next sighted off North Carolina where they paused to clean and refit their ship. The governor received this information and outfitted two ships of 8 and 6 guns to trap the pirates, but to no avail as they were gone by the time the ships arrived. Unfortunately, Worley came in sight of the ships and mistaking them for merchants moved to prevent them from entering the James Town harbor. Instead of preventing their entry, he ended up trapping himself in the harbor with two ships blocking his escape. True to their articles the pirates fought to the end, taking a broadside from one of the Carolina ships before being boarded. All of the pirates died on board, except for the captain and one other, who were very seriously wounded. Both captured pirates were hanged the next day, February 17th 1719, for fear that their wounds might prevent them from receiving the punishment that was felt due.

We see what amounts to a five month run for these pirates, if I had to speculate on their earlier lives, I would guess that they had been employed as ship hands or privateers, having been let off in New York they spent all of their money and found themselves without the means of survival. The small boat they set out in was most likely stolen and the best they could get given limited time before the season changed and weather worsened. Their start was meager but they soon found the means to pursue their goal. If they had not had some seamen skills it is unlikely that they would have survived out on the open seas.