March 18, 2011

Moses Cohen Henriques: Jewish/Portuguese/Dutch/Brazilian Pirate

In doing research for upcoming books in the Missionary Max series, I encountered this real-life pirate with a fascinating story.
One such pirate was Moses Cohen Henriques, who helped plan one of history's largest heists against Spain. In 1628, Henriques set sail with Dutch West India Co. Admiral Piet Hein, whose own hatred of Spain was fueled by four years spent as a galley slave aboard a Spanish ship. Henriques and Hein boarded Spanish ships off Cuba and seized shipments of New World gold and silver worth in today's dollars about the same as Disney's total box office for "Dead Man's Chest."
Henriques set up his own pirate island off the coast of Brazil afterward, and even though his role in the raid was disclosed during the Spanish Inquisition, he was never caught, Kritzler told The Journal.

Posted by Andrew on March 18, 2011 12:35 PM.

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Comments

Que história interessante!!! Nunca tinha ouvido falar em piratas judeus, muito menos aqui no Brasil!

Posted by: Débora at September 10, 2011 5:45 PM

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