Piet Hein, who was acclaimed as a hero after his capture of the Spanish treasure fleet in 1628 was in fact a licensed privateer. It was as an employee of the Dutch West Indies Company that he surprised the Spanish ships in the Bay of Matanzas off Cuba. The cargo comprised Mexican silver worth 11.5 million guilders. It was enough to finance the war against Spain for several months. Piet Hein’s name lives on in a popular Dutch verse.