Flagship of the WIC

The Hollandia was the flag ship of the first big fleet of the Dutch West India Company (WIC) under admiral Jacob Willekens and vice admiral Piet Hein that was sent out in December 1623. The goal was to take San Salvador in the Bahia de Todos os Santos (Bay of All Saints) in Brazil from the Portuguese. This succeeded on May 10th, 1624.

Yet the Hollandia was not part of it because it already got separated from the rest of the fleet before crossing from Cape Verde. The Hollandia ended up in Sierra Leone and sailed to Brazil from there. Like spilt milk it sailed into the Bay of All Saints on May 11th. Yet on board was Jan van Dort, destined to become the governor of the recently conquered San Salvador.

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But van Dort already died on June 12th in an attack against the Portuguese. He ran into an ambush, got shot from his horse and was beheaded (see de Laet, p. 19 under references). The next year, San Salvador was already reconquered by the Spanish and the Portuguese.

It is not clear what became of the ship in the end. The last reference by de Laet of a ship named Hollandia is in 1632, but due to the amount of time between it, it is not certain it concerns the same ship.

Het Scheepvaartmuseum

Possible slave trade

According to Slavevoyages.org, the Hollandia transported enslaved people in 1644 from Luanda to Pernambuco. Of the 455 people taken on board, 393 survived the voyage. Yet due to the fact that this voyage is a lot later in time, it is not sure it concerns the same ship.

• De Laet, J. (1644)
  Historie ofte iaerlijck verhael van de verrichtinghen der geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagnie, zedert haer begin, tot het eynde van 't jaer sesthien-hondert ses-en-dertich
  pp o.a. 19, 20, 105, 111, 307
• Slavevoyages.org
  Slavevoyages