Joost Banckert
Encyclopedia : J : JO : JOO : Joost Banckert
Joost van Trappen Banckert (1597-1647) was a Dutch Vice Admiral who worked most of his sailing life for the admiralty of Zeeland. He was born in 1597 or 1599. Early in his career he was active against the Dunkirk privateers and was promoted to captain in 1624. That year he took service for the Zeeland Chamber of the Dutch West India Company (WIC), remaining there until 1636. Banckert often fought together with Piet Hein with whom he attacked and captured the Portuguese settlement Salvador on the coast of Brazil in 1624 and as a Vice Admiral helped capture the Spanish treasure fleet in the Bay of Matanzas in 1628. Thanks to these and other feats in the years 1630 to 1639 he earned the nicknames "Scourge of the Maranos" (the latter word then being used as a pejorative nickname for the Spanish in general) and "Terror of the Portuguese".
Having rejoined the navy he was promoted to Rear-Admiral on 3 May 1637. Being a Vice-Admiral in the WIC didn't imply an equivalent rank in the navy. From 1 October 1637 till 11 January 1638 he was a temporary Vice-Admral. In 1639, again Rear-Admiral, he served under Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp and was present at the first skirmish (the Action of 18 September 1639) against a large Spanish fleet in the English Channel and the subsequent Battle of the Downs. He again came into the service of the WIC in 1645 till his death. He again got the navy rank of temporary Vice-Admiral on 10 December 1646. In 1647 he once again set sail for the coast of Brazil and on the return voyage suddenly fell ill and died at sea. He was married with Adriana Janssen. One of his sons was the later famous Lieutenant-Admiral Adriaen Banckert, another captain Joost Banckert de Jonge who was killed at the Battle of Portland, a third captain Jan Banckert who was killed on the Delft in the Battle of Lowestoft.
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.