Heijn, or Heyn, Peter Petersen, a famous Dutch admiral, born at Delftshaven; from being a cabin-boy rose to be commander of the Dutch fleet; off the east coast of S. America he twice defeated the Spanish fleet, securing an immense booty, and in 1628 captured a flotilla of Spanish galleons with silver and jewels equal to 16,000,000 Dutch guilders; fell in an action off Dunkirk (1577-1629).
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
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