September 8, 1628 · Matanzas Bay, Cuba Theater
September 8, 1628
Piet Hein cornered the Spanish treasure fleet in Matanzas Bay in Cuba and took it virtually without a fight — 11 million guilders in silver, gold, indigo and cochineal, the annual bullion shipment that paid Spain's armies. Benavides was executed in Spain for losing it. Hein remarked that the men cheering him now would have hanged him had he failed.
Commanders