1600s in piracy

This timeline of the history of piracy in the 1600s is a chronological list of key events involving pirates between 1600 and 1609.

1600

 * April – Baltazar de Cordes captures the island of Chiloé along with Dutch and native forces.
 * December 14 – Olivier van Noort and the Spanish engage in a naval combat off Fortune Island, forcing van Noort to quit piracy in the Philippines.
 * Unknown – James Lancaster is given control of the East India Company's first fleet.
 * Unknown – Walter Raleigh is sworn into office as governor of Jersey, an island off the coast of Normandy.

1601

 * January – Baltazar de Cordes' ship along with the surviving crew get captured and imprisoned in Tidore, a Portuguese colony, after battling the Spanish in Chiloé.
 * February – William Parker captures Portobello from the Spanish and sacks it.
 * April 22 – The East India Company's first fleet sets sail from Torbay under the command of James Lancaster.
 * May – Michael Geare captures three ships in the West Indies with David Middleton while commanding the Archangel but loses contact with one of the ships.
 * August 26 – Olivier van Noort returns to Rotterdam captaining the Mauritius after battling the Spanish, making him the first Dutch person to circumnavigate the globe.
 * September 9 – James Lancaster's fleet arrives in Table Bay in southern Africa, ravaged with scurvy.

1602

 * December – Jan de Bouff gets ambushed by six Dutch ships but manages to capture two of them with the help of three other Dunkirkers.
 * Unknown – Richard Hawkins is released after being imprisoned by Spain.
 * Unknown – Peter Easton is put in command of a convoy as a privateer, commissioned by Elizabeth I, to protect the Newfoundland fishing fleet.

1603

 * January 24 – Michael Geare and Christopher Newport, working with the French, direct eight ships during a landing of privateers near Santiago de Cuba but are eventually forced to flee.
 * July – Richard Hawkins receives a knighthood.
 * July 20 – By this date, Walter Raleigh has been imprisoned in the Tower of London after being accused of devising the Main Plot against James I.
 * October – James Lancaster receives a knighthood from James I after returning from his voyage with the East India Company.

1604

 * August 28 – The Treaty of London is signed and ends the nineteen-year Anglo-Spanish War.
 * Unknown – Jack Ward is allegedly pressed into service for the British and is placed in the Channel Fleet aboard the Lyon's Whelp.

1605

 * Unknown – Many Dutch and English sailors, including Richard Bishop and Anthony Johnson, join Jack Ward's crew.

1606

 * April 10 – William Parker becomes a founding member of the Virginia Company.
 * Summer – Jack Ward captures a dhow in the Strait of Gibraltar allegedly carrying Catholic slaves.
 * Early November – Jack Ward captures the English merchantman John Baptist captained under John Keye and renames it Little John.
 * Unknown – Hendrik Brouwer sails to the Dutch East Indies for the Dutch East India Company.

1607

 * January 28 - Jack Ward takes the Venetian Carminati, one of his richest hauls.
 * Unknown - Zymen Danseker steals a ship in Marseilles and sails to Algiers.

1608

 * Unknown - Frances Verney leaves his wife and stepmother/mother-in-law after losing a case to them, headed for Morocco.

1609

 * November 17 - Zymen Danseker returns to Marseilles and is pardoned upon return.
 * Unknown - James Harris is ambushed by the British while stopping in Baltimore.

1600

 * February 1 – Johan Evertsen

1604

 * April 16 – Zheng Zhilong

1607

 * Unknown - Ben Robins

1609

 * Unknown - Richard Ingle

1603

 * Unknown – Grace O'Malley of natural causes, though the exact date and cause is disputed.

1609

 * Unknown – Murat Reis the Elder, during a siege of Vlorë.