Simon de Danser

Simon de Danser ("Simon The Dancer") (1579?, Dort - 1611?; conflicting dates are reported) was a Dutch privateer and pirate of the Barbary Coast. His name was also given as Zymen de Danser or Simon Danseker.

Simon the Dancer was a Dutch pirate of some notoriety in the 17th century. He was mainly active in the area of the Barbary Coast. He started out as a sailor and eventually became a Captain of a ship. In 1606, during the Eighty Years' War between the Dutch Republic and Spain, he acquired a Letter of Commission and went privateering. He was active in that capacity in the area of the Mediterranean Sea. He had little luck and went to port in Marseille to reprovision. After leaving Marseille in a small boat with other pirates he almost immediately attacked and conquered a much larger vessel. He made a deal with another pirate, an Englishman called John Warde, and together they sailed to Algiers. They attacked anything they came across on the way. Algiers had quite a reputation for harbouring corsairs in those days. John Warde sailed on to Tunis and made that his base of operations. Simon took at least forty ships and sank many of them during the three years that followed. The people on the Barbary coast and the Turks gave Simon the nickname Dali-Capitan which means Devil-Captain. After three more years of pirating he had become quite rich and lived in an opulent palace. Simon The Dancer attacked ships of any nation and made trading in the Mediterranean Sea increasingly difficult for every nation. Many nations therefore looked for ways to stop his attacks (by counterattack, bribes for safe-passage or even employing him as a privateer in their navy). Eventually, a French fleet under the command of De Beaulieu de Pairsac, while being assisted by eight Spanish galleys, for a short time threatened to capture him, but because of a sudden storm he was able to escape; he sailed along the coast with his ships where his pursuers could not reach them. Eight more Spanish men-of-war, under the command of Don Luiz Fayzardo, and an English squadron, under the command of Sir Thomas Shoreley, were also trying to capture Simon The Dancer at that time. Some of the exploits of Simon The Dancer are mentioned in a report written by Edward Barker in 1609. In 1609 Simon fled from Algiers with his possessions, because of the simultaneous attacks by three squadrons. He arrived in Marseille with four ships after having captured a rich Spanish ship on the way. He was given temporary permission to enter the port by King Henry IV of France (perhaps in the hope of enlisting him in his service). Simon The Dancer offered the King of France to turn on his own and to attack Algiers and destroy the Corsair stronghold there in return for a pardon, but this proposal was flatly turned down. He was later however enlisted for a voyage against the corsair stronghold in Tunis. What happened to The Dancer after that remains unclear, but it is believed that he died while on this mission.