Juana Larando

Juana Larando (fl. 1630) was a female privateer from the Basque city of Donostia in Spain. She was a widow who had an inn as well as part ownership of a sailing/rowing ship called a pataché with which her crew captured and plundered enemy ships off the coast of France and England. Although she never sailed, she had financial agreements with her privateers giving her a share of their spoils from captured loot.

Biography Photo of the port city officially known by the bilingual name Donostia / San Sebastián. Juana Larando was a widow who owned an inn in Donostia (officially known by the bilingual name Donostia / San Sebastián in northern Spain) and housed privateers in her rooms. (Privateering is the practice of authorized sea-raiding and is not the same as Piracy, which is unauthorized. ) The Basque port had a reputation that attracted local and foreign privateers and shipowners from all over the country as well as other regions of the north. These people lived in local inns between expeditions.

San Juan ship In 1630, Juana Larando's lodge housed 18 adventurers. She did not charge the men anything to stay there until they earned money from looting, as mentioned in the Record of the Regiment of Toulouse. She used the profit from her share of her lodgers' booty to buy, with two other partners, a pataché, a small vessel called the San Juan. The ship was captained by Juan de Echániz. The finished craft was launched in 2021 and called the Juanita Larando. The shallow-draft vessel is long and wide, has two large sails and holds a crew of 18 rowers/sailors. It was built by teachers and apprentices of the Ribera carpentry school of Pasaia, in Basque Country, Spain.