Peter Roderigo

Peter Roderigo (fl. 1674–1675, last name occasionally Oderigoe) was a Dutch pirate, privateer, and soldier. He is best known for attacking English traders off Acadia and for serving in King Philip’s War.

History

Dutch buccaneer Jurriaen Aernoutsz ejected the French from Acadia alongside John Rhoades.

Roderigo led their group from his ship Edward and Thomas. They soon captured an English fur trader named George Manning. After looting his ship and threatening to maroon him, they allowed him to keep his ship if he would sail alongside them under the Dutch flag.

English sailors and merchants complained to local officials, who commissioned privateer and Indian fighter Samuel Mosely to sail against the Dutch. English courts ignored the Dutch privateering commissions, which had been signed not by Prince William of Orange but by Aernoutsz himself. Most of the Dutch were convicted of piracy at trial in 1675 but all were eventually either acquitted, pardoned, or sentenced to hang but commuted to banishment instead.