The conquest of the Spanish Silver Fleet from the old master collection

The engraving shows the conquest of the Spanish silver fleet in the bay of Matanzas by a Dutch fleet under the command of Piet Hein.

Pieter Pietersen Hein (25 November 1577 - 18 June 1629) was a Dutch admiral and a privateer for the Dutch Republic during the Eighty Years' War. Hein was the first and the last to conquer a large part of a Spanish treasure fleet from America.

The Spanish treasure fleet, or the West Indian fleet of the Spanish Flotilla of Indias, also known as the silver fleet or record fleet (from the Spanish plata meaning 'silver'), was a convoy of sea routes organized by the Spanish empire from 1566 to 1790, which connected Spain with its territories in the Atlantic Ocean. The convoys were general purpose fleets used to transport a wide range of items including agricultural products, wood, various metal sources such as silver and gold, gems, pearls, spices, sugar, tobacco, silk and other exotic goods from foreign territories from the Spanish Empire to the Spanish mainland. Spanish goods such as oil, wine, textiles, books and tools were transported in the opposite direction. The West Indian fleet was the first permanent transatlantic trade route in history. Similarly, the Manila-gallions were the first permanent trade route across the Pacific.