“Kapitein Lambert Hendrikszoon laat 125 zeerovers ophangen aan de ra’s van zijn schepen of in zee gooien voor de haven van Algiers, ca. 1619, Jan Luyken, 1682 – 1684.” (Rijksmuseum.)
In The Golden Age of Piracy: The Truth Behind Pirate Myths, I’ve devoted an entire chapter to this myth of walking the plank. The image above is of a Dutch flotilla commanded by Captain Lambert Hendrikszoon circa 1619 harshly negotiating a peace treaty with Algiers, notorious for its “Barbary corsairs.” Note that a corsair was a privateer, not a pirate, although often the Barbary corsairs were referred to as pirates–after all, they were not “Christians.” Even so, they were lawfully commissioned and were pirates only if they went to sea without a commission to hunt prey. A major part of Barbary corsair plunder consisted of prisoners–Christians, often–taken as slaves. This was naturally an objectionable, heinous, barbaric (note the origin of the word) practice. Yet Europeans often hypocritically failed to note the irony that Barbary corsairs were enslaving people who themselves engaged in the slave trade of Africans, Native Americans, mixed races, and sometimes even of Asians–and, at least to the early 18th century, North Africans.
Detail. (Rijksmuseum.)
In the detail below, Algerine prisoners are being murdered in reprisal, in this case via “walking the plank”–but clearly no plank was necessary.
Swordplay & Swashbucklers 
[…] Источник: Walking the Plank: An Associated Image […]
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This is just a piece of propaganda that has absolutely no relation to reality as in 1619 algiers had a more powerful Navy than Any other european nation moreover this Drawing IS from 1682-1684 in same period a peace Treaty was signes Between algiers and King James II of English by which algerians had the right to use English ports and sell their prizes there Also while preying on Dutch shipping so i repeat this Drawing IS pure imagination
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I apologize for the sloppy error of date of the events depicted, although I did note it in the caption and it should also have been written in the text as circa 1619, but I was likely in haste or distracted at the time by small children. Of course the illustration is propaganda of one sort or another — most illustrations of the era are. Further, the majority of illustrations of the era are not eyewitness, and therefore are typically riddled with error, a topic of which I’ve written at length. The purpose of the illustration in my blog post, as is stated quite clearly, is simply to point out that there was no need for a plank in order to send prisoners into the sea to die, contrary to popular pirate myth. It has nothing to do with Algerian corsairs per se, although I did note that that most were privateers, not pirates, as they are often referred to in Europe and North America. It is well-documented that armed vessels of many nations have murdered prisoners by tossing them over the side throughout history — no plank needed. The image was posted to illustrate this. As for Captain Hendricks, he is generally listed in historical documents as Captain Moy Lambert. In 1618 he was dispatched with a fleet of fourteen ships to seek out and destroy Barbary corsairs (Lunsford et al). May I also suggest a little more courtesy in your comments. You were rather blunt, as if you had been triggered. Courtesy helps further a discussion.
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