Piet Hein’s name is short

Anyone knowing this song is definitely Netherlands. And that is the way it should be. I shall tell you why.

Coins
The text is simple. Although, Spanish matten? And who was this Piet Hein again, with his short very-Netherlands name? You probably know the meaning of Spanish matten. They were old Spanish silver coins with a value of eight real: real ocho. Unusual was the square shape, which in the Netherlands was disrespectfully called mat.

Easy-peasy
That Piet Hein – whose name would have rhymed beautifully on kapitein (captain) – was in 1628, at the time of his heroic deed captain-general and admiral of a fleet of more than thirty ships. He had been ordered to intercept an unbelievably large Spanish silver transport. Our Piet succeeded wonderfully well. Hurried by quite a storm the desperate Spanish fleet drifted directly in the arms of the Netherlands’ fleet, which calmly fetched in the catch without having to fire many gunshots. Hardly any casualties on the Netherlands’ side. No real heroic deeds at all.
But the loot was legendary: more than eleven million guilders. An amount of money that would be worth milliards nowadays. And Piet Hein’s heroic deeds might not have been as great as the song would let you believe, the consequences of this attack were outrageous. Spain became broke and slowly lost its grip on the world, while the Netherlanders won the Eighty Year War. Amsterdam became the richest town on earth. You can be sure that they were singing and dancing!

Song
The song must be from the seventeenth century, isn’t it? Not quite! Two centuries later, it was written by the Amsterdam doctor and writer Jan Pieter Heije, known from unforgettable old national hits like: In’t groene dal, in’t stille dal; Zie de maan schijnt door de bomen and Een karretje op den zandweg reed (In the green valley, in the quiet valley, See the moon shines through the trees and A small cart riding on the dirt track). The melodies were composed by a colleague-doctor, Johannes Viotta. Seemingly, a fairly medical repertoire.

Without this popular song we could have forgotten about Piet Hein. After all, the capture of the Spanish fleet wasn’t such a bloodcurdling heroic deed. But Heije was a big fan of the Golden Age. And he became enthusiastic when he read about a forgotten folk song of Piet Hein in which ‘Hein’ rhymed on ‘klein’ and ‘vloot’ on ‘groot’. He started writing; a simple song with a wicked text. It became a big hit. Piet Hein was a top-hit within the national songs, until well into the twenty-first century.

No, we are not proud because Piet was such an Iron Hein, who put countless enemies over the sword! Our Piet just did not do that. But he grabbed more than a million guilders and did put that in our pockets! And we want to acknowledge that. Tribute to the person who brings in the money. Marvellous, isn’t it? Other cultures can commemorate war heroes that put hordes of people over the sword, we Netherlanders sing about the hero with the short name who brought in Big Money!

Supplement
Hardly anyone knows that the original song has three more verses. Interesting verses too. Pay attention. The first two go on bragging a bit.

Didn’t Piet Hein say with a reckless word:
Well boys of Orange
Come on climb on this and that Spanish board
And roll the Spanish coins to me.

And then again Piet Hein, Piet Hein etc. Aalwarig (translated as reckless) is an old word which the writer pulled out of the charnel house as it means vermetel, driest. But the dictionary’s first explanation is: ‘onbezonnen, dartel, overmoedig, meest in toepassing op een weelderig of buitensporig leven, en altijd gekleurd met een bijdenkbeeld van lichtzinnige dwaasheid.’
The second explanation is even worse: ‘gemelijk, verdrietig, mistroostig, knorrig, met een bijdenkbeeld van dwaasheid’. If J.P. Heije had only known this!

like cats the boys climbed in the rigging
And like lion they were fighting?
They thoroughly hit the Spaniards to shame,
Their cries could be heard in Spain.
Piet Hein etc.

That the Spaniards were completely defeated by the terrible storm, is something Heije does not mention. These boys could scream heroically, wow! End of the story? No, not quite.

Hammock
In the fourth verse the truth came out. Now, we fully understand why the last verse has been buried under a thick layer of dust.

If a Silvern Fleet again now came,
Would you people still act the same?
Or would you out of range and safely
Stay in your hammock quietly?

What a surprise! Of course, in the Golden Age everything was better, bigger, more heroic and especially richer. Apparently Heije doubts if such a heroic deed would be possible nowadays. He personally addresses the hangjongeren (hang-out teens) of the nineteenth century directly. Would you have the guts? Or would you stay out of range and cowardly hide in your hammock?

Netherlands’ Blood
The last verse is not about Piet Hein anymore, but about Netherlands’ Blood. Heije answers the urgent hammock question himself:

Well Netherlands’ Blood,
That blood still has courage!
Even if we are not big (2x)
We would win a Silver Fleet.

And I think that too. Easy-peasy, we will succeed! Not for nothing does the official Netherlands Anthem warn - near the last line - in its volume: “don’t make more curls here”. Our noses do curl enough already!