Amyas Preston

His career was largely spent in the Caribbean, as were other more famous corsairs of the age such as Francis Drake, John Hawkins and Walter Raleigh.

[1] He first saw combat in 1588, during the English victory over the Spanish Armada near Calais, where he was wounded and gained a certain level of renown for his actions.

After failing to meet with Raleigh at Trinidad, the expedition ventured on its own along the coast of Spanish Venezuela Province, capturing first the fort of La Guaira and later the colonial city of Caracas.

[3][4] After the Spanish failed to pay their ransom, Preston and Somers order the pillaging and torching of the city, and went on to capture Coro.

They finished the expedition with a brief incursion into the Spanish West Indies, but cut short any future actions following a bout of dysentery among the crew which saw 80 mean death and a plummeting morale.