Although a Dutchman, Willems worked with English privateers during the first years of his buccaneering career raiding
Rio de la Hacha with
Thomas Paine in 1680. In September 1681, he and English privateer
William Wright sailed together from
Bocas del Toro. Although Willems did not have a commission himself, he captured a Spanish merchantman with a cargo of
sugar and
tobacco while sailing with Wright south along the caribbean coast of New Granada actual
Colombia. Taking the Spanish prize as his own, he gave his old
barque to Wright who burned his own ship. They attempted to sell the Spanish cargo at
Curaçao, however they were forced to leave by the governor. He and Wright then sailed to the
Islas Las Aves and
Los Roques where they remained until February 1682 and presumably parted ways soon after. During next year, he was among those present at a conference on
Roatan in one of the largest held gatherings of the "
Brethren of the Coast". Willems, along with
Laurens de Graaf,
Nicholas van Hoorn and
Michel de Grammont, successfully raided
Vera Cruz on May 17, 1683. Using two captured Spanish galleons in the
vanguard, he and Laurens de Graaf were able to sneak into the Spanish harbor during the early morning hours and landed a small force on shore. The buccaneers caught the garrison off guard, many of the soldiers still sleeping, and took out the city's defenses allowing the rest of the fleet to enter the harbor. After three or four days, Willems and the others looted the town before retreating at the sight of the New Spain fleet. In late-November, he joined
Michiel Andrieszoon,
Francois Le Sage and Laurens de Graaf in attacking Spanish shipping off
Cartagena resulting in an altercation with Governor
Juan de Pando Estrada who commandeered two Spanish slavers to go after them. Governor of Jamaica
Thomas Lynch tried to hire Willems to capture French pirate
Jean Hamlin in 1683 after two Navy ships and pirate-turned-pirate-hunter
John Coxon failed; Willems refused Lynch's offer. He participated in de Graaf's later raids against
Cartagena in 1684 and
Campeche in 1685. After the raid on Cartagena, de Graff gave Willems his old flagship, the
Princesa. After having sailed alongside fellow Dutch buccaneer
Jacob Evertson for several years, Willems reportedly died in the
Gulf of Honduras in 1688, possibly alongside Evertson; their remaining crew members signed on with
Captain Peterson. ==References==