See also: 1682 in piracy, other events of 1683, 1684 in piracy and the list of 'years of Piracy'.

Events

• Carribean
  • The Jamaica Act of 1683 is passed by the English Parliment prohibiting trade with pirates.
  • March - Pirate hunter Thomas Pain, allegedly commissioned by Jamaican Governor Thomas Lynch, leads a group of privateers in a raid against San Agustin (Florida) however they soon withdraw to New Providence after looting several nearby villages.
  • May 17-21 - Captain Michel de Grammont leads a group of six privateers totaling over 1,000 men, including Dutch privateers Laurens de Graff and Nicholas van Hoorn , in an attack on Veracruz looting the town for four days and ransoming several prominent citizens, including Governor Don Luis de Cordova and visiting Irish merchant John Murphy, before returning to Petit Goave with over 800 pesos a man. On the return voyage Nicholas van Hoorn is killed while fighting over the shares from the raid by de Graff.

• Africa
  • May - Jean Hamlin raids shipping off the coast of Sierra Leone capturing English and Dutch ships. Later that year Hamlin's band split into separate bands with Hamlin returning to the Carribean. Arriving in St. Thomas in late 1683 or early 1684 Hamlin's ship La Trompeuse was burned in the island's harbor by English naval officer Captain Carlile commanding the HMS Francis . Hamlin would be granted refuge in St. Thomas by Dutch Governor Adolf Esmit until his removal by the English in October 1684.

Births

Deaths

• May/June - Nicholas van Hoorn, Dutch privateer