Jan Lichthart

{{Short description|Dutch admiral}}

{{About|the Dutch admiral Jan Lichthart|the Dutch teacher and philosopher|Jan Ligthart}}

Jan Cornelisz Lichthart (died 30 November 1646), also known as Johan or Johannes Lichthart, was a Dutch admiral in the service of the Dutch West India Company.[https://archive.today/20120530220920/http://www.scheepvaartmuseum.nl/collectie/maritieme-kalender?j=&m=&d=30 "Maritieme kalender", Nationaal Scheepvaartmuseum] (Dutch) He distinguished himself as a buccaneer, attacking Spanish and Portuguese fleets and forts in the Caribbean and South America, particularly along the coast of present-day Brazil.

Lichthart, who had lived in Lisbon and spoke Portuguese,Robert Brock Le Page and Andrée Tabouret-Keller, Acts of identity: Creole-based approaches to language and ethnicity, CUP Archive, 1985 played a major part in the Dutch struggle against the Portuguese for possession of Brazil from 1630 onwards (see further Dutch Brazil). For instance, a squadron under his command conquered São Luis do Maranhão from the Portuguese in 1641.[http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/groo001brie13_01/groo001brie13_01_0025.php . H.J.M. Nellen and Cornelia M. Ridderikhoff (eds.), Briefwisseling van Hugo Grotius, Vol. 13, Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1990] (Dutch) And at Tamandaré on September 9, 1645, a squadron under his command destroyed a Portuguese squadron under the command of Jerônimo Serrão de Paiva.{{Cite book |last=Marley |first=David F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VafOEAAAQBAJ&q=Tamanana |title=Wars of the Americas [2 volumes]: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the Western Hemisphere [2 volumes] |date=2008-02-11 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-1-59884-101-5 |language=en|page=204}}

In 1630, he defeated a squadron of three Dunkirker ships following a pitched eight-hour battle.[http://www.inghist.nl/retroboeken/vdaa/#aa__001biog13_01.xml:411 "Lighthart (Johan)" in A.J., Van der Aa., Biographisch Woordenboek der Nederlanden] (Dutch)

He died on 30 November 1646 in Brazil, near the São Francisco River, after "drinking cold water when he was much heated."Robert Southey, History of Brazil, Oxford University, 1817, p. 189