Dunkirk or Dunkerque? Who was the person who actually began using the port for his piracy?

Question

Answer 1

Dunkerque is a French name.

Answer 2

Well, as Kninjanin said, Dunkerque is the French spelling. And Dunkirk has been part of France for a long time.

As for pirates, well, that's partly a matter of definition. The "Dunkirkers" were privateers in the service of Spain from the late 1500s to the mid-1600s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkirkers

In the late 1600s, Dunkirk was the base of French corsairs, the most famous of whom was Jean Bart.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Bart

I would never have mistaken him for Erroll Flynn.

And there was also the American Revolution privateer, Gustavus Conyngham, known as the 'Dunkirk Pirate'.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/conyngham-gustavus

Comments

Lol, T(h)ink - as I see, you were already here; I can only ask you, if you had the occasion to visit Dunkirk and the Port Museum and if you liked it (I did not have the occasion to make the trip to Dunkirk, but heard a lot about the city and its pirates - Bart supported Louis XIV - and they recommended this museum). Too bad, there's not much local info available in English, except for tourists' guidance and records about WWII:

http://www.dunkirk-guide.co.uk/sights/port-museummusee-portuaire-dunkerque.html

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No, Marianne, I have never been in Dunkirk, although it would be fascinating.

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Lol - T(h)ink, I am in the same situation, there are so many fascinating sites and places I could only visit through books, maps, encyclopaediae, movies, music, poetry, pictures, documentations, tourist's information, etc.

Answer 3

Are you referring to Jean Bart?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Bart

Dunkerque is the French name, and Dunkirk, the Flemish name can be translated with dune and church, i.e. church in (or on) the dunes.

Sadly, Dunkirk was also the site of a notorious WWII battle, in which the Allied Troops had to be evacuated in the Battle of France, also known as Fall of France:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dunkirk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkirk_evacuation

Answer 4

Rooster, I had somehow picked up that 'kirk' means church...(maybe Star Trek famous Captain Kirk?), but I learned from Wikipedia that 'Dunkirk' is church in the dunes...because of the fishing village formed there  on formerly submerged lands on the Flemish coast, Dunkerke. The monks drained the surrounding wetlands and added to the cultivated land.

I did not know about the pirates until reading Other Tink's answer.

This beautiful church is "Eglise Saint Eloi a dunkerque" in French, or "De Sint-Eligiuskerk te Duinkerke" in Dutch...

Comments

An excellent picture, Virginia, and that reminds me of Saint Eligius (goldsmith, treasurer, minister of finances to Chlothar II, treasurer, bishop, chief counsellor to Dagobert I, among other functions), who was said - among various other legends - to have saved Dunkirk and its remaining people (a village in these times, by converting one of the barbarian giants, Allowyn, who had raided and plundered the whole coastal region) and contributed to the fortification, growth and development of "Duine Kercke":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Eligius

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Oh Marianne, I love their names! Clotaire, Allowyn, Dagobert (who was married to Queen Nanthild)!

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Lol - there was even a song about "The Good King Dagobert"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_bon_roi_Dagobert_(song)

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Marianne, from all this we have read, also I now realize that St. Eligius is actually a cognate of the name Eloysius!

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Yes, Virginia, and in French it is Eloi. Eligius is "the one who has been chosen".