Jacob Groenewegen
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Jacob Groenewegen was a Dutch admiral of the 17th century. He directed a fleet of two ships which were dispatched to establish the first official trade relations between the Netherlands and Japan.
The two ships he commanded, De Griffioen (the "Griffin", 19 canons) and Roode Leeuw met Pijlen (the "Red lion with arrows", 400 tons, 26 canons), sailed through the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived in Japan on July 2nd, 1609.
Jacob Groenewegen received the support of William Adams to obtain extensive trading rights from the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu on August 24th, 1609, which allowed him to establish a trading factory in Hirado on September 20th, 1609.
