Plans for the Nassau Fleet were first made in 1619. As the truce with Spain would be ending in 1621, the Estates-General and the Dutch East India Company directors discussed the possibilities of a joint fleet to do all possible damage to the Spanish empire, especially around the Pacific. After various delays, some of them caused by the founding of the West India Company in the meantime, the fleet was finally able to sail in late April of 1623, two years after the end of the truce. It consisted of eleven ships carrying a total of 1600 sailors and soldiers. It was commanded by Jacques L'Hermite.
The expedition first sailed past the Moroccan coast, the Capeverdian Isles, the coast of what is now Gabon and its nearby islands. Although some Spanish ships were already captured here, the expedition also ran into the first of its many delays and setbacks. Some of the ships proved difficult to sail, dysentery was rampant and adverse winds and bad weather caused delays. Only on 4 November were the ships able to depart from the island of Annobon, near the coast of Gabon, to start their crossing of the Atlantic.
The main targets of the expedition were situated along South America's west coast. Afer even more delays while attempting to cross into the Pacific via Tierra del Fuego, this region was only reached in March 1624. Once there, the fleet failed to achieve its stated goals time and time again. Because of the earlier delays, they were too late to still catch the yearly silver convoy from Callao de Lima (Peru) to Panama. An attack on Callao failed and a subsequent blockade and various actions along the coast achieved relatively little. During its stay at the coast at Callao, from 9 May to 14 August 1624, the commander L'Hermite died.
After breaking up the blockade, the fleet continued to Acapulco (now in Mexico) to attempt to catch the early ships from Manila. The fleet arrived at the coast of new Spain on 20 October, but problems with provisioning the fleet forced it to give up its patrolling of the coast in mid-November. After some more largely unsuccessful attempts to replenish supplies, the fleet started its crossing of the Pacific by late November. Plans to also blockade Manila were cancelled due to the bad state of provisions and crew, and the fleet continued to the Moluccas, where it was to put itself at the service of the local Dutch East India Company authorities. After a short stay at Ternate, the fleet continued to Ambon, where the local VOC governor used this windfall military force for a major expedition against the population of West-Seram. Dozens of settlements were destroyed, as were a reported 65.000 clove trees.
The fleet finally continued to Batavia, where the expedition effectively ended. Some of the ships stayed on in Asia in VOC service for a while longer, some of them sailed on to the Dutch Republic, led by Gheen Huygen Schapenham who had succeeded L'Hermite as the fleet commander. Schapenham himself died shortly after sailing from Batavia. All in all, the expedition had not lived up to the great expectations of its organisers in the Netherlands.
