 In late November 1683, de Graaf, his compatriots and their fleet of seven ships arrived off Cartagena and held for almost a month.Local governor, Juan de Pando Estrada, commandeered three private slave trading vessels - the 40-gun "San Francisco", the 34-gun "Paz" and a smaller 28-gun galliot.800 Spanish, led by a 26-year-old commander, set out to meet the pirates on Christmas Eve but immediately struggled against De Graaf's more experienced pirates.