Danseker and the English pirate John Ward were the two most prominent renegades operating in the Barbary coast during the early 17th century, both of whom were said to command squadrons in Algiers and Tunis equal to their European counterparts, and represented a formidable naval power as allies (much like Aruj and Hayreddin Barbarossa the previous century).
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Finding himself in the service of the Pacha, he soon became the chief naval architect for the Bey of Algiers teaching Algerian shipwrights how to build and use the larger European "round ships" as opposed to the ancient rowed galleys.
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A Dutchman from Dordrecht by traditional accounts, he first arrived in Algiers from Marseilles, France around 1600 or 1601 where he eventually married and began a ship building business.