Claim: Simon of Utrecht was a warship captain of the Hanseatic League which was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in northwestern and central Europe and the league came to dominate Baltic maritime trade for three centuries along the coasts of Northern Europe.
Evidence: Simon of Utrecht (Simon van Utrecht, died 14 October 1437) was a warship captain of the Hanseatic League during the Middle Ages. The Hanseatic League (/ˌhænsiˈætɪk/; Middle Low German: Hanse, Düdesche Hanse, Hansa; German language: Deutsche Hanse; Dutch: De Hanze; Polish: Hanza; Latin: Hansa Teutonica) was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Northwestern and Central Europe. Growing from a few North German towns in the late 1100s, the league came to dominate Baltic maritime trade for three centuries along the coasts of Northern Europe.