http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/wH.html
It seems there is some loan- or wanderword *was-, *wos- on the
European western waterfront, meaning
1) swampland (along a river)
2) uncouth behavior
3) gibberish
The two latter makes one suspect the word designated a people, the
first one would then be where they lived. Given (my guess) Germ. *wos-
> Freench gueux "beggar; uncouth person" > (loan) Dutch
geus "beggar", it would be tempting to identify them with (the
ancestors of) the 'watergeuzen' that played a large role in the Dutch
struggle for independence (the traditional translation as "sea-
beggars" doesn't match the resume of a pirate). Not that I know much
about that shadowy people.
Torsten