MICHIEL DE RUYTER.
24 March 1607 – 29 April 1676.  (Gregorian Calendar).    

J. Berckman, 1665.

Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter, was the Admiral of the Fleet of the most powerful fleet The Netherlands ever had and his victories of the Third Anglo – Dutch War saved the young Republic  from total annihilation and annexation. He beat the combined fleets of the Britain, and France in the Battle of Kijkduin in 1673, 

Battle of Kijkduin.

How did he manage to beat the combined fleets of the greatest navies of those days.?  
 
He trained his men and indeed the entire fleet in mock battles till they outperformed every other navy of his time, (Dutch gunners were known to fire two rounds in the same time that  the opposing ships only fired once.)

He was a charismatic leader, and greatly improved the living conditions of the sailors, who respected and admired him and gave him the nickname “Bestevaer”  meaning: “Gramps”  
He insisted on strict obedience and discipline during the battle, but encouraged an unrestricted  brainstorm from his captains in the councils of war prior to every major encounter.

But most of all, He was a intuitive master tactician in battle conditions
Many times he opened the attack of the opponent's fleet in such a foolhardy manner, that his adversaries believed that it would be an easy victory for them, only to completely change his attack strategy by wheeling his entire fleet of sometimes more than a 100 ships, as if attached to strings emanating from de Ruyter's flagship.
The French admiral Abraham Duquesne said in a report to King Louis XIV
"The Dutch fleet under de Ruyter can enter a moonless night, in a gale force wind and heavy fog, and emerge the next day in perfect Line Ahead"
His new mode of attack was much more threatening to the opposing fleet, but when that fleet tried to counter the new threat by regrouping this usually failed and their entire Line came into disarray. Making it easier for de Ruyter to seperate the various squadrons  and attack one after the other with his entire fleet that was wellhandled as a unit.

In all the 19 battles that he fought, his opponents had had always more and bigger ships, with more men and more and heavier guns. 
However, skilfully seperated from each other these seperate squadrons were no match for his well disciplined fleet..  
 
Separately these traits did not make him a genius the combination, however, made him 
The greatest Admiral the world has ever known.
(Quotation from: A.T. Mahan, D.C.L., LL.D., and Prof. C.R. Boxer.)  

A.T. Mahon said from de Ruyter: "He excells in the obvious"
meaning, that he did nothing more than what every admiral was supposed to do, and probably wanted to do, but could not do it, because the shiphandling of his captains, and the discipline and obedience to orders was simply not as it should be. 

He was born on 24 March 1607 , in Flushing ( Vlissingen ) as the son of a longshoreman and former sailor.

In the 17th century Flushing was a major port in the Netherlands, for whalers, privateers and merchant ships. Although it had only 1600 inhabitants, each one was somehow involved with the sea, and it was inconceivable that young Michiel would follow another career. This small town supplied eight other famous 17th century admirals.

Little is known about his early childhood, it is a fact that he was a general pain in the neck, who was expelled from every school and could not hold even menial jobs. Finally his father made him sign up at the age of 11 as a bo’sun’s apprentice on a merchant ship, bound for Brazil . This seemed to be the first job that suited him. Michiel made several voyages and was even promoted.

Yet, he was still illiterate, and his mother, who was of a slightly higher social status than her husband,had better hopes for her son. So when he turned 17 she gave him into the care of her brother who was a horseman in the army of Prince Frederik Hendrik, and the young lad fought in the siege of the city of Bergen op Zoom.,

As is often the case with unruly adolescents, He thrived in the strict discipline and the no-nonsense attitude of the army. He must have greatly admired his uncle, because the man’s nickname was “Ruiter” meaning “horseman, or rider” which Michiel later adopted as his own surname to honour this mentor.

This is the youngest portrait of de Ruyter. Unfortunately his age is unknown, but is probably around 1636  when he became a privateer at the age of 29.

At 24 he returns to the sea and climbs through the non-commissioned ranks. }
He marries, but his wife and child die in childbirth. He must also have gotten an education on the side, as in 1633 we find him back as an officer (behind the mast) of a whaler. He makes three trips to the arctic,, but in 1636 he marries for the second time and returns to the merchant navy as a skipper of a privateer, and later of merchant vessels.

So far he had been an ambitious youngster, an excellent sailor, and an astute trader, but his career was otherwise undistinguished.

Hislocal reputation was of a skipper who employed unorthodox measures to elude his enemies. E.g. at one time he was about to be boarded by a privateer that outsailed, outmanned and outgunned him many times. He ordered his men to wear socks over their bare feet, and had butter spread on the deck. The moment the boarders jumped aboard his small ship, they slipped and fell, and could easily be overcome. To pay for the lost butter, he took the privateer home as a valuable prize, and made a handsome profit out of the encounter..

On another occasion, while sailing home in the company of other merchant vessels, they encountered a strong fleet of Dunkerque privateers. All the other ships fled, but most of these were later taken, and their cargo lost, but  at nightfall de Ruyter lit up his ship in the fashion of a man-of-war, and sailed blatantly, but unmolested through the enemy fleet and safely to Flushing and, being the only one to reach port, made excellent  prices for his cargo.

                 But that was that. A local hero, excellent at his job, but one out of many.

The first time that changed was in 1641, when the admiralty of Zeeland asked him to act as a Rear-admiral in a fleet under admiral Gijsels who fought, and lost, a battle against the Portuguese at Cape St Vincent , the very same spot where Nelson would fight his famous battle 164 years later.
In this one encounter de Ruyter was disgusted at the lack of courage, discipline and ship handling displayed by the Dutch skippers and their crews. He threatened to hang a few of them at the yardarms of their own ships,, but Gijsels kept him from such drastic measures. However, he vowed, never to have anything to do with the Navy again.

Back in Flushing , the now wealthy trader he bought his own small ship,  “de Salamander” ,

"De Salamander"

and continued with his life. In 1650 his second wife died while he was at sea, 
On 8 January 1652 he married for the third time, and decided to retire at the age of 44. A wealthy local dignitary, and well respected.
He had lost two wives, and two children that he had never even seen, while he was at sea. This blissful tranquillity was not to last.

 That same year the First Anglo-Dutch War broke out. The Dutch Navy was organised in 5 separate admiralties that vied with one another for influence, and executive power..

The admiralty of Amsterdam , the largest and wealthiest, always supplied the Admiral of the combined fleet, but this time the admiralty of Zeeland was successful in claiming the right to appoint the second-in-command. Unfortunately they did not have a suitable flag officer .

Witte the With, who was the most logical choice as being the one with the most seniority and an excellent warrior, was despised by all captains, many of whom refused to sail under him. There even had been an occasion that a number of them openly mutinied and refused to attack an enemy, but returned to port. Evertsen, also an excellent admiral, was politically involved with the opposition, and hence a possible Trojan horse,

So the choice fell on a complete outsider, to whom nobody could object. 
After long pleading, de Ruyter gave in “For one single foray only!!!!”
That “one foray ”was to become the most remarkable career in the history of naval commanders.
On one occassion he had to to escort an incredibly costly spice fleet, returning from the Indies , safely through the Channel, where Sir  George Ayscue, whom de Ruyter had met before even and befriended whilst a captain of his own ship in the fifties, was waiting with a strong fleet.
The encounter took place near Plymouth and Ayscue had to seek refuge in Plymouth harbour. After this defeat Ayscue had to retire and in Holland de Ruyter was a public figure and a hero overnight.

Maarten Harpertszoon TROMP.

His superior, and Admiral of the Fleet, was the famous Maarten Tromp, who immediately took a liking to the inexperienced but already so successful former merchant skipper, 
In 1653 de Ruyter is appointed Vice-Admiral and makes a trip to Scandinavian waters under Witte de With, de Ruyter being the only man who could get along with the irascible de With.
Two years later, in 1654, Tromp died in the Battle of Scheveningen (Terheijde) and the First Anglo-Dutch War ended in the peace treaty of Westminster that was  ignominious for the Dutch. 
In 1655, in order to improve his chances for advancement de Ruyter  moved to Amsterdam to join the most powerful admiralty in the capital but for political reasons van Wassenaer van Obdam an army general and a nobleman, was chosen to succeed Tromp as Admiral of the Fleet.

Jacob Baron van Wassenaer van Obdam.

In 1659 de Ruyter joins van Wassenaer in what is called the Nordic War, in the Baltic. To help the Danes, who were being attacked by the Swedes. The latter even managed to occupy parts of Denmark, and the future of the Danish crown hung in the balance. In 1660 de Ruyter returned alone to these waters, after van Wassenaer had died in the battle of Lowestoft, and managed to free the Danes and send the Swedes back to their country. He was knighted by the Danish King and bequeathed with a Crest that is still worn today by his descendants and adourns every ship in our navy that bears de Ruyter's name.

 In 1664 he was sent to the Mediterranean as a ruse to deceive the English. In fact he went to West Africa , where he recaptured the Dutch fort Del Mina, that was earlier captured by the British. From there he proceeded to the Caribbean where he recaptured many former Dutch colonies that the British had occupied after the First Anglo-Dutch War. 

When he returned he learned that the Second Anglo-Dutch War (Dutch) had broken out, so he returned home by the northerly route north of Scotland , and managed to elude the British fleet that was waiting for him in the Channel. Immediately after his landfall, he was appointed Admiral of the Fleet. That same year the famous "Zeven Provinciën" His flagship that would for ever be connected to his fame, was launched at the Maze, the shipyard of the Admirality of Rotterdam.

His exploits in the Second Anglo-Dutch War and subsequently in the Third Anglo – Dutch War, are well documented in the relevant pages on this site.

In 1676 the Spanish Crown asked the help of the Dutch fleet in their war against France, that was trying to annex Sicily, (that was a Spanish colony) away Technically Holland was still at war with France, the peace treaty after the Battle of Kijkduin, was excluded the French.) 
Spain expressly requested for de Ruyter, who at first refused, because he considered the fleet to be too much neglected and the level of training of the crews inadequate. One of the ministers had the gall to ask the old man "If he was getting afraid" de Ruyter aswered:

"Ik ben niet bevreesd, maar bezorgd dat U onze vlag zo lichtvaardig veil heeft, De heeren staaten hebben mij niet te verzoeken doch slechts te gebieden, en al wierdt mij bevolen 
's Landts vlagh op een enkel schip te voeren, ik zou daarmee 't zee gaan.
En daar de heeren staaten hunne vlagh betrouwen, sal ik mijn leven waagen."

This quotation is inscribed in a commemorative plaque in het KIM (Koninklijk Instituut voor de Marine) "Willemsoord" The Royal Dutch naval Academy  as an example to the 'young gentlemen' that will once be de Ruyter's successors.

       ( I'm not afraid, but concerned that you hazard our flag so lightly, 
You do not have to request me but can order me, and if I were ordered to  sail in a single ship,
I would proceed to sea, Where the Government commits its Flag, I will hazard my Life.).

This is exactly what he did, and where he lost his life on 29 April 1676, in a battle of the Etna, against the French admiral Duquesne, who had been an observer aboard the "Zeven Provinciën" during the Four days battle, and who was a great admirer of de Ruyter.
He broke of the encounter when he learned about de Ruyter's death and ordered two frigates with draped colours, to escort the ship carrying de Ruyter's body back to Holland, all the way to the Channel. 
King Louis XIV ordered all French shipping and French ports to honour that ship with a 17 gun salute.

Two months before his death, he negotiated the release of 26 Protestant Hungarian ministers, who had been convicted of treason against the Austrian Crown, and who were "lend" to the King of Spain to use as galley slaves in the port of Naples. 
Their liberation by de Ruyter is celebrated every year to this day in Hungary, as a first symbol of success in their age old struggle for independance from the Austrian Habsburgs.

De Ruyter is buried in a mausoleum in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam.

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