biography
| name: |
Ruyter, Michiel Adriaanszoon de
|
pronunciation:
[royter]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1607–76)
|
| biography:
| Dutch naval commander, born in Vlissingen, W Netherlands. He went to sea at nine, and by 1635 had become a merchant captain. In 1641 he had his first experience as a naval captain in the service of Zeeland. He distinguished himself in the first Dutch War, was appointed vice-admiral of Amsterdam (1653), and went on to become a brilliant and successful naval commander. He defeated the English in the ‘Four Days' Battle’ off Dunkirk (1666), destroyed much of the English fleet at Medway (1667), and the larger Anglo-French fleets at Solebay (1672) and was again victorious off Ostend and Kijkduin (1673), thus preventing an English invasion of the Dutch Republic. In 1675 he sailed for the Mediterranean to help the Spaniards against the French, but was mortally wounded in a battle in the Bay of Catania, off Sicily (1676). There is a memorial to de Ruyter in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam. |
|
|
