109 Back in the Muzeeum in Vlissingen

After much ado and thanks to the interference of Bert I finally got word that I could come and sketch the model of Michiel de Ruyters ship the Salamander in the Muzeeum in Vlissingen. The Salamander was the ship on which De Ruyter made his profitable voyages to Morocco. The model was taken out of storage and placed on the table in a meeting room. Bert and I were welcomed by Pol Verbeeck one of the curators of the museum. He explained that several models of the ship had been made over the years. They were all made by retired ship builders from the nearby wharfs who modeled the Salamander after descriptions given by De Ruyter in his Diary. The model in the Muzeeum wasn't older than 60 years. While I was sketching Bert had a conversation with Verbeeck about a young man from Eindhoven who had written a book about the 10 years that De Ruyter sailed on the Salamander. Verbeeck did rather scathing about the scientific content of the book. Apparently there was a lot of speculation but he had extensively written about Iligh. Bert's curiosity was peaked. During the lunch break we went to the local bookshop only to find that the book was not only sold out but also out of print. Later Bert had mail contact with the writer, but when she found out he hadn't even visited Iligh, she lost interest.

87 Thinking about Michiel de Ruyter

During his lifetime Michiel de Ruyter was portrayed many times. His portrait in paint and print must have decorated many a wall. Clearly people needed at the time of threatening civil war an idol and he fitted the profile. When De Ruyter became vice admiral of the fleet under Cornelis Tromp, the less talented son of the celebrated Maarten Tromp, he was a novice to the viper pit that was the Dutch political scene. He had no connections and was a self made man. He came from an Orangist Island but got his commission from Johan de Witt a staunch State supporter. Although admiring Johan de Witt and his gifted brother Cornelis and becoming friends with them, he never chose sides. In contrast his boss at the Admiralty Cornelis Tromp was an card-carrying Orangist and took part in intrigues to bring Willem III Prince of Orange to power. De Ruyter’s only loyalty was with his family and the Dutch Republic. On the portrait paintings of De Ruyter he has a fleshy, glum but not unfriendly face albeit rather plain. He is clearly heir to generations of Jenever drinkers as so many Dutch. His stance is confident but rather square. His clothes are plain and practical. His ability to stay neutral yet be loyal to a few principles, combined with a sharp mind and healthy curiosity in anything that was new, different and could be put to use, made him an ideal ‘traveller’. His ships might have been an extension of his home island, but once on foreign shore he was open to new experiences. Hence his learning the Irish a.o.. This worked very well of course when he was not tied to the duties of warfare. The Bros De Witt stimulated his innovative tendencies. That’s how a.o. came the forming of an ‘army at sea’ about: the Marines.

86 Michiel De Ruyter on shore

After his lucrative period on the Salamander Michiel De Ruyter settled into the life of a respected Burger of Vlissingen. He married Anna van Gelder a 38 year old widow with children and bought a house. To celebrate his love for his new wife he called his house: ‘De Gecroonde Liefde’ (The Crowned Love). It could have been the name of a ship. With the narrow, steep stairs and small low-ceilinged rooms houses in Holland and on the islands (Zeeland) could be seen as ships on shore. Of all the properties in Vlissingen De Ruyter chose the house right across the warehouses of Cornelis Lampsins. I drew the street and the house. There was a sharp cold wind from the north. It made sitting out of the sun very unpleasant. There was also no seating. However the man of the house where I leant against the windowsill kindly gave me a chair: to leave when I had finished. De Ruyter never sold the ‘Crowned Love’. However his plans for a peaceful life on shore was never to be. That same year the Republic got into war with England. The Admiralty of Zeeland asked him for help and he couldn’t say no. Although he really didn’t want to go back to sea. From that time onwards till his death in 1676 he was in the Navy. The ships the Province of Zeeland send to war were just merchant ships with guns. Nevertheless De Ruyter defeated the English war ships in the Battle at Plymouth. After the death of Admiral Maarten Tromp, De Ruyter was asked by Johan de Witt the ‘Raadpensionaris’ (leader of the governing council) of the Republic to take Tromp’s place in the Dutch fleet. This promotion forced him and his family to move from Vlissingen to Amsterdam. He and his wife bought a house on the ‘Buitenkant’ (Outside) with a view of the harbour. Now it is Prins Hendrikkade 131. He became the hero of three sea wars with England, invented the Marine Corps and modernized the fleet.

82 In search of the ‘Salamander’

The most important reason for visiting Vlissingen was to sketch the model of Michiel de Ruyter’s ship the ‘Salamander. De Ruyter commandeered ships of Cornelis Lampsins and war ships of the Admiralty, but only once he had stood on his very own decks. That was on the Salamander when he traded with Morocco and the Caribbean. I knew the MuZeeum (MuSeaum) had a model in its collection. So there I went. The front desk of the museum is manned by volunteers. They had heard about De Ruyter’s ship but it didn’t ring a bell that the museum should have a model. They were most helpful but further than a printout of the model from a general maritime site they didn’t come. I was stunned. They called the back office. There were the professionals, but everyone was out to lunch. If I could wait? Of course I could, I chatted a bit with the volunteers and took a tour of the museum. The museum is set up in three parts: the new building next to the Lampsins House and behind the Lampsins warehouses. It is a huge complex over three floors, a cellar and an attic. Between the Lampsins House and the warehouses were glass encaged galleries. Here I found among other gable stones a very big one representing a ship that looked like the Salamander except that it had sails two stories high instead of three and it was rigged out as a war ship with two rows of cannons. I decided to draw the stone as it was nicely detailed. One of the volunteers had an interesting comment. He said that the Salamander was only a small ship. Regular VOC vessels had up to 250 men on board, but the Salamander would only carry 50 men or so. Half way on my tour somebody came down from the offices to tell me that indeed the model was in the museum, but it was not on view. Later Gabrielle Baumann the director of the museum came to see me. I explained I wanted to draw the model for the purpose of using it in a graphic story about Dutch contacts with Iligh. She told me she couldn’t let me into the museum’s warehouse. I had to write a letter and the board would than take it in consideration. I did and I haven’t heard from her or anyone else since.

81 Lampsins of Vlissingen

After the Church of Saint Jacob where Michiel de Ruyter was baptized and married the next logical step was to the Lampsins House. Lampsins was is an important ship-owner. Originally from Oostende Jan Lampsins settled in Vlissingen and made his fortune there. He was also the first employer of Michiel de Ruyter. As a young child after flunking school Michiel took up a job working on the ropewalk one of the businesses of Jan Lampsins. Later a children’s song was written that starts with this period of his life when ‘turning the big wheel, all day, while his boyish heart longed for a life of adventure on sea’. Or something like that. In 1618 as a 11 year old he went to sea. In 1631 after a very adventurous life on shore and at sea he was hired again by Lampsins. This time it was Cornelis Lampsins the son of Jan. Michiel was send to head the company’s office in Dublin where he learned to speak fluent Irish. The story goes that on a trip back to Vlissingen his ship was attacked by pirates. He saved his ship by smearing Irish butter on the hull of the ship. In 1638 De Ruyter was made captain of one of the Lampsins’ ships. By 1644 he had his own ship the Salamander. In 1652 he bought a house right behind the Lampsins House. The Lampsins house is now a museum. The balcony on the roof is said to function as a kind of crows’ nest. It was used to watch the ships depart and come in. The old tidal dock is now a marina. Hence the high walls. When sketching the sun was out, but a freezing cold wind from the north was blowing around my ears. High time to go inside in the MuZeeum (MuSeaum).

80 Vlissingen 1652

1652 was an important year in the life of Michiel de Ruyter. Het married Anne van Gelder and had bought a house. His trade with Iligh and the Caribbean had made him a rather wealthy man. He wanted to spend more time with his family and less time on the seven seas. However that was not going to be. Johan de Witt asked him to help out the young Republic as it was threatened on all sides. This map of Vlissingen shows a relative big city that is well protected from outside enemies both human and water. The population of Vlissingen has grown but not by much. The old town and coast are still more or less the same. Although most harbours and docks as well as the moat have been filled in. What I had to draw I could find on this map. The history of Vlissingen is a long one. It has always been a desirable possession because of its strategic position at the entrance of the Schelde estuary and its rich hinterland of Antwerp, Brugge and Gendt. In 1572 it became the second city within the very young Dutch Republic to rid itself of Spanish rule. They weren’t ‘taken’; the population freed itself. After that it became a wealthy port and trading centre by itself till Amsterdam took over in importance. Typical after getting his commission as Vice Admiral of the fleet De Ruyter had to move to Amsterdam. However he kept his house in Vlissingen.

79 Michiel de Ruyter and the Church of Saint Jacob

I’ve read it many times: when somebody in history becomes something like a ‘saviour’ or ‘hero’, people will find ‘signs’ of the later greatness in earlier life. The same happened with Michiel de Ruyter. Even though quite a bit is known about his youth that didn’t prevent myths to be spun. A few had to do with the Great or Saint Jacob’s Church. It is said, he climbed the tower to better see the ships on Vlissingen’s roadstead and the North Sea beyond. When he came down he chose to come via the façade: as if the tower was the main mast of a ship. De Ruyter was baptized in the church and was married there, but he is interred in the ‘Nieuwe Kerk’ (New Church) in Amsterdam. After having made a drawing of the church tower the day before, I wanted to ‘do’ the interior. Like most old churches in the Netherlands this church became Protestant during the 80year liberation war with Spain. That meant that the church was stripped of all altars, statues, confession boxes and little sanctuaries. What was left was a rather naked, open space. The inside of churches like this one I find extremely difficult to draw. It is just too big and there is little to take hold of. The only focus point is the pulpit and that structure is usually an over ornate and rather pompous affair. I always admire the perfect acoustics those churches have. That’s why the Saint Jacobs church is also used for concerts nowadays, the churchwarden in charge of ‘events’ told me. The day I sat down to sketch, the ‘evangelical’ broadcasting corporation (EO) was preparing the space for a televised recording of public church singing: ‘Nederland Zingt’ (The Netherlands Sings). In the drawing the lads have just finished hanging the lights and putting up the recording system. While drawing the pulpit the musical instruments were tried out. I was invited to stay on for the rehearsal, but I declined and hastened from the place of worship to head for the nautical venues.

78 Michiel de Ruyter as seen on TV

On my first night in Vlissingen my local friend Martina and I settled in front of the TV to watch ‘The Admiral’ on Netflix. The film tells the story of Michiel as head of the fleet during the wars with England. It is set in the period after he was a trader, had his own ship the ‘Salamander’ and travelled with it to Morocco and the Caribbean. It starts in the year he was asked by the council of the Dutch Republic to join the admiralty. Apart from his prowess in battle and his genius as a naval tactician we are shown the political reality of the times. The Republic was rich and doing well in international trade. The other sea powers were jealous and attacked the young country: in particular England and later France. Inside the Republic a civil war threatened. The Seven Provinces were ruled by the party of traders and ad hoc politicians called the ‘Staatsgezinden’ or State Supporters. Their leader was Johan de Witt who was supported by his brother Cornelis. They were opposed by the faction around the Prince of Orange. The princely pretender was Prince Willem III the later King William of England or King Billy. Willem III was gay and Lord Bentinck was his lover as seen on the film. Michiel de Ruyter came from a region that was staunchly Orange, but was also a great friend and admirer of the bros De Witt. Apart from some misplaced, modern American style and lengthy speeches about ‘freedom’ the movie explains a very complicated and for an Anglo-Saxon public totally incomprehensible moment in history succinctly effective. Well done! The sketch is of the Great or Saint Jacob’s Church the most important landmark in the coastal town and very important in the life of De Ruyter.

77 Introduction to Vlissingen

Nowadays Vlissingen can be reached easily by train. But till the sixties of the last century Vlissingen was on an island: Walcheren. After the devastating effects of the Flood Disaster of 1953 the islands that made up the Province of Zeeland were connected to each other and the mainland by dykes, bridges and flood defences. Walcheren is no longer an island and if you didn’t know you would never notice it had been. The train ride took just over three hours. Because of recent rescheduling it took half an hour longer than during the time I visited the town for work. I had always enjoyed visiting the province. Work for the National Bureau of Water Management had taken me many times to Zeeland. In 2001 while recovering from cancer treatment I had been kindly taken in by a couple living on Walcheren. In the nineties my aunt Taat had taken Bert and me for a Whitsun holiday to Vlissingen. We had stayed in the Grand Hotel Brittannia or ‘De Brit’. All rooms in the hotel had balconies looking out over the Roadstead of Vlissingen. That view I wanted to have this time too. But ‘De Brit’ had been demolished. Fortunately there are more hotels on the ‘Boulevard’. I chose the Hotel Truida and was given a room with the desired view. Better still: when I sat on the loo I could draw this sketch. Martina, a Dutch friend from Achill Island has a ‘pied d’à terre’ in Vlissingen. She welcomed me and gave me a thorough introduction to the town. She took me and her dog for a circular tour around the old city. Starting on Wall Street she took me to the Saint Jacob’s or Great Church and on to the yacht harbour and the Lampsins House, past the Pilot’s port and Bellamypark or the old dock harbour to the statue of Michiel de Ruyter and to the harbour inlet and on to the Prisoners’ Tower and the boulevards. Turned out her home was just behind the hotel in the 19th century part of the town. In the evening we watched the movie ‘Admiral’ on Netflix. I couldn’t have gotten a better introduction to Vlissinge the town of Michiel de Ruyter.

76 In search of Michiel de Ruyter

The first chapter of the Graphic Story about Iligh will be about the Michiel de Ruyter connection. Michiel de Ruyter was born in 1607 and died in 1676 during a sea battle against the French. He hailed from the town of Vlissingen on the island of Walcheren in the Province of Zeeland. Zeeland was in the 17th century an independent region of small but rich and powerful islands within the Dutch Republic of Seven Provinces. Michiel de Ruyter is an iconic hero of the seas. His sailors gave him the honorary title of ‘Bestevaer’ (grandfather). The latest biography about him by Ronald Prudhomme van Reine was called ‘De rechter hand van Nederland’ (The right hand of the Netherlands) and a movie about his exploits during the wars with England was titled ‘Admiral’. At primary school I learned the song ‘In een blauwgeruite kiel’ (In a blue tartan shirt) about him as a youth dreaming about going to sea while working on a ropewalk. Lately his heroic status has been questioned and to have an interest in him is considered dubious and ‘not done’. He is accused of facilitating the slave trade. The Dutch had taken over the cross-ocean trade from the Portuguese and made it more ‘efficient’ and thus more vicious and dehumanizing. As with all iconic figures a lot of myths were attached to him and he had become more like an institution than a human being. Time to get a ‘feel’ for this man and to make drawings ‘in situ’ for the graphic story. I took the train to Vlissingen. It was a beautiful sunny day when I set out to the railway station only to find out that the scheduled direct train to Vlissingen had been cancelled. Time enough to sit down and do some serious sketching of the monumental Amsterdam Central Station.