MARK OF JAN BUYSEN, AMSTERDAM, 1786

The tankard celebrates the life and successes of Admiral Michiel Adriaanszoon De Ruyter, (1607-1676) one of Holland's greatest naval heroes with the cover's finial formed as Ruyter’s flagship De Zeven Provinciën, dismasted during the Four Days’ Battle in June 1666, while the scenes around the body recount his participation in the Northern War as well as his campaigns off the coast of Africa for the Dutch West India Company.

FROM MERCHANT CAPTAIN TO ADMIRAL
De Ruyter was employed at sea from the age of eleven, becoming a merchant captain. After serving as rear admiral of a Dutch fleet assisting Portugal against Spain in 1641, he returned to the merchant service for the next 10 years, fighting against the Barbary pirates off the north African coast helping to restore the Dutch West India Company’s commercial dominance in the area. With the outbreak of the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652-54), he accepted a naval command, serving under Maarten Tromp and attaining the rank of vice admiral in 1653 after his victory off Texel. In 1659, De Ruyter supported Denmark against Sweden in the Baltic, in the First Northern War (1655-60). He fought against the English in 1664, off the Guinea Coast of Africa, helping to restore the Dutch West India Company’s commercial dominance in the area. In 1665 on his return to the United Provinces, he was named lieutenant admiral of Holland and worked closely with Johan De Witt to strengthen the Dutch navy.

THE FOUR DAYS' BATTLE
In the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–67), one of De Ruyter’s greatest victory was the Four Days’ Battle fought from 1st June to 4th June 1666, which remains one of the longest naval engagements in history, aboard his flagship De Zeven Provinciën which was then partially dismasted and in the raid on the Medway (June 1667), which saw the destruction of the English fleet and earned him the name of ‘The Lion of the Seas on the Thames’ after one of the celebrated Dutch poet Joost van den Vondel’s poem.
De Ruyter saved the situation for the Netherlands in the Third Anglo-Dutch War at the Battle of Solebay in 1672, the two Battles of the Schooneveld in 1673, and the Battle of Texel later that year, which warded off invasion. The new rank of lieutenant-admiral general was created especially for him in February 1673, when the new stadtholder, William III of Orange, became admiral-general.
Again, taking the fight to the Caribbean against the French, De Ruyter arrived off Martinique aboard his flagship De Zeven Provinciën on 19 July 1674. He led a substantial force of eighteen warships, nine storeships, and fifteen troop transports bearing 3,400 soldiers but his ambitions were thwarted and he returned to Europe. In 1676, he took command of a combined Dutch–Spanish fleet to help the Spanish suppress the Messina revolt, and fought a French fleet at the battle of Stromboli and the Battle of Augusta, where he was fatally wounded when a cannonball struck him in the right leg. On 18 March 1677, De Ruyter was given an elaborate state funeral.