Isaac Sweers
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Isaac Sweers , sometimes also written Isaac Sweerts , (born January 1, 1622 in Nijmegen , † August 21, 1673 in the battle of Texel ) was a Dutch admiral.
Early years
Sweers, of whom autobiographical records have been passed down in his family, did not come from any seafaring family. His father Aernout Sweers was one of the regents in the council (Vroedschap) of Nijmegen. Under Maurits of Orange, he temporarily lost this post in 1618 because of a law against remonstrants . After the death of Moritz von Oranien he was back in office and from 1628 to 1635 was Gelderland's representative in the Chamber of the East India Company in Amsterdam. He then moved back to Nijmegen with his family. Sweerts lost his parents to the plague in 1635 and was sent to a French school in Hoorn. At his own request he went in 1638 to a business partner of his uncle in Seville , where he could not get along, was released and returned to his homeland via Plymouth. His family placed him as an assistant with his uncle Salomon Sweers, who was mayor of Texel.
In 1640 he went to Brazil (Mauritsstad, now Recife ) as an employee of the West India Company . He became a notary and lawyer and his business soon flourished thanks to his good knowledge of Spanish. During the uprising of the Portuguese against the Dutch in 1645, he commanded a unit in Fort van der Dussen, which fell to the rebels through the betrayal of the Dutch commander Dirck Hoogstraaten. Sweerts was captured and tortured. In 1646 he was released and returned home penniless. In 1647 he tried a trade trip to the Virgin Islands with others as a merchant on his own account, but they were shipwrecked. After returning he was in debt and gave up his plans as a merchant.
In the service of the Admiralty
Instead, he served as a midshipman in the service of the Admiralty of Amsterdam in 1649. First he took part in an expedition against the Barbaresques (pirates in the Mediterranean Sea) under the command of Jan van Galen in 1650/51 and was seriously wounded in a fight against Spanish robbers. In 1651 he became a lieutenant and in 1652 in the First Anglo-Dutch War, he became captain of the Engel Gabriel . His ship sank in the Battle of Portland . He was a prisoner of war, but escaped while visiting a Spanish delegation in prison by posing as a Spaniard. Then he drove escorts in the Mediterranean. In 1655 he became a citizen of Amsterdam. In 1656 he was involved in battles against the Swedes during the liberation of Danzig and then in the surveillance of the peace with Sweden, but was not involved in the naval battle in Oresund (1658) . He was made a full captain and took part in 1664 as commander of the Middelburg in Michiel de Ruyter's expedition to West Africa and America.
In the Second Anglo-Dutch War he became Rear Admiral ( Schout-bij-Nacht ) . In the four-day battle , the Royal Prince, who had run on a sandbank, was captured, on which Sweers, to the annoyance of Tromp, took possession of the coveted table silver of the English Admiral George Ayscue for himself. He then took part in the St. James's Day Fight under the command of Tromp . On his return, like Tromp, he was publicly reprimanded by de Ruyter in Vlissingen . In August 1666 he was officially Vice Admiral of Holland and West Friesland, but had the position unofficially since the four days battle. At Calais he conquered the Royal Charles with Cornelis Evertsen the Younger in 1666 (not identical to the flagship of Charles II, which was abducted during the attack in the Medway). Later both argued about the prize money of 5,000 guilders that Evertsen received. He took part in the raid on the Medway. In 1667 he got the new 82 cannon ship De Witte Oliphant (White Elephant) as a flagship. After the war he took part in an expedition against the barbarians with the English (an incident occurred because he did not want to greet the British Vice Admiral Thomas Allin as requested).
In the Third Anglo-Dutch War he fought in the sea battle in the Solebay under Lieutenant-Admiral Willem Joseph van Ghent and took command when he fell in battle. When the French invaded the Netherlands in 1672, which could only be prevented by opening the dykes, in the winter of 1672/73 he commanded naval units that were supposed to prevent the French from crossing the water limit, which after the flooding of the country between the superior French Army and the rest of the country. In the further course of 1673 he had to resign in command behind Cornelis Tromp and took part under this in the Second Sea Battle of Schooneveld . Tromp then accused him of not having fought with the last mission, but the investigation revealed that his ship had been so badly damaged by cannonades that he had to return for repairs. Sweers was so upset by Tromp's allegations that he challenged him to a duel. The governor Wilhelm III. but ordered them to postpone this until after the war. In 1673 he was hit by a cannonball on his flagship Olifant in the sea battle off Texel and lost both legs, but while he was dying he learned that the Dutch had won. Jan den Haen took command in the battle . Sweers is buried in the Oude Keerk in Amsterdam.
He was married to Constantia Blommaert (1626-1694), whose father Samuel was the head ( Bewindhebber ) of the Amsterdam Chamber of the East India Company. With her he had four daughters and a son Isaac Sweers the younger, who also became captain. His wife was one of the regents of the Amstelhof nursing home built in 1681. A painting of the couple by Ludolf Backhuizen is in the Amsterdam Maritime Museum.
A Dutch destroyer in World War II was named after him.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sweers, Isaac |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dutch admiral |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 1, 1622 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Nijmegen |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 21, 1673 |
| Place of death | in front of Texel |