Jochem Swartenhondt

Jochem Swartenhont, by Nicolaes Pickenoy, Reichsmuseum

Jochem Hendrickszoon Swartenhondt , also Joachim, also Zwartehond, (* 1566 in Amsterdam ; † June 5, 1627 ibid) was a Dutch admiral.

Little is known about its origin. He was an orphan when he was eleven. The name Swartenhondt comes from a house on the Amsterdam sea dike, where he was born, originally his name was Hendrickszoon.

Swartenhont started out as a cabin boy in the merchant navy in 1577. He crossed Dunkirk (which was blocked by the Dutch navy as a privateer port), was captured by an English pirate on a merchant and put ashore in England. In 1587 he was captured as a sailor on a merchant ship on the way to Sanlucar by the Spaniards and was for some time a prisoner on Spanish galleys, but was then used in the fort of Sanlucar and after he was withdrawn there due to an attack by Francis Drake in shipbuilding and Ship equipment used (at that time the Armada was set up to attack England in 1588). He was able to escape and returned home on a ship from Medemblik and reported to the Admiralty of Amsterdam in 1587, which hired him after he said he had information about the Spanish Armada and armament at sea. For some time he drove under Admiral Maarten Zegerz. to block the Spaniards under the Duke of Parma in the Flemish ports. In 1588 he joined the army of Moritz von Orange, where he became a non-commissioned officer in 1592, and he was distinguished by his bravery.

In 1595 he went to the Navy as a helmsman. In 1596 he became a lieutenant in the Admiralty in Amsterdam after single-handedly capturing a small Spanish privateer in the Bay of Biscay. That he did it alone was unintentional as his Dutch ship drifted away after boarding, but Swartenhondt, who was of impressive stature, forced the Spanish captain to surrender. In 1597 he became captain and took part in the blockade of Dunkirk and operations off Calais. In between he was used again in the army (siege of 's-Hertogenbosch ). In 1599 he distinguished himself under Vice Admiral Pieter van der Does on an expedition to Spain and West Africa. An epidemic broke out on the ships and on the way back he was able to defend himself with difficulty against a privateer from Dunkirk, despite the weakened crew. He took part in an expedition to the Spanish and Portuguese coasts as a captain under Vice Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer-Duivenvoorde in 1602 (during which they captured six ships from the Spanish sugar fleet) and from 1603 to 1605 as Vice Admiral under Admiral Paulus van Caerden in an expedition to Portugal Canary Islands, St. Helena, Brazil and the West Indies in the Caribbean, which brought him rich booty. The appointment as vice admiral, as which he was led in 1603, was only temporary for the expedition. In 1605 he resigned. He and his second wife Elisabeth Jacobs Bas (1571-1649) had a well-known inn in Amsterdam, where the nobility and high-ranking citizens met, the Swarten Hondt (before he bought it in 1606 it was called Prins van Oranje ). After Vice Admiral Cornelis Claesz had switched to the Admiralty of the Meuse, he again accepted the title of Vice Admiral of the Admiralty of Amsterdam, which at that time was only formally valid in the peacetime period that lasted until 1620 and (as long as there was no fighting) was associated with no payment. He was also the fire chief of Amsterdam.

After the end of the peace period in the Eighty Years' War he was reactivated as Vice Admiral in 1620 and was on an expedition under Willem de Zoete against the Barbaresques in the Mediterranean in 1620 . In 1621 he became an extraordinary lieutenant-admiral of Holland and West Friesland. As commanding the escort of a large convoy of 32 merchant ships in the Mediterranean, he repulsed a Spanish fleet in the Strait of Gibraltar on October 16, 1622 (although he only had four, the Spaniards twenty-four warships). He had previously united with a Dutch reinforcement off Livorno. He himself was on his flagship Zeelandia with 40 cannons. On his return he was therefore celebrated as a hero and received a bonus from the merchants. In 1622 he switched back to private life. He turned down offers to join Danish or Swedish services, as well as a renewed offer to serve as Vice Admiral in 1625 (he demanded the title of Lieutenant Admiral and high pay, which was too expensive for the Admiralty). He is buried in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam.

There is a portrait of him and his daughter Maria by Nicolaes Pickenoy (1588–1655) from 1627 and a portrait of his wife by Ferdinand Bol (1640), whom he married in Amsterdam in 1596. He had two sons and two daughters. His inn did so well that the sale made his widow rich after his death.

literature

• Bergman: Joachim Hendrikszoon Swartenhondt: een geschiedkundig tafereel voor de Nederlandsche jeugd, Amsterdam 1835
• M. van der Duin: Admiraal Swartenhondt: een vergeten zeeheld uit de zestiende eeuw, Kampen 1927
• G. Kolleman: Admiraal Swartenhondt en zijn vrouw Lysbeth Bas, in: Ons Amsterdam: maandblad van de Gemeentelijke Commissie Heemkennis, Volume 19, 1967, pp. 57-62.
• T. van Gent: Luitenant-admiraal Jochem Swartenhondt (1566–1627) en de slag in de Straat van Gibraltar op October 16, 1622, in: T. van Gent, 17 Zeventiende eeuwse admiralen en hun zeeslagen, The Hague: Koninklijke Vereniging van Marineofficieren , 2000.

His second wife Elisabeth Bas, from Ferdinand Bol

Web links

• Biographical Portaal van Nederland
• Literature and biography at the University of Leiden

References and comments

1. ↑ Before that, the Admiralty of Amsterdam had no vice admiral from 1599 to 1602
2. ↑ In about Black Dog