Michiel de Ruyter: One of the Greatest Admirals in History Reaction!

[@Chtud]

The Netherlands sank another meter below sealevel when he was on land because it had to carry the weight of De Ruyter's balls. Most badass Dutchman that ever lived!

[@arjenb8403]

damn! best comment!! haha

[@ergberg]

amen

[@ricokramer7716]

true story.!

[@johanbruinsma8243]

you , sir , just won the internet.

[@BommeltjeNL]

Hahahahaha ✍️😂👍

[@robvoncken2565]

When his remains were returned to the Netherlands , the ship was granted free passages through French waters. Any fort or harbour they passed fired their canons in salute. His men called him Bestevaer ( granddad) a title of adoration and respect given by the sailors, there were only a hand full of Commanders who ever earned it. He as a truly great man

[@pvlgs]

Only two.

[@markknoop6283]

Spain, Portugal and England as well

[@pvlgs]

Alleen Maarten Tromp en Michiel de Ruyter werden Bestevaer genoemd door hun mannen.

[@robvoncken2565]

@@pvlgs yep

[@hanschouwman4536]

They comunnicated through krijgsraad and flags.

[@cornelioandyourcat4709]

Every naval country used flags with different colors and symbols for communication, but there used to be a limited total of commands. De Ruyter developed a new flag system, adding many options compared to the existing system.

[@corneliusantonius3108]

word

[@Blondiewhatever]

I visited his tombe, its gorgeous, he is burried with so much honor, the tombe is gorgeous, i was lucky to see his casket, the door to the vault is open, so you can see his casket and you can see that he still gets flowers and its full of respect from other countries

[@marcelrenes2435]

He had so much respect that the french ended the battle when they heard he was mortally wounded.

[@Seahorn_]

It took about 6 months to built a ship from the keel up, at least in the Netherlands where they used windmills to produce the needed timber. Other nations had a slower built process. The faster built process was also a key factor for the Dutch in winning the wars.

[@maaiker2977]

Yep this dude started the dutch marines. This man kicked major @$$ even when he was old. 😀

[@ericburbach632]

Its amazing when visiting Seoul in S Korea to find an honourable mention for de Ruyter in a Korean muzeum, his fame travelled far !

[@AudieHolland]

The Netherlands did have some kind of automation when cutting timbers for instance, which was done by wind-sawmills. Since the country had a much smaller population than its rivals at sea, the Dutch used any innovation to speed up manufacturning processes. And of course hired countless of fortuneseekers who flocked to Amsterdam to join the crews of Dutch trade and warships.

[@schipbreukeling3]

Cornelis Corneliszoon van Uitgeest was the inventor of the sawmill. By using a crankshaft in a windmill, a rotating movement was converted into an up and down movement. With this the saw blades were driven and planks could be sawn on a large scale and with great precision.

[@jamievanderwaal9410]

A movie has made about Michiel de Ruyter. Its incredible to see all those ships attac each other. The movie's name is: Michiel de Ruyter if you want to watch.

[@foetsie85]

It's called the admiral for the english

[@WdZ88]

I love that movie

[@maplelafe7671]

Worst actor ever played De Ruiyter. Great battles though

[@jesseypieters4946]

@@maplelafe7671 its one of the best actor's to play the ruiyter

[@TheBookNookEnglish]

The English version is called 'Admiral'. It's a movie from 2015 and is Hollywood quality visuals. with a 151 minute runtime a big sit but absolutely worth a movienight watch with the big soundsystem filling the room (woojer time?). Looking at your reaction to this vid it's a rollercoaster ride of adrenaline of visualizing war at sea, exploding canons and the horrible politics.

[@jdj8168]

Its insane how he carried out missions absolutely everywhere (meditterannean, nirth sea near denmark and sweden, north africa, the americas and north sea channel) and outlived 2 of his wives.

[@benjaminsamson5314]

Heheeeyyy... This was fun. It's kinda cool to see someone react to the history of your hometown 😁 I was born in Vlissingen, and the statue shown at the end is in the neighbourhood where I grew up as a kid. Vlissingen used to be quite a beautiful little city. But bad local politics and mismanagement caused the town to go all but bankrupt. Despite efforts to turn the tide, Vlissingen is becoming somewhat of a ghost town, with small pieces of its former glory scattered around. A while back I was walking through the city center with a friend of mine, and we joked about how it's turning into a miniature version of Robocop's Detroit. Which is kinda sad. De Ruyter's old home is still intact tho. As is the home of one of his employers, called "het Lampsinshuis", which is now a museum. Anyhoo... nice reaction. Keep up the good work!

[@brodacx2268]

men sounds like entirety of zeeland is becoming a ghost town

[@benjaminsamson5314]

@@brodacx2268 Sadly yes...

[@Antidote96x]

This is something that makes me a proud dutchmen! Such small land ! But so strong! Its unbelieveable

[@ronaldderooij1774]

Communication between ships happened with signal flags. I think even today that is an option. Furthermore the Wilhelmus (national anthem now) was played to signal that the preparatory moves were complete and the battle was beginning (they did that also in the army by the way). Fun fact, a whole Spanish brigade of soldiers was resting in a Dutch forest during the 80 years war of independence. They all fled when they heard the Wilhelmus played. They knew what was coming, so they thought. But it was only a flute player, practicing.

[@Ich1GoTgl]

I'm born and raised in Vlissingen, proud as f**k. Lang leve de republiek!

[@jumpingpiggie422]

Bestevaer!!!

[@maartjewaterman1193]

Still to today navy sailors all over the world still wear the black knot in remembrance of De Ryuter's death and the striped flap at the back of their uniforms are in his honor too, as he wore those so that he wouldn't have to change uniform all the time coz the back would be greasy due to the hairstyle of the time. The reaon why sailors still wear them is coz De Ruyter was like a father to his sailors in a time where high ranked officers had mainly contempt for the lowest rangs that in general were more treated like slaves. During the journey back home of his body by sea, each harbor of France, the arch enemy of the Dutch in those days, fired salutes of honor when the ship passed by.

[@sandrader2889]

Looked it up for you, it took 6 to 9 months to build ships like that in those days, which I think is rather quick considering what kind off tools they had.

[@jgowner6076]

Dutch were the fastest at building ships, because we made use of windmill saws. That way shipbuilding was more efficient than by hand.

[@drpepper3838]

@@jgowner6076 indeed, that's why our merchant fleet was larger than the combined fleets of England France Spain and Portugal.

[@harrystevens9521]

And the rivers are very muddy there, but our ships were flat-bottomed boats, also at the instigation of de Ruyter. The reason why we won one of those battles. We even had an enemy ship tied to the side of our ships and the English were completely amazed at how we carried it away back to Holland. Once, I spoke to the English owner of our holiday home in France about this feat of seamanship. He called it a side note in English history. Nice understatement. I think it still bothers them. Watch the clip "Bouw van de Batavia".

[@juliaboskamp9666]

michiel de ruyter kept his crew loyal to him with 2 simple things 1 he paid them well and always on time 2 he fed his crew well (mainly sauerkraut)

[@windmill10]

I have worked for one of the largest Dutch dredging companies. These two things are the most important on any ship today. If our office personnel had to visit a ship in the repair dock, they always made sure they were there during lunch time. 😁

[@Fire-Queen]

Sauerkraut? Oy... The farts must've been brutal too! Hahaha (chemical warfare!)

[@keessturm2804]

I'm happy to be born in Vlissingen the city where this great hero of Dutch history was born and raised. I believe the big documentaire about Dutch history that you are covering, also has a episode about Michiel de Ruyter.

[@geertminderhoud2641]

Hey Kees :)

[@ironfromicey8700]

When he died even the enemy canons gave him a salute.

[@Ozymandias1]

21 years after the Raid on the Medway the Dutch Navy invaded England together with Protestant English forces and installed the Dutch Stadtholder William III on the English throne as King William III. It was the last succesful invasion of England in history and became known as the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

[@GamerPro-rv9hg]

Every country who attacked the Netherlands got destroyed by him because of this movie im sooooo proud of my country🤣 This man was so insane! destroyed 13 of the biggest ships of england and 0 ships of theirselfs

[@daviddevos3518]

We could build ships in record time because of places like the 'Zaanse Schans'. Windmills weren't used for pumping water or grinding grain only. They were used as sawmills also. In fact, the way we produced ships was a pre-industrial revolution industrial revolution. That's another reason why the Netherlands could dominate at sea.

[@jwijn]

Yes that was Michael Adriaanszoon de Ruijter. Climbing as 5 years old kid the higest tower to look over the seas.Trown out of his school class.The sea,the sea and ships,he already knows his future.

[@jwvhvt]

16:10 there is a drawing of the Funeral of Michiel de Ruyter. This is actually currently the famous 'Dam Squar' in Amsterdam. On the background (left) you can see the Royal Palace (Which was then Amsterdam's city hall, and at the time, the largest (non religious) building in the world). Next to it (right) the "Nieuwe Kerk" (New Church), which was/is basically the Cathedral of Amsterdam. This STATE funeral was as big/impressive as a funeral could possibly be!

[@Jaydon05]

Great reaction vid! I am as a Dutchie, still proud of Michiel de Ruyter! Greatings West-coast netherlands.

[@HighlyCombustibleReacts]

Thank you very much!

[@leoschulpen6423]

He invited the use off signalflags to communicate between the ships .

[@corum4life246]

they gave signals with flaggs , they communicated that way

[@randar1969]

Windmills can be used to pump water in and out , they could be used to make bread, and the could be used to chop wood by powering saws pre electricity.

[@jwijn]

More detailed information abouth crossing the Atlantic.He was sailing at the west coast of africa.Then he received orders from amsterdam to return immidiatly to Amsterdam for a new mission becouse dutch comrads were captured in brasil.(messages were transported by other ships on the route and stored at kalifater places.(places where sweet water was taken in ,meat vegetables fruits beer,wine and some repares.)). But de Ruijter refuse the order to sail first to Amsterdam and instead that he set sail straight to Brasil dispite the fact the route was not proven to be safe.This event was shown on dutch television in the serie, Nederlanders overzee, as a 14 parts broadcoosting.Its now on ytube in 2 or 3 pieces from several hours.

[@vogel2280]

Actually, the death of Michiel de Ruyter was a political decision. There was a political split in the Netherlands beween the supporters of the Prince of Orange and those that wanted to keep the current coalition of cities. When the supporters of the Prince seized power, they sent De Ruyter on an impossible mission in the Mediterranean with only 3 ships...

[@LogiForce86]

As we say... "ze gaan over lijken". Meaning they won't mind (mass) murder to achieve their goals.

[@MrFosite]

@@LogiForce86 Actually more accurate translation would be "to step over corpses", cause technically they didn't murder him. The cannonball did, they just putt him in an situation where it was likely that he would die. Basically Machiavellian inspired politics.

[@elzopiening8412]

@HXC De Ruyter invented a smart communication with a variety of flags.

[@666Maeglin]

They signalled each other using a battery of signal flags they hoisted inti the mast. Captains of other ships kept an eye on the signal flags on the admiral ship and were supposed to follow those orders.

[@Arnaud58]

Hi there, a late comment because I just stumbled upon this one.😁 @01:22 In those days there was no sewage, the water was undrinkable.🤢 The beer brewed then hardly had alcohol in it, but because of the brewing process is was safe. That's what made it the number one to drink (for all ages).😎 So, yes, it was delivered by beer carriers.Cheers 🍻

[@saskiajongirl4effahh894]

Thats why we have a dutch saying" if you cant beat the enemy by strenght win it by being smarter then your emeny."

[@gertvanderstraaten6352]

Ok, so 'kapers' in Dutch now is mostly used for hijackers but it meant privateers. The Duinkerkse Kapers were Spanish subjects who got official permission from their sovereign to hijack ships. Not pirates, not 'hijackers', the official word at the time was privateers.

[@rafox66]

"It's not piracy if it's legal ;)"

[@maaiker2977]

Yep a beer carrier was a profession. It used to be these big strong guys carrying vats of the stuff. In the Netherlands we have a saying "to fight the beer carrier" .... it means to fight the unwinnable battle. You are not gonna win a fight up against a beer carrier. That tells you all you need to know about Michiel's daddy. The apple didn't fall far from the tree. 😜

[@davidfaasse9697]

This is our biggest hero of al times. fore sure. He and his brothers in arms invented the signal flags from the commanding vessel and the rest hoist the same flag to confirm. after his dying the king ordered to make the biggest funeral and the most beautiful grave a man ever seen til today. No man ever became so much honer as Michiel Adriaanszoon de Ruyter from that day till now.

[@gerritvalkering1068]

Duinkerker Hijackers is a direct translation or 'kapers'. Privateers could be another translation, though they weren't actual privateers, who usually have a letter of marque The Netherlands actually played quite an active role in the history of Denmark. For one simple reason - the strait between Denmark and Sweden *had* to stay open so the trade with the Baltic could continue. This trade made up the bulk of the Dutch trade economy, and supplied the country with the hardwood required to build more ships. So any time either Sweden or Denmark got the upper hand, The Netherlands would support the other. communication between ships happened with flags. This is still taught at military naval academies, in case of electrical failure which would render radio and light communication impossible

[@teiwaz4028]

The stern transom or counter (in Dutch, spiegelversiering) from the ship Royal Charles is still on display? in our Rijksmuseum. Question mark due that I haven't been there for a couple of years. Funny anecdote from my side, when visiting the Rijksmuseum with my girlfriend I speak up a little in the hall dedicated to our sea faring heroes. "Look here, they got your grandfather's pipe and tobacco pouch on display". Yes I know, I will get the evil look from gf, but the look on the face of the tourists, priceless.

[@michaelnugteren7099]

He created the 1st marines of the world and came back 2 or 3 times out of retiremennt. He has got the most beautiful grave of the netherlands. And the royal charles of Londen was their flagship and is still in our hands.

[@nickdentoom1173]

Nope, the Royal Charles isn't in our hands anymore. It was sold for scraps lol.

[@Helix7rance]

@@nickdentoom1173 Sold for scrap, but the Sternpiece can still be viewed in the Rijksmuseum.

[@mporvichova]

Ships in the past (I don't know about the present) communicated with each other using flags.

[@maaiker2977]

Bear carrier was indeed a profession. Actually we have some old sayings with it in them, like "to fight against the bear carrier" is to fight the unwinnable fight. Tells you all you need to know about these men. Those dudes were strong as hell carrying those huge bear vassals. And De Ruyter called that dude daddy. Well like father like son I guess.

[@BangeloreT]

I think you mean beer. Nobody carried bears around in those days :)

[@maaiker2977]

@@BangeloreT Thank you, yep I meant beer.🍺 Autocorrect is a b!tch. 😂🤣😂🤣

[@monicacarolina6480]

To answer your question about communicating between ships: boys climb up and waved different colors flags. Each color had a code.

[@joostprins3381]

You had different provinces, they had their own fleets and armies, there was competition between them but in the end they were fighting together as an unstoppable force.

[@donvergonet399]

14:45 communication between ships did exist with using flag signals. They had their own code just like the British.

[@somedutchguy9184]

I love HXC for his love for NL ❤ I know he is a soldier. I was a soldier that never saw war with my FAL 7.62

[@g-o-n9508]

The NL army only supplied me with a Glock in Rwanda in 1994.

[@edwinvanschijndel4638]

There's an anekdote about the Raid on the Medway from British admiral William Batten. When the Dutch fleet arrived at several locations at the British coast he blurted out: "By God, I think the devil shits Dutchmen"

[@thehumanraise2715]

Nooit gehoord, zal hem niet meer vergeten!

[@AudieHolland]

No acdote but orders about conduct of the soldiers and naval personnel before going into battle: no plundering. The Dutch high command wanted to shame the English, who had plundered extensively in a previous English raid on the Dutch coast. This was also why Dutch Captain Van Brakel volunteered to lead the assault on the chain defense, because he wanted to regain lost honour after he was caught plundering. And of course we remember Van Brakel for his daring assault and destruction of the chain. Samuel Pepys noted in his diary that the local English population suffered much less from the Dutch attack than from their own soldiers who, when recovering lost ground after the Dutch had retreated, started plundering the houses and stores of the local people.

[@rafox66]

I know the comment is already more than a year old but I wanted to add this. In English they have the expression "to beat the Dutch" what it means is to exceed expectations, they didn't expect to win against the Dutch. Mind you, that is probably the only expression they use that puts the Dutch in a good light: Dutch cure: committing suicide Dutch widow: prostitute Dutch courage: courage provided by alcohol Dutch generosity: stinginess Dutch Nightingales: frogs Dutch agreement: an agreement made while intoxicated Dutch headache: hangover Dutch talent: more brawn than brain Double Dutch: gibberish (nowadays also using both a condom and contraceptive pill) and the list goes on lol.

[@JBKNL]

i love it how they just came out of oppression from Spain and went to help other countries against oppression.

[@nickdentoom1173]

Its kinda funny if you think about it that the Dutch were involved in 4 liberation/indepence wars. Their own Belgium USA Portugal

[@Meppeler1971]

the big advance of the dutch marine is that the dutch could make ship quickly because of the many windmill the Netherlands had... outside the Netherlands they make ship's wood by hand.... the Netherlands saw their ship's wood by sawmills... mass production

[@FacelessJanus]

Communication between ships existed. They used a system of flags. (flags were colour coded, and you could use half way or all the way to the top.)

[@brodacx2268]

dudes 2/3 life has been constant war, thats crazy

[@ergberg]

word has it that he was a child that was hard to handle. He did crazy things like climbing the church tower. I dunno if thats true, I wasn't there . But starting a career as a sailor at age 10? under those conditions? I feel like a whimp when I think of this man. By the way, if interrested check out van Ghent, who led a raid on the theems succesfully.

[@ergberg]

He served under de Ruijter as vice admiral. unfortunatly this wiki page is not in english nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_Joseph_van_Ghent

[@ergberg]

When de Ruiters fleet was granted free passage through French waters to take his body home, the French coastal batteries fired shots to salute this great admiral.

[@hansdevreught5459]

Ships of war not only fired cannonballs. The most deadly and destroying everythings in their path where chained cannonballs. The two cannonballs wrapped around and the chain basiccally cut everything in the middle. Also destructive were fire cannonballs.

[@leoschulpen6423]

They used Signalflags for the first time .

[@corneliusantonius3108]

De Ruyter expanded existing signaling with flags to a vast array of signals.

[@Utxtreme]

There is a movie called: michiel de ruyter its also called: the admiral. I suggest to watch it gives another vision of the time

[@denniszijlstra1430]

You have to see the movie The Admiral. Its about Michiel de Ruyter. From one veteran to an other

[@gh5259]

As a dutch guy i'm so happy to see other foreigners look at our national hero. There was alot of commotion and our government even wanted to remove his statue and streetname out of Vlissingen because ''he used to trade slaves as a merchant'' but so did every country in the world and he freed tons and tons of christian slaves. Plus we wouldn't even be the netherlands if it wasn't for him. Luckily the people from Vlissingen stood up and got very angry about it and now his statue remains :)

[@gh5259]

and btw it doesn't happen too often that your enemy retreats after hearing your captain got hit by a cannonball out of respect for him eventhought theyre fighting to the death

[@florianpollard3460]

They used a coded system of flags in Europe mostly, though what you said about signaling with mirrors is also not unheard of.

[@willemboon1136]

You know there is a movie about him about his live and the seabattle's he fought in. The movie is called Michiel De Ruijter

[@Ozymandias1]

Yes and the BluRay has English subtitles and there's also an English subtitled trailer. kzbin.info/www/bejne/r3ubZJSso7xng9k

[@model101t800]

Building a ship of the line took at least two to three years because the main beams had to settle, and battle orders where given with signal flags

[@daandekker9602]

there is a beautifull movie about his time, its called: michiel de ruyter

[@Meppeler1971]

signals between ship by flags (many combination of colours)

[@MetDaan2912]

There is a great movie about him called Michiel de Ruyter or Admiral in English.

[@weslooos]

signals where doing whit flags mirrors the downside is that the enemy can also see them. Captains and admirals had to drill and maintain the battle plan and plan B C D E etc in there mind to just remember it all. Battles in those days where also a lot slower, extremely fierce and bloody.

[@TehSmokeyMan]

2 years after you uploaded it, eh.... What'll be the odds that you read this?😋 Anywho, speaking of catastrophic losses in naval battled ( _not_ deterring a nation ); Oversimplified has a great two-parter about the Punic wars where a certain nation suffered certain lossses during some naval engagements only to say "there's still a war on, let's keep at them"😆 Also, the levels of impressive heroics and sheer toughness kind of remind me of Canadas most fightingest man; Leo Majors 😅

[@HighlyCombustibleReacts]

May the odds be forever in your favor. Of course I'll still read it.

[@jawk007]

There is a great dutch movie made about him, worth the watch

[@Amyante]

A beer carrier then would basically be a truck driver now, specialized in transporting beer.

[@Limburg92]

You need to see the dutch movie Michiel de Ruyter. Verry informative and then you'll see some of the tactics he used. Love your videos man👍🏻❤

[@Marina-eo4tc]

They had a flag code Yellow flag meant sailing in tandem ( you name it) , red flag was enclosing. Look up Michiel de Ruijter movie you,re going to enjoy

[@Alkvaarder]

When your naval crew calls you bestevaer (best father = beloved granddad) instead of admiral you know you are doing something good.

[@kyrtjegirl5324]

The netherlands made a movie about him in 2015 if someone is interested. It is in dutch but maybe you can find it with english subtitles.

[@fxitfastah]

There is an okay movie about this guy ^^

[@GOGOR46]

The black and with picture of the procession of Michel de Ruyter that is on the dam square in Amsterdam.....so if you're ever in amsterdam on that square feel the history.

[@bjornr1120]

A ship in those days took allot of (men power / workforce) minimum of 1300 people, for larger ships it took +1600 people to build just (1 ship).. 😥 The price to build one was quite expensive. We needed f94k guldens, that's in today's $52174,66 dollars... 😲 To build 1 ship, u needed 3/6 months (this was no armored ship).. For a armored ship u needed 6/9 months, but still without guns.. 😱 It took more then 800t wood to build 1 ship.. (1800 m3) that's 12 soccer fields of wood.. 😰 Now u can calculate how much u need to build 4/10 ship's, at the same time.. 😉

[@camiel221]

there is a movie called michiel de ruyter. It is about his peak admiral time. It is a typical dutch quality movie. Far from hollywood quality. But if you like this era and like to see a movie based on real events and real people, that made a small country into what it is today. You sure as hell should watch it. Also the admiral before De ruyter, Obdam van wassenaar was the baron of my tiny town xD

[@roelgoessens4741]

You really should see the movie that is made about michiel de ruyter. It was made in 2014-2015 i think. (One of the best movies that is made in the netherlands)

[@hartjeslips4061]

look for ¨tallships¨ here on you tube, to give you an idea about the size of the ships in the battles of Michiel de Ruyter

[@Raysboss302]

For me the best part. They towed the royal Charles to the Netherlands. Not sailed.

[@teunversteeg4030]

Dutch ship making was better and faster then enlish ship making cause dutch ship makers used sawing mills so we could make 4 or 5 ships in the time that english make 1

[@amorroma1244]

Dutch warships were also built in such a way that they had less draft. This allowed them to sail in shallow water where other ships ran aground. That was also one of the reasons why De Ruyter won the battle of Texel.

[@blodekont5458]

14:47 navy flags my kind sir... navy flags... That's why flagging is important :)

[@robjonkman4825]

maybe you have to whats the movie the admiral thats a duch movie about M the ruiter

[@Leonardo-ql1qu]

Incidentally, his name translates to Michael the Horseman!

[@peter20427]

They communicate with flags.

[@joostbrouwer472]

he was sent to the mediterrean with inferior ships,but still felt he had the duty to go

[@joostprins3381]

The first action of the marines.

[@ricokramer7716]

[@rebelsbeautycorner]

cannonballs.... even worse not instant death but slowly bleeding out during a war scene.

[@h1e2n3d4r5i6k7]

You should watch the movie they made about de Ruyter, awesome movie, maybe we could do it like a watch along?

[@erikvandenbergh4469]

You have to watch the movie Michiel de Ruijter or Admiral in English. You love it.

[@jolbraggaar1641]

Communitcation was done by signaling flags. Anyways I very much enjoy your reaction video's on The Netherlands and the faces you make every now and then, so greatings for The Netherlands and keep it up. ;)

[@lapland123]

He was the Napoleon of the seas

[@rowdyvandorp7194]

We used signal flags dude

[@degroot9914]

Don't forget that the pride of all civilized nations the marines was a invention of de ruyter

[@Wrecker3D]

Watch this movie if you want to know more kzbin.info/www/bejne/e5LJqXuuhLt7g6M (it's a Dutch movie, original title "Michiel de Ruyter" outside The Netherlands "Admiral") It does not have a Hollywood budget but it shows the struggles and life of Michiel de Ruyter and the wars he fought

[@ikkezelfdoemaar]

Watch the movie, michiel de ruyter. Is a movie of his live

[@EwanZNfeest]

bro i subbed for ur reaction to dutch history

[@oddlobster.]

He's the reason for my avatar! To bad WW2 screwed up the one and only TRUE Dutch flag