Life of Lieut.-Admiral de Ruyter

Dutch Admiral Michiel de Ruyter was possibly the single greatest seafaring military leader in European history, leading his nation's fleet into battle against England during three separate wars, as well as fighting the Barbary Corsairs, Sweden, and France during the period 1652 to 1677. De Ruyter first went to sea as a boatswain's mate boy at the age of eleven, and saw battle by the time he was fifteen. Captured by the Spanish before he was sixteen, he made his way home overland after a dar...