STATUS:
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Laid down: October 28, 1986
Launched: December 9, 1989
Commissioned: December 3, 1992
Decommissioned: February 3, 2006
Fate: sold to Chile / renamed CNS Almirante Riveros (FFG 18)
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Tjerk Hiddes
de Vries (Sexbierum, August 6, 1622 – Vlissingen (Flushing), August 6, 1666)
was a naval hero and Dutch admiral from the seventeenth century. The French,
who could not pronounce his name, called him Kiërkides. His name was also
given as Tsjerk, Tierck or Tjerck.
Tjerk was born in 1622 in the province of Fryslan (Friesland), in the village
of Sexbierum, in Frisia, as the son of a poor farmer called Hidde Siurds and
his wife Swab Tjeirckdochter. At the age of twelve, he went to sea. In 1648
he married Nannetje Atses; the couple settled in Harlingen, Frisia's main
port. In 1654 he had attained the rank of master.
During the Northern Wars Tjerk was appointed captain of a troop transport,
the Judith, that in 1658 was part of Lieutenant-Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer
Obdam's expeditionary fleet against Sweden to relief Copenhagen. In the
Battle of the Sound the sea soldiers of the Judith boarded and captured three
Swedish vessels. He was rewarded for this by being appointed extraordinary
captain with the Admiralty of Frisia, one of the five autonomous Dutch
admiralties.
During the Second Anglo-Dutch War Tjerk was appointed full captain on 27
March 1665. He commanded d' Elff Steden in the Battle of Lowestoft, managing
with great personal courage to free his ship from an entanglement with
several other burning Dutch vessels, set alight by an English fireship. This
fight was a severe defeat for the Dutch and those who by their bravery set a
contrast to the general incompetence shown during the battle, were hailed as
heroes by the populace. Tjerk in a written report severely criticised his
fallen supreme commander Van Obdam. The Frisian admiralty board, in need to
replace the also killed Lieutenant-Admiral of the Frisian fleet, Auke
Stellingwerf, and sensing the public mood, appointed Tjerk Lieutenant-Admiral
of Frisia on 29 June 1665. He thus jumped two ranks, not an uncommon
occurrence for the Dutch navy in that century.
Normally the Frisian fleet was rather small, but in view of the emergency the
province made a strong war effort, building 28 new vessels, Tjerk supervising
the formation of the strongest naval force Frisia would ever sent out.
In the Four Days Battle of 1666, Tjerk, now calling himself De Vries
("The Frisian"), was second in command in the squadron of the
Zealandic Lieutenant-Admiral Cornelis Evertsen the Elder. When the latter was
killed on the first day, Tjerk became the squadron commander, still using as
flagship his Groot Frisia. He specially fought well on the last, fourth, day,
strongly contributing to the Dutch victory. Six weeks later during the St
James's Day Battle he was killed, second in command of the van under
Lieutenant-Admiral Johan Evertsen, when this squadron failed to reform a
proper keel line after a calm and was mauled by the line of Admiral Rupert of
the Rhine. Tjerk had an arm and a leg shot off, yet still in vain tried to
rally his force. His crippled ship drifted away, only discovered by the Dutch
rear under Cornelis Tromp the next day. The wounded Frisian admiral was speedily
brought ashore in Flushing by a yacht but died from his wounds on his
birthday, 6 August 1666.
Tjerk Hiddes is buried in the Grote Kerk of Harlingen; his grave memorial has
been destroyed. Four days after his death his son Tjerk Hiddes the Younger was
born, who shortly after his birth was promised a future captain's commission
by the admiralty to honour the memory of his father. Tjerk junior would
indeed become a naval captain. Hiddes de Vries was succeeded as
Lieutenant-Admiral of Frisia on 16 March 1667 by Baron Hans Willem van Aylva.
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