WHO was the greatest Admiral again???

[modernknight1]

Deleted due to Post Captain's continuing unchecked dominance of the PA! website

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Fascinating! A real Dutch hero indeed!




Edit: Typo's don't help with legibility.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Another good article!

 

[havoc1983]

7th Greatest Dutchman in history, according to a TV program. (rip-off from Great Britons). Of course that's all rubbish, considering a football player is higher on the list. He's my #1!
Funny fact: I read a wiki article about him yesterday, same day as this was posted.

 

[Thomas the Terror]

The one thing I think isn't right in your article is that you link his name De Ruyter to "Raider", since De Ruyter translates to "The Rider". I just checked the Dutch Wikipedia on this. When he served in the Dutch army, he was taken care of by his uncle, who was a 'rider' (horseman/dragoon, idk.) enlisted by Prince Maurits. As some sort of tradition, Michiel took the name 'de Ruyter' to honour his uncle, the rider.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Indeed I'd never have though of "De Ruyter" as meaning "The Raider". "Ruyter" seems like the old Dutch spelling for "ruiter" which indeed means "rider".

 

[modernknight1]

Thanks for the clarification gents. I stand corrected. I should have seen that the English source was erroneous. I already knew that ruiters were a form of 17th century Dutch and German mounted caliver/wheellock cavalry. In fact I love using ruiters in Medieval Total War II.

I was in a hurry to get the article out because of the anniversary of his death and cobbled most of it together from online sources. I verified in a book called "The Great Admirals: Command at Sea, 1587-1945, Edited by Jack Sweetman and published by the Naval Institute Press, that..."He used the name "Ruyter" for the first time in 1633, later adding the "de." This was a sobriquet taken from his maternal grandfather, who had served as a ruiter (cavalryman) in the army." p83

In doing a little more research I learned that he was actually captured in the Bay of Biscay while fighting the Spaniards and Dunkirkers early in his career, but escaped with two others and had quite an adventure making their way overland through France back to Holland - a very hornblower-like adventure that actually happened for real!

I have the best Dutch source on him available with much of the original correspondence and orders. It was printed in the late 1600s and I have a complete photo copy. However it is all in Dutch 'T LEEVEN EN DADEN VAN MICHIEL ADRIANSZ DE RUYTER ----(EDIT) with many incredibly awesome detailed and accurate period woodcut/lithograph illustrations!

I would have used it if I could read Dutch. I had someone lined up to translate it for me and then she got other work. If I could get it translated maybe I could get one of the university presses to publish it in English with forward and commentary by yours truly.

Its always such a frustrating tragedy to me how many good sources are available on French and Dutch heroes in their own languages, but have never been translated into English. One of the reasons people in the west only know about Nelson I think. Most people wouldn't read it anyway unless there was something about Justin Bieber, a popular NFL player or pro wrestlers in there somewhere....

As I read Pieter comment lately regarding HoO promotion. "people don't like to read." Very sad. Idiocracy here we come.

MK

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Thanks for the clarification gents. I stand corrected. I should have seen that the English source was erroneous. I already knew that ruiters were a form of 17th century Dutch and German mounted caliver/wheellock cavalry. In fact I love using ruiters in Medieval Total War II.

In Dutch, a "ruiter" is simply anyone who rides a horse. It doesn't tie down to any type of historical cavalry or anything.

As I read Pieter comment lately regarding HoO promotion. "people don't like to read." Very sad. Idiocracy here we come.

I may be being a bit on the harsh side. I sincerely hope I'm at least somewhat wrong in my occasional statements on the subject.
Truth is that not EVERYBODY is like that.

But there are quite a few people who are. The best example being the PotC Build Mod installation process.
I used the "license agreement" part of the installer to include pointers on the things that most frequently go wrong in installing, together with notes on how to avoid it.
This is what I made it look like:

Spoiler

 _  _    ______ _____  ___ ______    _____ _  _    _  _
| | | |  | ___ \  ___|/ _ \|  _  \  |  _  | \ | |  | | | |
| | | |  | |_/ / |__ / /_\ \ | | |  | | | |  \| |  | | | |
| | | |  |    /|  __||  _  | | | |  | | | | . ` |  | | | |
|_| |_|  | |\ \| |___| | | | |/ /    \ \_/ / |\  |  |_| |_|
(_) (_)  \_| \_\____/\_| |_/___/      \___/\_| \_/  (_) (_)
 
Trust us; it really, genuinely IS important!
 
=====================================================
CRUCIAL INSTALLATION TIPS:
=====================================================
 
1. You MUST install this on top of the unmodified stock game
  Pirates of the Caribbean, released in 2003 by Akella.
  The mod is NOT a standalone game!
 
2. You MUST install Build 14 Beta 2.1 Full first!!!
 
3. Allow the installer to run RunMe.bat upon completion
 
- DON'T install the game to Program Files,
  otherwise Windows prevents it from installing correctly
  Install to, for example, C:\Games\Pirates of the Caribbean
 
- Check out the controls in
  Documentation\Default Key Assignments.txt
 
- Set the game's settings to your liking in the
  Options>Advanced Options menu
 
- !!!SAVE OFTEN!!!
 
 
=====================================================
KNOWN GAME ISSUES AND SOLUTIONS:
=====================================================
 
- Windows 7:
  If necessary, use "Compatability Administrator (32-bit)"
  http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=7352
 
- Using ffdshow:
  Add the game to your "exception list"
 
- Disable "Safe mode" for Sounds in Config.exe
  to avoid crashes and graphic freezes
 
 
=====================================================
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
=====================================================
 
- Modpack Feature Overview in:
  Ingame "About Build" Menu
 
- PDF Manuals in:
  Documentation folder
 
- Changelog in:
  Build Info.txt
 
 
=====================================================
GAME AND MODPACK SUPPORT:
=====================================================
 
- Storyline walkthroughs:
  http://www.piratesahoy.net/wiki/new-horizon-quests/
 
- Frequently Asked Questions:
  http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/frequently-asked-questions.14915/
 
- Full support available at the PiratesAhoy! Community:
  http://www.piratesahoy.net/wiki/new-horizon-quests/

People have to manually select the "agree" box before being able to continue.
And STILL the SAME things keep going wrong over and over again. I really don't know what else to do to get the message across to people.
We're basically spoon-feeding it and it's still not registering for some. So that has left me ever so slightly disillusioned.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

"Reality........What a concept!" --- Robin Williams

 

[modernknight1]

In Dutch, a "ruiter" is simply anyone who rides a horse. It doesn't tie down to any type of historical cavalry or anything.

Well I did some research on the word ruiter and came up with some interesting results.

It comes from old Anglo-Saxon English and Proto-Germanic. The root word is actually "RAD" which I think is really..... rad.

So the words ride, road and raid and subsequently rider and raider, all have their origins in the word rad.

So I can see why someone might make the mistake of translating the old Dutch word ruiter, because the word raider is descended from the original old German/Dutch word for rider.

Also in 17th century Dutch and German ruiter had a double meaning. People understood it to be the historic heavy armored and firearms equipped cavalry I described.

Think of the modern English word "tank" - a container for something containing fuel or water or whatever.....but it is also known to be an armored vehicle with tracks and a big gun. The origin of the word meaning an armored tank comes from the same word defining the container just as the origin of the word ruiter as heavily armed raiding cavalry comes from a guy that rides a horse....a rider.

I just love etymology!

MK

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Just to make things simple, eh?