Kees the Devil

[Thagarr]

I just ran across this great article over at The Daily Press discussing Dutch Privateer raids off the coast of Virginia in the 17'th century, specifically focusing on Cornelis Evertsen also known as “Kees the Devil.” In the early days of America, tobacco was king; and during the Anglo-Dutch wars, the Dutch did everything they could to harass England's supply chains and recapture territory in the colonies. Kees was later made a Vice-Admiral of a fleet in service of the Dutch West India Company, which went on to recapture New Netherland, including New Amsterdam in 1674. His father and his uncle also had some interesting exploits of their own during the wars.

Led by the daring 31-year-old Cornelis Evertsen — known as "Kees the Devil" — and veteran commander Jacob Binckes, the expedition sailed into the bay on July 10, 1673 after carrying out a series of Caribbean raids financed by the Dutch West Indies Company.

"This is the biggest and most powerful fleet in the West Hemisphere," Shomette says, "and its target is the great tobacco fleet."

This time, however, Virginia's defenders didn't fall for the ruse when the Dutch approached Hampton Roads flying St. George's Cross and hailing passing vessels in English.

Instead, they sent 40 tobacco ships fleeing upriver, then tried to buy time by blocking the Dutch with two Royal Navy frigates and 11 armed merchantmen.

The squadron had just nosed out of the James when an unsuspecting flotilla of 8 Maryland tobacco ships emerged from the upper bay. So part of the English force broke away in an attempt to get between them and the Dutch raiders.

Drawing within a quarter mile of their foes, the English then turned back toward the James, sparking an uneven running battle across Hampton Roads as they dodged their pursuers. All six armed merchantmen ran aground as they fled, leaving the two Royal Navy ships to fend off the superior Dutch fleet.

Still, one English warship tacked across their path and engaged Evertsen and his 44-gun flagship for an hour, during which "all his greate maste and his fore topmast (were) desperately wounded, and most of his rigging shot." Then the outgunned vessel came about, choking off the Dutchman's wind to earn an unexpected escape into the Elizabeth River.

You can read the full article HERE!

 

[modernknight1]

This is a nice find Thagarr. The Evertsens were an absolutely ILLUSTRIOUS family of Dutch mariners. Generations of them served in the Dutch navy and were responsible for many great deeds.

In my latest story, Jan Evertsen is one of the characters that serves as a young Captain under Piet Heyn. Cornelis was one of his grand sons or great grandsons. There were several other Jan Evertsens serving as captains and admirals over the generations all through the 80 Years War, the Anglo-Dutch wars, the Franco-Dutch War and into the Wars of the Spanish Succession. I can't believe there is not a Wikipedia page about them. I have a lot about them in my various books. May I should build a wiki page myself.

MK

 

[Talisman]

This is the entry for "Kees the Devil" in David Marley's - Pirates & Privateers of the Americas

EVERTSEN DE JONGSTE, CORNELlS
ALIAS "KEES THE DEVIL" (1642-1706)

Dutch commodore who reconquered Sint Eustatius and New York during the Third Angle-Dutch War.
Cornelis Evertsen came from a proud naval tradition, being a direct descendant of one of the first Sea Beggars. Born at Middelburg on 16 November 1642, he saw his first major action as 23-year-old captain of the 32-gun Eendraght, which, with one other Dutch ship, fought a pitched battle against a trio of British men of war in February 1665, before the official declaration of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Evertsen's childhood nickname of "Kees" (short for Cornelis) became transformed into "Kees the Devil" for his ferocity, although he was captured and carried off to England. The diarist John Evelyn records how late in March he conducted the young captive before Charles II, who "gave him his hand to kiss, and restored him his liberty" The king's younger brother James, Duke of York, was impressed when Evertsen commented offhandedly about a bullet that had passed through his hat during the battle, "that he wished it had gone through his head, rather than be taken."

Restored to Zeeland, Evertsen served with distinction at the Battle of Lowestoft in 1665, the Four Days' Fight in 1666, and Michiel de Ruyter's Medway raid in 1667. He also fought in the opening engagement of the Third Anglo-Dutch War five years later, helping defend the Smyrna convoy against Sir Robert Holmes, as well as later that summer at the Battle of Sole Bay. Once the 1672 campaigning season had ended, the admiralty of Zeeland decided to send Evertsen with a small squadron to attempt to intercept the homeward-bound English East India Company convoy off St. Helena.


Name Guns Men Captain

Swaenenburgh (flag, ex-HMS St. Patrick) 44 186 Evert Evertsen Corneliszoon
Schaeckerloo 30 157 Passchier de Witte
Suriname (ex-English Richard and James} 25 158 Evert Evertsen Franszoon
Zeehond (Sea Lion, snow) 6 22 Daniel Thijssen
Sint Joris (ketch) 6 34 Cornelis Eewoutsen
Eendracht (victualler) 4 30 Maerten Andriessen



WEST INDIA CAMPAIGN (l673)
Evertsen quit Vlissingen (Flushing) on 5 December 1672 with the ships listed in the table above.
He proceeded to Madeira, the Canaries, and Cape Verde Islands, where in February 1673 he blundered into an English force. Realizing that this dimmed his hopes of surprising the East Indiamen, Evertsen now turned to his alternate plan, which called for venturing into the Caribbean and reinforcing the Dutch colonies while attacking Anglo-French interests.
He arrived off Suriname in March, landing troops and provisions, after which he chanced to meet an Amsterdam squadron under Jacob Binckes off Martinique, and together they rampaged through the Lesser Antilles. In June they paused at Sint Eustatius to remove it from English control, and in mid-July they raided the Virginia coast, being bravely resisted in Chesapeake Bay by the Royal Navy's hired vessels Barnaby and Augustine. No such defense was mounted when they reached New York at the end of that same month, and the city was quickly occupied. Having reinstalled Dutch government, Evertsen and Binckes then detached Captain Nikolaas Boes with four ships to raid Newfoundland, later rendezvousing with the main body at the Azores.
When the two Dutch commodores finally reached the neutral port of Cadiz in December 1673, they had captured a total of 34 English and French prizes and destroyed at least 150 more. However, Evertsens actions did not meet with approval at The Hague which was in the final stages of concluding a peace treaty with the English. New York was to be restored to English domination and nothing said about the damage he had wrought. Unlike Binckes, who was promoted to vice admiral of Amsterdam and sent back out to fight the French, Evertsen did not receive appointment as rear admiral of Zeeland until 1675, nor serve again in particular conflict.

LATER CAREER
Once peace with France was restored in 1679, Evertsen was promoted to vice admiral, then lieutenant admiral in 1684, and finally supreme admiral of Zeeland 1688. That autumn he served as second-in-command to the incompetent Lord Torrington in the fleet that carried William and Mary to England for the "Glorious Revolution," and the following summer he fought the French most gallantly at Beachy Head. Kees the Devil finally retired from sea command in 1690 and died at Middelburg 16 years later on his birthday.

 

[modernknight1]

Thanks Talisman,

Fantastic synopsis! What an Incredible career!!!! Can you believe that guys like this are forgotten for Horatio Hornblower? Imagine what his experiences must have been like - what he saw during his lifetime. The stuff of my fantasies. I may have to write a short story just about some event in his life. Definitely peaked my research obsession. That is a great source book BTW.

It seems like a big deal that New York was ceded at the Treaty of Breda, but the agreement secured the Dutch claim to Surinam (which they still maintain) and forced the English to cede the Spice islands of Ai and Run giving the Dutch a complete monopoly of the spice islands. This was much more important to them than keeping a somewhat backwater port (at that time) in North America that was surrounded on its boundaries by English colonies anyway.

MK

 

[Thagarr]

Thanks for the post Talisman, great info mate!

MK, it amazes me how people overlook the real stories, I love the Hornblower series and many other fictional movies and book stories, but the real stories are so much more fascinating than fiction could ever possibly be. Over the past several years, I have become convinced that the reason we don't see more of the true to life stories is because there is a growing segment that want to keep the truth hidden and push their own agendas. If you control the information, it's far easier to control the people.

 

[Bava]

Thanks for the post Talisman, great info mate!

Ditto!

but the real stories are so much more fascinating than fiction could ever possibly be.

I´d love to see a well-researched book or movie about the first black commissioned officer in the RN, John Perkins. Dozens of ship to ship actions, espionage, last second escape before execution...almost too good to be true!