De Reuter (de Ruyter) - greatest admiral of the 17th century?

Originally posted by Cywr Which Dutch admiral was said to have defeated pirates with butter? (By rubbing the gunwale with the stuff)

Vincent van Oleo?   Haaarrgghhh!

Originally posted by rider Could you tell us something about him?

Sorry.  its a joke.  Vincent van Gogh

                               Vincent van Oleo (oleo=margerine/butter)

Should have been van Goleo.  I know, its lame. 

 

Edited by pikeshot1600

Ola Ponce (mi gusta corrida tambien but Leon is not a nice place)
I don't know, I find this assertion (who rules the sea rules the world)
slightly too old to be true. People are saying so all over since Pericles and
I guess that if it was so true states would just try to be great seapowers
and that's it.
Also they don't. I think actually seapower is a cause and not a
consequence of a country's great strenght. indeed, it is a constant and
very costly effort to have an efficent navy. And even money is not
sufficent; for it you need manpower and various skills.
Then who ever controls the sea is only proving he can do so and thus
expend. And even this is not sufficent some times to conquer the shores.
For instance: from 700 to 900 muslims controlled the sea but never
managed to take Italy, Northern Spain or Sourthern France. In the same
way Italian city-states were almost unchallenged on sea from 1000 to
1500 (with some Spanish exceptions) but never managed to hold
Palestine or Anatolia or Greece very long. Finally, Dutch, English and
American seapower rised after their commercial/industrial power.
Hence, I think saying "who controls the world controls the sea" is at least
as true as the contrary. (but of course I may be wrong)
Hasta luego hombre. Lo siento se te molesto.

De Ruyter was great admiraral, because of his tactics, the way he fought.Don't forget that Dutch man-of-war was quite smaller than the British with less guns and the guns were lighter than the British!

If you want to see details about  British and Dutch sailing ships, their firepower size and etc take a look at this link:

http://sailingwarships.com/