Dusty gilded lion clasping two crossed anchors sits on railings around the Baroque marble tomb in the Oude Kerk (Old Church) in Ouderkerksplein, Amsterdam, Netherlands, of Dutch naval hero, Vice-Admiral Abraham van der Hulst (1619-1666), killed by a musket ball in the Four Days’ Battle fought in the North Sea off the English coast during the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands: a gilded but dusty lion clasps crossed anchors on railings surrounding the elaborate Baroque wall monument by Artus de Wit commemorating Dutch Golden Age Vice-Admiral Abraham van der Hulst in the Oude Kerk (Old Church) in Ouderkerksplein. Van der Hulst, born in 1619, was appointed acting captain in 1650 and commanded the warship Groningen in the First Anglo-Dutch War. In 1653, he was promoted to full captain and fought in the Battle of the Gabbard, off the coast of Suffolk, England, and in the Battle of Scheveningen a few weeks later. Van der Hulst seized two merchant ships while blockading Portugal in the Dutch-Portuguese War, then served in the Mediterranean. In the Second Anglo-Dutch War, he was hailed as a hero for covering the retreat of the United Provinces fleet in the 1665 Battle of Lowestoft. He was promoted to Vice-Admiral and in the Four Days’ Battle in June 1666, fought in the southern North Sea, he was second in command to Admiral Cornelis Tromp. Van Hulst’s flagship, Spiegel, took a heavy pounding after the Dutch fleet became separated and he was mortally wounded by an English musket ball in the breast. His ship was abandoned but later salvaged. The marble memorial to Van der Hulst features his armoured effigy holding a gilded scimitar sword. It is among several monuments to the Dutch Republic’s naval heroes in the Oude Kerk, which dates mainly from the 14th century and is the oldest building in Amsterdam. It is now a museum of architecture and art.
Size: 3008px × 2000px
Location: Oude Kerk, Ouderkerksplein, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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