Willem Krul

Schout-bij-nacht Willem Krul
Born	(1722-03-28)28 March 1722 The Hague, Dutch Republic
Died	4 February 1781(1781-02-04) (aged 58) Off Sombrero, Caribbean Sea
Military career
Allegiance	Dutch Republic
Branch	Dutch States Navy
Service years	–1781
Rank	Schout-bij-nacht
Conflicts	Fourth Anglo–Dutch War Action of 4 February 1781 †

Schout-bij-nacht Willem Krul (28 March 1722 – 4 February 1781) was a Dutch States Navy officer who served in the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. Born and raised in the Hague, Krul joined the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and made a voyage to Batavia between 1742 and 1744. He subsequently joined the Dutch navy and was made captain of a warship in 1752. In 1778, he was again employed by the VOC and was sent to the Dutch colony of Sint Eustatius. Following the outbreak of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War in December 1780, Krul escorted a convoy of 30 Dutch merchantmen from the West Indies to Holland. A British squadron followed the convoy and at the action of 4 February 1781 killed Krul and captured his ship. Though the entire convoy was captured as well, Krul's defence against the odds made him a national hero in the Dutch Republic.

Early life

Willem Krul was born on 28 March 1722 in the Hague, the son of Arie Krul and Elizabeth Maaskant. Raised in the Hague, Krul's father died shortly after his birth. On 8 February 1746 he married Catrina de Hoogh at the Hague, and together they had a son named Arie Hendrik Willem Krul.

Early naval service

Krul joined the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and in 1742 participated in a voyage to Batavia as a lieutenant on the East Indiaman Anna, returning to Holland in 1744. He subsequently joined the Dutch States Navy and was promoted to captain at sea, being appointed as the caption of Maze in 1752. After moving to Den Bosch in 1753, Krul bought a house in Vught for his mother and two of his then unmarried sisters, Alexandrina and Elizabeth. In 1759 he bought the manor of Landgoed Burgst located north of Breda.

Final assignment

Krul was again employed on 19 October 1778 by the VOC and stationed on the Dutch colony of Sint Eustatius which served as an entrepôt during the American Revolutionary War. In 1779, he was promoted to the rank of schout-bij-nacht. The Dutch, though their ports were protected by their neutral status, were at the center of the arms trade with the American Patriots and were supplying them via this isle with nearly half of their military supplies. This sort of trading with Britain's enemies is what instigated the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, in which Admiral of the White Sir George Rodney was subsequently sent to Sint Eustatius in 1781 to neutralize this trade. Shortly after he had captured Sint Eustatius, lying only 50 miles north of British Saint Kitts, Rodney learned that a convoy of 30 Dutch merchantmen richly laden with sugar and other commodities had just sailed for Holland under the escort of Mars, a 60-gun ship of the line commanded by Krul. Rodney immediately dispatched three ships, HMS Monarch, Panther and Sybil, under the command of Admiral Francis Reynolds, to give chase and capture the enormous 30 vessel prize, with orders to pursue them no further than the latitude of Bermuda.

Krul's convoy was soon located and overtaken near the small island of Sombrero, approximately 90 miles north of Saint Eustatius. After surrounding Krul's ship Reynolds called for the immediate and unconditional surrender of the convoy, which was pointedly declined by Krul who didn't know war on the Netherlands had been declared by Britain. During the ensuing engagement on 4 February 1781 Krul, with a single warship, resolved to uphold the honor of the Dutch flag and confront his pursuers with the hopes of giving the cargo ships a chance to escape. In so doing, however, he had grossly underestimated his opponent's overwhelming firepower. During the fierce thirty minute engagement Krul was mortally wounded. The scattered and defenseless convoy were immediately rounded up by Reynolds' faster war ships and escorted back to Saint Eustatius and taken as prizes of war. The body of Krul was safely preserved during the return voyage back to Saint Eustatius where he was buried with full military honors. The advent made him a national hero in the Netherlands, which soon inspired many works of art. The Rijksmuseum's collection contains at least 21 works of art relating to the naval battle and the death of Willem Krul.

See also

• Naval history of the Netherlands
• Johannes de Graaff, Governor of Sint Eustatius, in the Netherlands Antilles during the American Revolutionary War.
• Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
• Royal Netherlands Navy
• Bibliography of early American naval history

Bibliography

• Botta, Carlo (1834). History of the war of independence of the United States of America. Vol. II. New Haven : Nathan Whiting.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
• Clowes, William Laird; Markham, Clements Robert, Sir.; Mahan, Alfred Thayer; Wilson, Herbert Wrigley (1897–1903). The royal navy, a history from the earliest times to present. Vol. III. London : Samson Low, Marston, Co.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Hannay, David (1903). Rodney. London, New York, Macmillan and Co.
• Hiscocks, Richard (2018). "Francis Reynolds-Moreton 3rd Lord Ducie". morethannelson. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
• Jones, Howard (2002). Crucible of Power: A History of American Foreign Relations to 1913. Scholarly Resources Inc. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-8420-2916-2.
• Jong, Cornelius de (1807). Reize naar de Caribische Eilanden in de jaren 1780 en 1781. Haarlem.
• Mundy, Godfrey Basil (1830). The life and correspondence of the late Admiral Lord Rodney. London : J. Murray.
• OpenArchives
• Oostindie, Gert (2014). "Dutch Atlantic Decline during "The Age of Revolutions"". Dutch Atlantic Decline during The Age of Revolutions. Brill. pp. 309–336. doi:10.1163/9789004271319_014. ISBN 9789004271319. JSTOR 10.1163/j.ctt1w8h3c9.18. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
• Postma, Jan (2017). Alexander Gogel (1765–1821): Founder of the Dutch state. Uitgeverij Verloren. ISBN 978-9-0870-4633-0.
• Vlasity, Sarah Marie (2015). Networks in Favor of Liberty: St Eustatius as an Entrepôt of Goods and Information during the American Revolution (Thesis). William and Mary College. doi:10.21220/s2-7ds9-mj55. Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539626806.

Further reading

• Bruijn, Jaap R. (2017). The Dutch Navy of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-1-78694-890-8.
• Campbell, John; Yorke, Henry Redhead (1813). Naval history of Great Britain, including the history and lives of the British admirals. Vol. VI. London : J. Stockdale.
• Hart, Francis Russell (1922). Admirals of the Caribbean. Boston Houghton Mifflin.
• Howard, Bryan Paul (1991). Fortifications of St Eustatius: An Archaeological and Historical Study of Defense in the Caribbean Study of Defense in the Caribbean (PDF) (Masters of Arts). College of William & Mary.
• Jameson, J. Franklin (July 1903). "St. Eustatius in the American Revolution". The American Historical Review. 8 (4). Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical Association: 683–708. doi:10.2307/1834346. JSTOR 1834346.
• Kandle, Patricia Lynn (1985). St Eustatius: Acculturation in a Dutch Caribbean Colony (Master of Arts). College of William & Mary.
• McClellan, William Smith (1912). Smuggling in the American colonies at the outbreak of the Revolution, with special reference to the West Indies trade. New York : Printed for the Department of Political Science of Williams College by Moffat, Yard and Company.