Maarten Tromp

Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp or Maarten van Tromp was an army general and admiral in the Dutch navy during much of the Eighty Years' War and throughout the First Anglo-Dutch War. Son of a ship's captain, Tromp spent much of his childhood at sea, during which time he was captured by pirates and enslaved by Barbary corsairs. In adult life, he became a renowned ship captain and naval commander, successfully leading Dutch forces fighting for independence in the Eighty Years' War, and then against England in the First Anglo-Dutch War, proving an innovative tactician and enabling the newly independent Dutch nation to become a major sea power. He was killed in battle by a sharpshooter from an English ship. Several ships of the Royal Netherlands Navy have carried the name HNLMS Tromp after him and/or his son Cornelis, also a Dutch admiral of some renown.

23 April 1598

Born on the same birth day (23 April): Barbara McIlvaine Smith • E. B. Ford • Jorge Fons • Leon Andreasen • Peter Dench • Yelena Shushunova

Born in the same month (April 1598): Giovanni Battista Riccioli • Johann Crüger