Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen

Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen
Born	(1735-05-01)1 May 1735 Doesburg, Dutch Republic
Died	24 May 1819(1819-05-24) (aged 84) Apeldoorn, Netherlands
Allegiance	Dutch Republic  Russian Empire
Service/branch	Royal Netherlands Navy  Imperial Russian Navy
Rank	Lieutenant-admiral
Battles/wars	Battle of Balaklava (1773) [ru] Combat of Sucukkale [ru] Battle of Dogger Bank (1781)

Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen, Count of Doggerbank (1 May 1735 – 24 May 1819), was a Dutch naval officer. Having had a good scientific education, Van Kinsbergen was a proponent of fleet modernization and wrote many books about naval organization, discipline and tactics.

In 1773, he twice defeated an

Van Kinsbergen, in his later life a very wealthy man, was also noted for his philanthropy, supporting poor relief, naval education, the arts and the sciences.

Life

Early career

Van Kinsbergen was born in

Van Kinsbergen had three younger brothers; two enlisted in the army of Prussia; the youngest, Jan Hermanus, worked for the Dutch East India Company (VOC), but in 1770 was cashiered as a captain, when his ship the Leimuiden got stuck on the rocks of the Cape Verde island Boa Vista and he brought himself and a chosen few off the wreck in safety via a sloop, leaving behind the rest of the crew. Jan Hermanus would be later appointed a naval captain through the influence of Jan Hendrik, embarrassing the latter by becoming involved in a few serious accidents. Jan Hendrik served on the Amazone in 1761; from 13 October 1763 he commanded the frigate Swieten.

Russian service

In the late 1760s, due to severe financial difficulties, few Dutch ships were active and Van Kinsbergen used his free time to write a large series of publications about naval modernisation. He is seen as a typical example of the new generation of Dutch naval officers of the era who no longer owed their position to either a merchant fleet career or a noble background but to a thorough scientific education.

In 1769, Van Kinsbergen despaired of ever being promoted and obtained leave to enter the service of the VOC and depart for the

In the summer of 1771, Jan Hendrik travelled via Berlin, where he visited Prince Henry, to Saint Petersburg where he on 29 September was appointed acting captain in the Imperial Russian Navy; on 2 October he was promoted to captain second class. He immediately left for the Black Sea; on arrival he was charged with commanding a troop of cossacks and fought, meanwhile learning Russian, on land during the winter campaign. In a fight he was shot through the knee and saved from under a heap of corpses by a cossack, whom he would later get an appointment at the Amsterdam naval wharf.

From 9 February 1772 at

After the war, Van Kinsbergen feared he would not be promoted and in November 1774 obtained a temporary discharge from Russian service. Although Catherine the Great would gladly have kept him on in the Russian navy, promoted him to captain first class and knight in the third degree (from 1776 even second degree) he asked to be accepted into Dutch service in May 1775, from August travelled via Saint Petersburg and Berlin to the Republic, obtained a final honourable discharge from Russian service in December, and early 1776 was back in the service of the Dutch.

Return to the Dutch Republic

In 1776 Van Kinsbergen was readmitted into the Admiralty of Amsterdam as a full captain, which raised quite a few eyebrows as the deal with stadtholder William had been kept a secret. In this period tensions between the

The Dutch populace was outraged by this event, refusing to further cooperate with measures directed at blockading America and war with Britain became inevitable, even though the Dutch were ill-prepared for it. In 1780 Van Kinbergen became a member of a commission that should strengthen the Dutch coastal defences. Meanwhile, he had published a great number of articles and booklets regarding naval reorganisation; in 1780 his Sailor's Compendium appeared, written with cooperation of the religious author Joannes Florentius Martinet and aimed at improving discipline. Officers should themselves be an exemplary role model and abstain from gambling, boozing, whoring and swearing — except in the latter case when giving orders, as in Van Kinsbergen's experience they tended to be followed much better if containing a few curses.

Late Republican navy

Early 1781, the British started a series of surprise attacks on Dutch ships and colonies and thereby the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. The inferior Dutch home fleet mostly avoided a direct confrontation but Van Kinsbergen, on 12 February having been appointed temporary rear-admiral, played an important role in the only major naval fight of the war, the Battle of Dogger Bank, as flotilla commander, second in command to Rear-Admiral Johan Zoutman. Van Kinsbergen on the Admiraal-Generaal escorted a merchant convoy when he by accident encountered a British squadron superior in firepower and managed to ensure the survival of the convoy. The Dutch were jubilant and Van Kinsbergen acquired the status of naval hero.

He was honoured by stadholder

In 1787 the relationship with the stadtholder became strained when the latter used a Prussian military intervention to repress the Patriots. Van Kinsbergen's house in Amsterdam was even searched by soldiers for evidence of secret dealings with William's enemies, though nothing more incriminating was found than some sabres and pistols. At that time Van Kinsbergen had already left the Republic however: he was on a honeymoon in Germany, being received in Vienna by Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor. Again, envoys of Catharina tried to make him re-enter Russian service, offering him the rank of vice-admiral and the command of the Black Sea fleet, but after some consideration he refused in March 1788, even though the stadtholder had consented to a change of service in February. On 8 April 1789 he also refused to become Danish commander-in-chief; on 16 December he was appointed Dutch vice-admiral.

In 1790 he commanded an auxiliary squadron, joining the English fleet for a possible conflict with Spain. In 1791 and 1792, revolutionary France attacked the Republic and Van Kinsbergen stayed on land, writing a number of publications. On 3 March 1793, he became admiral-commander-in-chief of the Hollandic and Zealandic fleet and commander of the naval-artillery corps, in the summer beating off a French invasion attempt to cross the

In disgrace with the Batavian Republic

On 17 January 1795 at Scheveningen he took leave from the departing stadtholder, who fled for England, never to return. In the absence of the admiral-general Van Kinbergen was now supreme commander; England apparently being the new enemy he took measures to prevent Dutch ships and ports falling into English hands. On 29 January and again on 9 February he bade the States-General to be relieved from his duty. However, these themselves were at this moment being replaced by a new revolutionary regime, instated by the French: The Batavian Republic. On 24 February he was arrested on orders of the Provisional Representatives of the province of Holland, revolutionaries who had appointed themselves as a provisional government.

Soon he was again released, only to be cashiered together with the entire naval officer corps on 27 February. Although some urged him to ask the new regime to be reinstated, Van Kinsbergen, confused and depressed, simply did not bother. On 26 April his wife died and in June he accepted a Danish offer to become vice-admiral and commander-in-chief. However, the revolutionary regime refused to give him permission to leave the country and in 1796 pressured Denmark to withdraw his appointment, though he nominally stayed in Danish service until 1806.

In 1796 Van Kinsbergen returned to the old house of his deceased parents in Elburg, dedicating his life to

Continued appreciation from the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Late 1813 cossacks liberated the territory of the Northern Netherlands; Van Kinsbergen used his knowledge of Russian to negotiate an armistice between the French forces occupying