Pieter de Bitter was a 17th century Dutch

Dutch Republic

The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...

 officer of the Dutch East India Company

Dutch East India Company

The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...

. On 12 August 1665 (New Style) he won the Battle of Vågen

Battle of Vågen

The Battle of Vågen was a naval battle between a Dutch merchant and treasure fleet and an English flotilla of warships in August 1665 as part of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The battle took place in Vågen , the main port area of neutral Bergen, Norway...

 against an English flotilla commanded by Thomas Teddiman

Thomas Teddiman

Thomas Teddeman was an English admiral of the 17th century. His name was also written as Teddiman or Teddyman....

.

Of Pieter de Bitter's early life and career nothing is known. His name first emerges in 1653, when during the First Anglo-Dutch War

First Anglo-Dutch War

The First Anglo–Dutch War was the first of the four Anglo–Dutch Wars. It was fought entirely at sea between the navies of the Commonwealth of England and the United Provinces of the Netherlands. Caused by disputes over trade, the war began with English attacks on Dutch merchant shipping, but...

 he is mentioned as the captain of the Mercurius, a vessel of forty cannon of the Dutch East India Company, that has been allocated to the squadron of Commodore Michiel de Ruyter

Michiel de Ruyter

Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter is the most famous and one of the most skilled admirals in Dutch history. De Ruyter is most famous for his role in the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th century. He fought the English and French and scored several major victories against them, the best known probably...

, just prior to the Battle of Scheveningen

Battle of Scheveningen

The Battle of Scheveningen was the final naval battle of the First Anglo-Dutch War...

. In that fight De Bitter distinguished himself by disabling the Triumph of 62 cannon, the flagship of Vice-Admiral James Peacock who was killed. An hour later the Mercurius sank after having been penetrated below the waterline; De Bitter was saved with most of his crew.

In August 1655, during the Dutch-Portuguese War

Dutch-Portuguese War

The Dutch–Portuguese War was an armed conflict involving Dutch forces, in the form of the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company, against the Portuguese Empire. Beginning in 1602, the conflict primarily involved the Dutch companies invading Portuguese colonies in the Americas,...

, De Bitter was flagcaptain on the Ter Goes of Director-General Gerard Pietersz. Hulft

Gerard Pietersz. Hulft

Gerard Pietersz. Hulft , was a friendly and intelligent Dutch general. In 1655 he was sent with a fleet to Ceylon and died in action.-Life:...

, who commanded a fleet attacking the Portuguese colony of Ceylon from Batavia, the main stronghold of the Dutch East Indies

Dutch East Indies

The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....

. After Colombo

Colombo

Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...

 had been taken, De Bitter was in July 1656 sent on a galiot

Galiot

Galiots were types of ships from the Age of Sail.In the Mediterranean, galiots were a type of small galley, with one or two masts and about twenty oars, using both sails and oars for propulsion...

 back to Batavia to inform the Council of the Indies of the good news — and bring the sad tiding that Hulft had been killed in action.

In November 1656 De Bitter was made Vice-Commandeur

Commandeur

Commandeur is a title in French and Dutch , usually rendered in English as Commander, with different uses. The literal meaning is he who commands, parallel to Commandant. In most senses the German equivalent is Kommandeur....

, under Commandeur Adriaan Roothaas of a fleet sent to blockade the Portuguese ports on the coast of Malabar. In the spring of 1657 he returned to Batavia; in August that year he again served under Roothaas on a flotilla blockading Goa

Goa

Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...

. De Bitter's flagship Terschelling captured the Santa Cruz loaded with spices. De Bitter embezzled some of the cargo, for which he would later be lightly punished.

The flotilla having been joined by the main force of Colonel Rycklof van Goens in November, it was decided to split off a large part of the fleet to attack the remaining Portuguese possessions on Ceylon. De Bitter was also used for this expedition, now commanding a larger ship, the Salamander. This ship and the Naarden had the mission to mislead the Portuguese by first sailing to the north and only afterwards rejoin the main force leaving for Ceylon. This ruse failed however because adverse winds drove the vessels towards the Maledives. De Bitter only reached Colombo on 17 February 1658, too late to contribute to the capture of Manaar. However he participated in the fall of Jaffnapatnam on 21 June. Again he was used as a messenger to the Council.

On 19 July 1659 De Bitter, still serving under Roothaas, departed on a fleet of thirteen headed for Goa, on the yacht Tholen. Blockading the port De Bitter confiscated an English vessel, the Constantinople Merchant, on accusations of carrying contraband

Contraband

The word contraband, reported in English since 1529, from Medieval French contrebande "a smuggling," denotes any item which, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold....

.

In April 1661 De Bitter was appointed both Surveyor of the Ships and Master of Naval Ordnance in Batavia. On 22 July he was appointed Commandeur of a fleet sent to, again, blockade Goa. On 7 January 1663 he was present when Goens captured Cochin. De Bitter functioned as temporary governor of this city. On 12 May 1664 he returned to Batavia; on 21 June he was sent as an envoy to the court of the King of Siam, Narai the Great

Narai

Somdet Phra Narai or Somdet Phra Ramathibodi III was the king of Ayutthaya from 1656 to 1688 and arguably the most famous Ayutthayan king. His reign was the most prosperous during the Ayutthaya period and saw the great commercial and diplomatic activities with foreign nations including the...

, and managed to secure a renewal of the Dutch - Siamese treaty on 22 August, returning on 30 November to Batavia.

In December De Bitter was appointed commandeur of a Return Fleet. Twice each year the company sent back spices to the Dutch Republic

Dutch Republic

The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...

. As the Second Anglo-Dutch War

Second Anglo-Dutch War

The Second Anglo–Dutch War was part of a series of four Anglo–Dutch Wars fought between the English and the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries for control over the seas and trade routes....

 threatened, it was decided to let an experienced officer command the treasure-laden fleet, which had been made as valuable as possible to assist the fatherland. It was of the utmost importance that this shipment did not fall into enemy hands and De Bitter had received secret instructions to avoid this. En route he learned that war had broken out and that the Dutch home fleet had been defeated in the Battle of Lowestoft

Battle of Lowestoft

The naval Battle of Lowestoft took place on 13 June 1665 during the Second Anglo-Dutch War.A fleet of more than a hundred ships of the United Provinces commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam attacked an English fleet of equal size commanded by James Stuart, Duke of York forty...

. New instructions by the States-General of the Netherlands

States-General of the Netherlands

The States-General of the Netherlands is the bicameral legislature of the Netherlands, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The parliament meets in at the Binnenhof in The Hague. The archaic Dutch word "staten" originally related to the feudal classes in which medieval...

 ordered him to seek refuge in the neutral port of Bergen

Bergen

Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....

 in Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. There he was on 12 August 1665 attacked by an English flotilla, violating the neutrality of the port. De Bitter managed to inspire his crews to an effective defence and in this Battle of Vågen

Battle of Vågen

The Battle of Vågen was a naval battle between a Dutch merchant and treasure fleet and an English flotilla of warships in August 1665 as part of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The battle took place in Vågen , the main port area of neutral Bergen, Norway...

 beat off the attack with heavy losses for the English.

After being relieved by the Dutch home fleet commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral De Ruyter, De Bitter returned to the Republic and was rewarded by the States-General. He was also given two honorary golden chains by the directorate of the company and on 6 March 1666 appointed commandeur of the next fleet headed for the Indies. De Bitter was anxious to return as his wife and children lived in Batavia. Departing on 15 April, De Bitter died aboard his flagship the Hollandsche Tuyn on 15 June from scurvy

Scurvy

Scurvy is a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C, which is required for the synthesis of collagen in humans. The chemical name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus, which also provides the adjective scorbutic...

, off the west coast of Africa.

Literature

• Michael Breet, 2007, Strijd om de VOC-miljoenen — Slag in de haven van het Noorse Bergen, 12 augustus 1665, Walburg Pers, Zutphen