Theodorus Frederik van Capellen
Encyclopedia
Vice-admiral Jonkheer
Theodorus Frederik van Capellen, GCMWO, KCB
(Nijmegen, 6 September 1762 - Brussels
, 15 April 1824) was a Dutch naval officer. He was married to Petronella de Lange (1779–1835). Alexandrine Tinné
, female explorer and pioneering photographer, was his granddaughter.
. In the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
he distinguished himself in an engagement in 1781 between his ship Den Briel and HMS Crescent, in such a way that he earned early promotion to captain in 1783.
In 1792 and 1793 he commanded a flotilla of gun boats in the defense of the Hollands Diep
.
On May 31, 1793 he received command of the ship of the line
Delft
(a 56-gun fourth rate
). As such he freed 75 Dutch slaves in Algiers during the expedition of rear-admiral Pieter Melvill van Carnbee
.
After the proclamation of the Batavian Republic
in 1795 Van Capellen as an adherent of Stadtholder
William V, Prince of Orange
resigned his commission. However, after the stadtholder had given permission to former naval officers of the navy of the old Republic to enlist in the navy of the new Republic, he obtained a commission in the Batavian navy. In 1798 he received the command of the new first-rate
Washington (74).
As such, he and colleague, Aegidius Van Braam
, captain of Leyden, were approached by an Orangist
agent in the run-up to the Anglo-Russian Expedition to North Holland of 1799 with a request to bring about the defection of the Batavian squadron at the Texel
under rear-admiral Samuel Story
, whose flag captain
Van Capellen then was. Though it is not known with certainty whether Van Braam and Van Capellen really made preparations to foment a mutiny, they did play a leading role in what has become known as the Vlieter Incident
. In any case, Van Capellen was sent to British vice-admiral Mitchell as a parlimentaire
on the fateful 30 August 1799, by admiral Story to request a temporary cease-fire. He also played a leading role in the subsequent council of war
aboard the Dutch flagship, during which admiral Story was persuaded to surrender his squadron without a fight to the British. Afterward, Van Capellen became a prisoner of war
with the other officers and crews of the Batavian squadron until the Peace of Amiens
of 1802.
Meanwhile, the government of the Batavian Republic had convened a court-martial
to try the officers deemed responsible for the Vlieter debacle. Van Capellen was tried in absentia and convicted on January 16, 1804 (together with admiral Story and two other officers) of dereliction of duty, cowardice, and disloyalty (though not of treason). He was cashiered from the navy and sentenced to banishment for life, on pain of death by firing squad. He therefore spent the years 1799 till the re-emergence of the Dutch state, after its annexation to the French Empire
in 1813, in exile in England.
In 1814 he was appointed a vice-admiral in the new Royal Netherlands Navy
by the "Sovereign Prince" of the United Netherlands, William I of the Netherlands
(who also had played a leading role in the Vlieter Incident in 1799), and on August 21, 1815 was created a Jonkheer
by the then new King of the Netherlands
. The new navy sent a squadron to the Barbary Coast
in 1816 to suppress the activities of the Barbary pirates. This squadron by itself was not powerful enough to make an impression on the Dey of Algiers
. However, when a squadron of the Royal Navy
under admiral Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth
arrived with the same mission, the two squadrons joined forces in the Bombardment of Algiers of August 27, 1816.
Van Capellen received the Knight Grand Cross of the Military Order of William
on September 20, 1816. He was made an honorary knight-commander of the Order of the Bath
by the British government.
Van Capellen retired from the navy in 1818. He then became the Lord Chamberlain of William II of the Netherlands
, who then still was the Crown Prince
.
Jonkheer
Jonkheer is a Dutch honorific of nobility.-Honorific of nobility:"Jonkheer" or "Jonkvrouw" is literally translated as "young lord" or "young lady". In medieval times such a person was a young and unmarried son or daughter of a high ranking knight or nobleman...
Theodorus Frederik van Capellen, GCMWO, KCB
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
(Nijmegen, 6 September 1762 - Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, 15 April 1824) was a Dutch naval officer. He was married to Petronella de Lange (1779–1835). Alexandrine Tinné
Alexandrine Tinné
Alexandrine Petronella Francina Tinne was a Dutch explorer in Africa and the first European woman to attempt to cross the Sahara...
, female explorer and pioneering photographer, was his granddaughter.
Career
Van Capellen entered service in 1781 in the navy of the Dutch RepublicDutch 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...
. In the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
The Fourth Anglo–Dutch War was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, tangentially related to the American Revolutionary War, broke out over British and Dutch disagreements on the legality and conduct of Dutch trade with Britain's enemies in that...
he distinguished himself in an engagement in 1781 between his ship Den Briel and HMS Crescent, in such a way that he earned early promotion to captain in 1783.
In 1792 and 1793 he commanded a flotilla of gun boats in the defense of the Hollands Diep
Hollands Diep
Hollands Diep is a wide river in the Netherlands and an estuary of the Rhine and Meuse river. Through the Scheldt-Rhine Canal it connects to the Scheldt river and Antwerp....
.
On May 31, 1793 he received command of the ship of the line
Ship of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...
Delft
Dutch ship Delft
The Delft was a Dutch 56-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the navy of the Dutch Republic and the Batavian Republic.The order to construct the ship was given on 27 May 1782 by the Admiralty of the Meuse...
(a 56-gun fourth rate
Fourth-rate
In the British Royal Navy, a fourth rate was, during the first half of the 18th century, a ship of the line mounting from 46 up to 60 guns. While the number of guns stayed subsequently in the same range up until 1817, after 1756 the ships of 50 guns and below were considered too weak to stand in...
). As such he freed 75 Dutch slaves in Algiers during the expedition of rear-admiral Pieter Melvill van Carnbee
Pieter Melvill van Carnbee (1743-1810)
Pieter baron Melvill van Carnbee was a Dutch naval officer from a military family of Scottish descent, who rose to the rank of vice admiral. His name was sometimes spelled Melville van Carnbée. His grandson Pieter Melvill van Carnbee was a notable geographer.-Life:He is most noted for his...
.
After the proclamation of the Batavian Republic
Batavian Republic
The Batavian Republic was the successor of the Republic of the United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on January 19, 1795, and ended on June 5, 1806, with the accession of Louis Bonaparte to the throne of the Kingdom of Holland....
in 1795 Van Capellen as an adherent of Stadtholder
Stadtholder
A Stadtholder A Stadtholder A Stadtholder (Dutch: stadhouder [], "steward" or "lieutenant", literally place holder, holding someones place, possibly a calque of German Statthalter, French lieutenant, or Middle Latin locum tenens...
William V, Prince of Orange
William V, Prince of Orange
William V , Prince of Orange-Nassau was the last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, and between 1795 and 1806 he led the Government of the Dutch Republic in Exile in London. He was succeeded by his son William I...
resigned his commission. However, after the stadtholder had given permission to former naval officers of the navy of the old Republic to enlist in the navy of the new Republic, he obtained a commission in the Batavian navy. In 1798 he received the command of the new first-rate
First-rate
First rate was the designation used by the Royal Navy for its largest ships of the line. While the size and establishment of guns and men changed over the 250 years that the rating system held sway, from the early years of the eighteenth century the first rates comprised those ships mounting 100...
Washington (74).
As such, he and colleague, Aegidius Van Braam
Aegidius van Braam
Aegidius van Braam was a Dutch naval officer who attained the rank of vice-admiral. After the Dutch Republic was overrun by French Revolutionary troops in 1795, he remained loyal to the House of Orange-Nassau and fled to England...
, captain of Leyden, were approached by an Orangist
Orangism (Netherlands)
Orangism is a monarchist political support for the House of Orange-Nassau as monarchy of the Netherlands. It played a significant role in the political history of the Netherlands since the Dutch revolt...
agent in the run-up to the Anglo-Russian Expedition to North Holland of 1799 with a request to bring about the defection of the Batavian squadron at the Texel
Texel
Texel is a municipality and an island in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the biggest and most populated of the Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea, and also the westernmost of this archipelago, which extends to Denmark...
under rear-admiral Samuel Story
Samuel Story
Samuel Story was a vice-admiral of the navy of the Batavian Republic. He commanded the squadron that surrendered without a fight to the Royal Navy at the Vlieter Incident in 1799.-Early life:...
, whose flag captain
Flag captain
In the Royal Navy, a flag captain was the captain of an admiral's flagship. During the 18th and 19th centuries, this ship might also have a "captain of the fleet", who would be ranked between the admiral and the "flag captain" as the ship's "First Captain", with the "flag captain" as the ship's...
Van Capellen then was. Though it is not known with certainty whether Van Braam and Van Capellen really made preparations to foment a mutiny, they did play a leading role in what has become known as the Vlieter Incident
Vlieter Incident
The Vlieter incident was the surrender without a fight of a squadron of the navy of the Batavian Republic, commanded by Rear-Admiral Samuel Story, during the Anglo-Russian Invasion of Holland to the British navy on a sandbank near the Channel known as De Vlieter, near Wieringen, on August 30,...
. In any case, Van Capellen was sent to British vice-admiral Mitchell as a parlimentaire
Parlimentaire
A Parlimentaire is defined by the U.S. Department of Defense as an agent employed by a commander of belligerent forces in the field to go in person within the enemy lines for the purpose of communicating or negotiating openly and directly with the enemy commander.-History:Even in war the...
on the fateful 30 August 1799, by admiral Story to request a temporary cease-fire. He also played a leading role in the subsequent council of war
Council of war
A council of war is a term in military science that describes a meeting held to decide on a course of action, usually in the midst of a battle. Under normal circumstances, decisions are made by a commanding officer, optionally communicated and coordinated by staff officers, and then implemented by...
aboard the Dutch flagship, during which admiral Story was persuaded to surrender his squadron without a fight to the British. Afterward, Van Capellen became a prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
with the other officers and crews of the Batavian squadron until the Peace of Amiens
Treaty of Amiens
The Treaty of Amiens temporarily ended hostilities between the French Republic and the United Kingdom during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was signed in the city of Amiens on 25 March 1802 , by Joseph Bonaparte and the Marquess Cornwallis as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace"...
of 1802.
Meanwhile, the government of the Batavian Republic had convened a court-martial
Court-martial
A court-martial is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment.Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in which a breach of...
to try the officers deemed responsible for the Vlieter debacle. Van Capellen was tried in absentia and convicted on January 16, 1804 (together with admiral Story and two other officers) of dereliction of duty, cowardice, and disloyalty (though not of treason). He was cashiered from the navy and sentenced to banishment for life, on pain of death by firing squad. He therefore spent the years 1799 till the re-emergence of the Dutch state, after its annexation to the French Empire
First French Empire
The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...
in 1813, in exile in England.
In 1814 he was appointed a vice-admiral in the new Royal Netherlands Navy
Royal Netherlands Navy
The Koninklijke Marine is the navy of the Netherlands. In the mid-17th century the Dutch Navy was the most powerful navy in the world and it played an active role in the wars of the Dutch Republic and later those of the Batavian Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
by the "Sovereign Prince" of the United Netherlands, William I of the Netherlands
William I of the Netherlands
William I Frederick, born Willem Frederik Prins van Oranje-Nassau , was a Prince of Orange and the first King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg....
(who also had played a leading role in the Vlieter Incident in 1799), and on August 21, 1815 was created a Jonkheer
Jonkheer
Jonkheer is a Dutch honorific of nobility.-Honorific of nobility:"Jonkheer" or "Jonkvrouw" is literally translated as "young lord" or "young lady". In medieval times such a person was a young and unmarried son or daughter of a high ranking knight or nobleman...
by the then new King of the Netherlands
United Kingdom of the Netherlands
United Kingdom of the Netherlands is the unofficial name used to refer to Kingdom of the Netherlands during the period after it was first created from part of the First French Empire and before the new kingdom of Belgium split out in 1830...
. The new navy sent a squadron to the Barbary Coast
Barbary Coast
The Barbary Coast, or Barbary, was the term used by Europeans from the 16th until the 19th century to refer to much of the collective land of the Berber people. Today, the terms Maghreb and "Tamazgha" correspond roughly to "Barbary"...
in 1816 to suppress the activities of the Barbary pirates. This squadron by itself was not powerful enough to make an impression on the Dey of Algiers
Dey
Dey was the title given to the rulers of the Regency of Algiers and Tripoli under the Ottoman Empire from 1671 onwards...
. However, when a squadron of the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
under admiral Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth
Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth
Admiral Sir Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, GCB was a British naval officer. He fought during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary, and the Napoleonic Wars...
arrived with the same mission, the two squadrons joined forces in the Bombardment of Algiers of August 27, 1816.
Van Capellen received the Knight Grand Cross of the Military Order of William
Order of William
The Military William Order, or often named Military Order of William , is the oldest and highest honour of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Order's motto is Voor Moed, Beleid en Trouw...
on September 20, 1816. He was made an honorary knight-commander of the Order of the Bath
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
by the British government.
Van Capellen retired from the navy in 1818. He then became the Lord Chamberlain of William II of the Netherlands
William II of the Netherlands
William II was King of the Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and Duke of Limburg from 7 October 1840 until his death in 1849.- Early life and education :...
, who then still was the Crown Prince
Crown Prince
A crown prince or crown princess is the heir or heiress apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The wife of a crown prince is also titled crown princess....
.