Jacob Binckes (1637 – 12 December 1677) was a

Dutch States Navy The Dutch States Navy (, ) was the navy of the Dutch Republic from 1588 to 1795. Coming into existence during the Eighty Years' War, the States Navy played a major role in expanding and protecting the Dutch colonial empire, in addition to partici ...

officer. Jacob himself used the name Benckes. He was a seafarer trading mostly on Norway in the transport of wood. In 1665 Jacob Binckes started his service with the

Admiralty of Amsterdam The Admiralty of Amsterdam was the largest of the five Dutch admiralties at the time of the Dutch Republic. The administration of the various admiralties was strongly influenced by provincial interests. The territory for which Amsterdam ...

. His first assignment as a captain was to escort a convoy to Norway. The next year, he helped to secure the River

Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...

in northern Germany, near Glückstadt, in the interest of Dutch merchant shipping. As a captain he participated in the

Raid on the Medway The Raid on the Medway, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War in June 1667, was a successful attack conducted by the Dutch navy on English warships laid up in the fleet anchorages off Chatham Dockyard and Gillingham in the county of Kent. At th ...

in the

Second Anglo-Dutch War The Second Anglo-Dutch War, began on 4 March 1665, and concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Breda (1667), Treaty of Breda on 31 July 1667. It was one in a series of Anglo-Dutch Wars, naval wars between Kingdom of England, England and the D ...

. With his frigate Essen (including 25 marines) Jacob Binckes is part of the taskforce on the Medway. In 1673 together with vice-admiral Cornelis Evertsen de Jongste ("Keesje the Devil") he burned part of the Virginia tobacco fleet in the Second Battle of the James River (1673) before they recapture the former

New Netherland New Netherland () was a colony of the Dutch Republic located on the East Coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod. Settlements were established in what became the states ...

capital

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam (, ) was a 17th-century Dutch Empire, Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''Factory (trading post), fac ...

, which had been renamed

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

after it had surrendered in 1664. In 1674, New York was returned to the English by the

States General of the Netherlands The States General of the Netherlands ( ) is the Parliamentary sovereignty, supreme Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of the Netherlands consisting of the Senate (Netherlands), Senate () and the House of Representatives (Netherlands), House of R ...

under the terms of the

Treaty of Westminster (1674) The Treaty of Westminster of 1674 was the peace treaty that ended the Third Anglo-Dutch War. Signed by the Dutch Republic and the Kingdom of England, the treaty provided for the return of the colony of New Netherland (now New York) to England a ...

. In 1675 Jacob Binckes is commodore of a fleet to support the Kingdom of Denmark and Norway in its

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

with the

Kingdom of Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic country by both area ...

. In 1677 as a commodore on his flagship the ''Beschermer'' he defeated the French fleet in the First Battle at Tobago of February 1677, but he was killed in action in the Second Battle of Tobago in the

Franco-Dutch War The Franco-Dutch War, 1672 to 1678, was primarily fought by Kingdom of France, France and the Dutch Republic, with both sides backed at different times by a variety of allies. Related conflicts include the 1672 to 1674 Third Anglo-Dutch War and ...

in December of the same year. During the second battle a mortar hit the powder storage inside ''Fort Sterreschans'' and killed Jacob Binckes and many others. The person Jacob Binckes and the second battle at Tobago served as basis for the character

Robinson Crusoe ''Robinson Crusoe'' ( ) is an English adventure novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. Written with a combination of Epistolary novel, epistolary, Confessional writing, confessional, and Didacticism, didactic forms, the ...

written by

Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; 1660 – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, merchant and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translati ...

References

1637 births 1677 deaths Dutch naval personnel of the Second Anglo-Dutch War Dutch naval personnel of the Third Anglo-Dutch War People from Nijefurd People from New Netherland {{Netherlands-mil-bio-stub