Early Life
Born in Brill, Tromp was the first son of Harpert Maertensz, a naval officer who became captain of the Olifantstromp, from the name of which ship probably the family name "Tromp" is derived, first appearing in documents in 1607. His mother washed sailor's shirts to supplement the family income. At the age of nine, Tromp went to sea with his father and was in 1607 present in a squadron covering the Dutch main fleet fighting the Battle of Gibraltar.
Three years later, his father having been discharged from service because of a navy reorganisation, they sailed together on their merchantman to Guinea, when they were attacked by seven ships of the English pirate Peter Easton. Tromp's father was slain by a cannonball. According to legend the 12-year-old boy rallied the crew of the ship with the cry "Won't you avenge my father's death?" But the pirates seized him and sold him on the slave market of Salé. Two years later however, Easton, moved by pity, ordered his redemption. Set free, he supported his mother and three sisters by working in a Rotterdam shipyard, went to sea again at 19, briefly worked for the navy, but having rejoined the merchant fleet was captured once more in 1621—this time by Barbary corsairs off Tunis. He was kept as a slave until the age of 24, and by then had so impressed the Bey of Tunis and corsair John Ward, with his skills in gunnery and navigation that the latter offered him a position in his fleet. When Tromp refused, the Bey was even more impressed by this show of character and allowed him to leave as a free man.
He joined the Dutch navy as a lieutenant in July 1622, entering service with the Admiralty of the Maze based in Rotterdam. On 7 May 1624 he married Dignom Cornelisdochter de Haes, the daughter of a merchant; the same year he became captain of the advice yacht St. Antonius. His first distinction was as Lieutenant-Admiral Piet Hein's flag captain on the Vliegende Groene Draeck during the fight with Ostend privateers in 1629 in which Hein was killed. That year and in 1630, when he was appointed full captain on initiative of stadtholder Frederick Henry himself, Tromp was very successful in fighting the Dunkirkers as a squadron commander, functioning as a commandeur and still using the Vliegende Groene Draeck. Despite receiving four honorary golden chains, he was not further promoted. The Vliegende Groene Draeck foundered and new heavy vessels were reserved for the flag officers, while Tromp was relegated to the old Prins Hendrik. Disappointed, after the death of his first wife in 1633, Tromp in 1634 left the naval service for a few years to become a deacon and remarried on 12 September 1634 with Alijth Jacobsdochter Arckenboudt, the daughter of a wealthy schepen and tax collector at Brill.
Read more about this topic: Maarten Tromp
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