On 29 January 1574, just off the coast of Bergen op Zoom, a sea battle took place between a Spanish fleet (two squadrons consisting of over 100 ships, led by admiral De Glimes and Romero) and rebel ships under the command of Lodewijk van Boisot and Joost de Moor. The Spanish fleet was destroyed. Twelve hundred Spaniards, including De Glimes, perished in the flames of the burning vessels or fell in the struggles that raged on their decks. As a result Middelburg, the main town of the province of Zealand, capitulated to 'de Zeegeuzen' or 'Sea Beggars', a French nickname for the rebels. The battle was an early victory for the Dutch in the so-called Eighty Years' War (1568 - 1648), which would lead to the independant state of The Netherlands.
Artist Hugo Vrijdag used references to this naval battle in his work 'Windvanen' ('Vanes'). One can also symbolically see a squadron in the stainless steel sculpture. It was established in 1999, on a spot where the new district Bergse Plaat embraces the Binnenschelde, a compartmentalized area of the Oosterscheldt estuary.
www.alberthagenaars.nl
