Willem Johan Cornelis, Ridder Huijssen van Kattendijke (22 January 1816 – 6 February 1866) was a career officer of the Royal Dutch Navy and a politician. As an officer, he reached the rank of Commander. He was Dutch Naval Minister from 1861 to 1866, and interim Dutch Foreign Minister in 1864.

Biography

van Kattendijke was born in

Princenhage Princenhage is a neighbourhood in the southwest of the city Breda in the Dutch province of North Brabant North Brabant ( nl, Noord-Brabant ; Brabantian: ; ), also unofficially called Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It ...

, Netherlands, as the son of

Jan Willem Huyssen van Kattendijke Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article N ...

, foreign minister of the Netherlands from 1841 to 1843. He entered the Royal Dutch Navy, becoming a

midshipman A midshipman is an officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Canada (Naval Cadet), Australia, Bangladesh, Namibia, New Zealand, South Afr ...

in 1831, and attended the KIM (Royal Naval Institute) in

Medemblik Medemblik () is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland and the region of West-Frisia. It lies immediately south of the polder and former municipality of Wieringermeer. History Medemblik was a prosperous ...

from 1831 to 1839. He became a lieutenant 2nd class in 1839 and served on various vessels until 1842. From 1842 to 1846, he was

adjutant Adjutant is a military appointment given to an officer who assists the commanding officer with unit administration, mostly the management of human resources in an army unit. The term is used in French-speaking armed forces as a non-commission ...

to the Director-General of the Navy, and aide to the Minister of the Navy from 1846 to 1849, and as an aide to King William III of the Netherlands from 1846 to 1851. He was promoted to lieutenant-commander 1st class in January 1851. In 1859, van Kattendijke replaced Pels Rijcken as commandant of the Nagasaki Naval Training Center, teaching the principles of a modern naval science (navigation, cannonry, ship-handling) to samurai including

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. He arrived as captain of the '' Kanrin Maru'', a steam warship that had been purchased by the ruling Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He was promoted to commander on May 1, 1858. On the closure of Nagasaki Naval Training Center in 1859, he returned to the Netherlands. From 14 March 1861 until 6 February 1866 he was Navy Minister for the Netherlands, first in the cabinet of Jacob van Zuylen van Nijevelt and then in the second cabinet of Prime Minister Johan Rudolph Thorbecke. In the latter he also served as interim Foreign Minister from 2 January 1864 to 15 March 1864. He died in The Hague as Navy Minister at the age of 50.

Honors and decorations

NLD Order of the Dutch Lion - Commander BAR

Biography

Honors and decorations

References

Notes

Missions to Japan

See also