Abraham Johannes de Smit van den Broecke
His parents were Abraham van den Broecke (1768-1840), mayor of Aardenburg and Adriana Jacoba de Jonge (1777-1835).
[3] In July 1839 De Smit van den Broecke served on the steam vessel Cerberus and temporarily commanded her near Hellevoetsluis.
In 1844 de Smit van den Broecke sailed to the Dutch East Indies in command of the Bromo.
[7] In June 1846 De Smit van den Broecke was in the Dutch intervention in northern Bali (1846).
[8] On account of the expedition against Bali De Smit van den Broecke became a knight 3rd class in the Military Order of William in December 1846.
In January 1848 De Smit van den Broecke sailed the Bromo towards home, and in May 1848 he arrived in Hellevoetsluis.
On 1 April 1849 de Smit van den Broecke became commander of the steam vessel Cycloop.
On board were Prince Henry of the Netherlands (1820–1879), his ADC Ridder van Rappard, VA Lucas and Lt-Colonel Rigot de Bignins.
On 16 April 1851 de Smit van den Broecke changed to the new steam vessel Gedeh.
After some uneventful cruises in the North Sea and along the coast, de Smit van den Broecke was promoted by seniority to captain on 1 January 1852.
[10] In January 1852 de Smit van den Broecke was to sail the Gedeh to the West Indies in order to collect the crew of the unfit brig Amphitrite.
However, before the Gedeh sailed again, De Smit van den Broecke resigned the command and became inactive on 1 February.
On 23 June she left Vlissingen, and on 8 July she was in A Coruña, from whence the Reales Astilleros de Esteiro were visited.
In September the Doggersbank was the flagship of a squadron under RA Bouricius together with the frigate Prins van Oranje, the corvette Sumatra and the Gedeh.
In late January 1853 de Smit van den Broecke took the Doggersbank on a cruise to the Mediterranean.
At the end of 1853 de Smit van den Broecke made a second trip to the Mediterranean on board the Doggersbank.
On 1 November 1853 de Smit van den Broecke finally sailed her out of Texel for the Mediterranean.
By 10 December 1854 De Smit van den Broecke was known to have been placed on the Guard ship Rijn in Nieuwediep.
[14] Already in November 1848 de Smit van den Broecke had got a lot of votes to become a candidate for the House of Representatives.
In early January 1855, only a few week after returning to the Netherlands with the Doggersbank, rumors that De Smit van den Broecke would become the next minister of the navy became public.
In times of peace the fleet would consist of 4 screw steam frigates with auxiliary power of 400 hp, 50 guns and 500 men, to be stationed in the Netherlands.
Nevertheless the plan was successful in securing funds and political consensus to start and continue regular construction of a respectable fleet of screw steam ships.
On 19 December 1855 de Smit van den Broecke was promoted to rear admiral effective 1 January 1856.
Despite doubts about the suitability of the grounds, De Smit van den Broecke's predecessors had spent much money in a failed attempt to repair it.
[24] De Smit van den Broecke then tendered his resignation to the king,[25] but was persuaded to remain in office for the moment.
On 14 September 1838 De Smit van den Broecke married Catharina Christina Abrahams.
