He served in the St. James's Day Battle on board Willem van der Zaen's ship, the Gouda.

During the Third Anglo-Dutch War he fought in the Battle of Solebay as captain of the Deventer and was wounded in the chest by a splinter.

In 1675, he served on convoy escort duty in the Mediterranean and, in 1676, he fought in the fleet sent to help Denmark against the Swedes in the Scanian War.

On 19 October 1678, he was made vice-admiral and commanded a squadron in the fleet under Cornelis Evertsen de Jonge which was sent to help Spain, fighting the French admiral Châteaurenault.

Like his father, he was promoted within the Danish and Spanish nobility, rising to the title of junker and later baron - in the Netherlands, he was also known as ridder.