Lodewijk van Heiden

Lodewijk Sigismund Vincent Gustaaf Reichsgraf[1] van Heiden (German: Ludwig Sigismund Vinzent Gustav Reichsgraf van Heyden; Russian: Логгин (Логин) Петрович Гейден, romanized: Loggin (Login) Petrovich Geyden; 6 September 1773 – 17 October 1850) was a Dutch naval officer and Orangist who went into exile from the Batavian Republic and served in the Russian Navy.

They had four children, including their sons Friedrich Moritz and Ludwig Heinrich Sigismund van Heiden, the future Governor-General of the Grand Duchy of Finland.

[2] Lodewijk van Heiden joined the Dutch Navy at the age of nine, and was promoted to Lieutenant-at-sea at sixteen.

In 1808, Van Heiden was promoted to Captain 1st class and was awarded command of the Russian flotilla in Viborg in the 1808-09 war against Sweden following Russia's alliance with Napoleon after the treaty at Tilsit in 1807.

[citation needed] In 1826, Van Heiden was given command of the Russian fleet in the Mediterranean (with Mikhail Lazarev as deputy).

It ended with the defeat of the Turko-Egyptian fleet and the destruction of the feared artillery at the fortress of Navarino.

Van Heiden narrowly escaped death when the quarterdeck where he was standing was shattered by a cannonball.

He was welcomed by the monarch, King William I, who lent him an armoured steamship to visit several important cities, as well as his home town, Zuidlaren.

Lodewijk van Heiden, c. 1820
Heyden monument in Pylos in commemoration of the Battle of Navarino
Greek stamp issued in 1927 on the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Navarino . Van Heiden's malleable name is here given as "Van der Heyden".
Heiden by Egor Bothmann