He participated, as captain of 't Geloof, in Vice-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter's punitive action against the British in West-Africa and America in 1664 and 1665.

The Second Anglo-Dutch War had then already begun and Van der Zaan was made captain of the new Gouda later in 1665, but he had to give up command for several months because of a depression or "melancholy" as it was then called.

He died during an action against the corsairs of Algiers on 17 March 1669 off Cape Tres Forcas, hit in the chest by a one-pound cannonball when boarding the flagship of the Algerian admiral.

He was buried in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam, where a grave memorial in the form of an epitaph was erected, a work by Rombout Verhulst.

Later she would bestow a legacy of 10,000 guilders onto the school with the stipulation that each year the directors would gather with the students below the picture to tell them of Van der Zaan's heroic feats, all present enjoying a glass of wine.

This tradition was discontinued when in the 20th century the school's art collection was relocated to the Amsterdam naval museum, the Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum.