Pels Rijcken

Who was Pels Rijcken?

Gerhard Christiaan Coenraad Pels Rijcken was an officer of the Dutch Navy and a politician. As an officer, Pels Rijcken reached the rank of Vice-Admiral. He was Dutch Navy Minister from 1866 to 1868.

From 1855 to 1857, he was the Principal of the Nagasaki Naval Training Center, where he became very active in teaching principles of a modern Navy to Bakufu official such as Katsu Kaishu. He arrived in Japan on the mission during which the Dutch remitted to the Japanese their first steam warship, the ZM SS Soembing, a gift from King William III of the Netherlands, which was renamed Kankō Maru and used for training. He was succeeded in this post by Willem Huyssen van Kattendijke from 1857.