The Statue of Michiel de Ruyter stands on Boulevard de Ruyter in his birthplace of Vlissingen, in the Dutch province of Zeeland. The statue shows de Ruyter standing on a ship's deck with his back to the steering wheel, holding a pair of binoculars and the other hand at his side. On 11 February 1676 saved Michiel twenty-six Hungarian reformed ministers, who were on a Spanish galleon in the Mediterranean sea, from slavery.