Page:EB1911 - Volume 27.djvu/322

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
  
TROMSO—TROON
305

till the Dutch merchantmen had all passed beyond danger. The statement that he sailed up the Channel with a broom at his masthead in token of his ability to sweep the seas is probably mythical. In the following February (1653), while in charge of a large convoy of merchantmen, he maintained a running fight with the combined English fleets under Blake, Penn and Monk off Portland to the sands of Calais, and, though baffling to some extent the purposes of the English, had the worst of the encounter, losing nine ships of war and thirty or forty merchantmen. On the 3rd of June he fought an indecisive battle with the English fleet under Richard Dean in the Channel, but the arrival of reinforcements under Blake on the following day enabled the English to turn the scale against him and he retired to the Texel with the loss of seventeen ships. Greatly discouraged by the results of the battle, the Dutch sent commissioners to Cromwell to treat for peace, but the proposal was so coldly received that war was immediately renewed, Tromp again appearing in the Channel towards the end of July 1653. In the hotly contested conflict which followed with the English under Monk on the 29th Tromp was shot by a musket bullet through the heart. He was buried with great pomp at Delft, where there is a monument to his memory in the old church.

2. Cornelius Van Tromp (1620–1691), the second son of the preceding, was born at Rotterdam on the 9th of September 1629. At the age of nineteen he commanded a small squadron charged to pursue the Barbary pirates. In 1652 and 1653 he served in Van Galen's fleet in the Mediterranean, and after the action with the English fleet off Leghorn on the 13th of March 1653, in which Van Galen was killed, Tromp was promoted to be rear-admiral. On the 13th of July 1665 his squadron was, by a hard stroke of ill-fortune, defeated by the English under the duke of York. In the following year Tromp served under De Ruyter, and on account of De Ruyter's complaints of his negligence in the action of the 5th of August he was deprived of his command. He was, however, reinstated in 1673 by the stadtholder William, afterwards king of England, and in the actions of the 7th and of the 14th of June, against the allied fleets of England and France, manifested a skill and bravery which completely justified his reappointment. In 1675 he visited England, where he was received with honour by King Charles II. In the following year he was named lieutenant-admiral of the United Provinces. He died at Amsterdam, on the 29th of May 1691, shortly after he had been appointed to the command of a fleet against France. Like his father he was buried at Delft.

See H. de Jager, Het Geslacht Tromp (1883).


TROMSÖ, a seaport of Norway, capital of the amt (county) and stift (diocese) of the same name on the north-western coast. Pop. (1900), 6955. It stands on the eastern shore of a low fertile islet between Kvalö and the mainland, in 69° 38′ N., 18° 55′ E. (the latitude is that of Disco, Greenland). The vegetation of the island (mountain ash and birch) is remarkably luxuriant. The buildings, mostly of wood, include the town-hall and a museum, which contains a good zoological collection. Sealskins and other furs, and whale and seal oil, are exported, and the herring fishery is very productive. Imports are coal, textiles, salt, grain and flour. Mean temperature of year 36·4° F.; February 25°; July 51·8°. Tromsö was founded in 1794. A number of Lapps usually encamp in the neighbouring Tromsdal during summer. The coast scenery, with its islands and snowy mountains, is wild and beautiful.


TRONCHET, FRANÇOIS DENIS (1726–1806), French jurist, was born in Paris on the 23rd of March 1726. He was an avocat at the parlement of Paris, and gained a great reputation in a consultative capacity. In 1789 he was elected deputy to the states-general. In the Constituent Assembly he made himself especially conspicuous by his efforts to obtain the rejection of the jurisdiction of the jury in civil cases. In the king's trial, he was chosen by Louis as counsel for the defence, and performed this difficult and dangerous task with high ability and courage. During the Directory he was deputy at the Council of the Ancients, where he unsuccessfully opposed the resolution that judges be nominated by the executive directory. Under the Consulate he was president of the tribunal of cassation, and collaborated in preparing the final scheme for the civil code. He had a marked influence on the code, and succeeded in introducing common law principles in spite of the opposition of his colleagues, who were deeply imbued with Roman law. He died on the 10th of March 1806, being the first senator of the empire to be buried in the Pantheon.

See Francois de Neufchateau, Discours sur Tronchet (Paris, undated); Coqueret, Essai sur Tronchet (Caen, 1867).


TRONDHJEM, or Throndhjem (sometimes written in the German form Drontheim), a city and seaport of Norway, chief town of the slift (diocese) of Trondhjem and the amt (county) of South Trondhjem, 384 m. by rail N. of Christiania. Pop. (1900), 38,156. It lies on the south side of the broad Trondhjem Fjord on a low peninsula between the fjord and the River Nid, its situation, though picturesque, lacking the peculiar beauty of that of Christiania or Bergen. The latitude is 63° 26' N., that of southern Iceland. In front of the town is the islet of Munkholm, formerly a monastery and now a fortress; on the high ground to the east is the small stronghold of Christiansten. The houses are principally of wood, and the streets are wide, as a precaution against the spreading of fire. The principal building is the cathedral, standing finely on a slightly elevated open site, and dating in part from the close of the 11th century, but chiefly belonging to the 12th and 13th centuries (c. 1161–1248). Its extreme length is 325 ft. and its extreme breadth 124 ft.; but in the 14th, 15th and 17th centuries it suffered greatly from repeated fires, and after the last of these the nave was completely abandoned and soon became a heap of ruins. The whole building, however, had been extensively and judiciously restored, and is the finest church in Norway and the scene of the coronation of the Norwegian sovereigns. It is cruciform, with a central tower, and has an eastern octagon which may have been copied from the corona of Canterbury Cathedral, as Eystein, archbishop of Trondhjem (1160–1188) and an active builder, was in England during his episcopate. The cathedral contains rich work in Norman style, and also much that is comparable with the best Early English. In the museums at Trondhjem there are interesting zoological and antiquarian collections, also exhibits illustrative of the fisheries and other industries. The port, which has regular communication with all the Norwegian coast towns—Hull, Newcastle, Hamburg, &c.—carries on an extensive trade in timber, oil, fish, copper, &c. The industries include shipbuilding, saw-milling, wood-pulp and fish-curing works and machine shops. Imports (coal, grain, salt, machinery, &c.) come chiefly from Great Britain. A considerable portion of the exports pass into Sweden by the Meraker railway.

Trondhjem, originally Nidaros, was founded by Olaf Tryggvason, who built a royal residence and a church here in 996. It was made an archbishopric in 1152. The city attained its highest development about the latter half of the 13th century, by which time it had become an important pilgrimage centre and had as many as fifteen churches. It sustained frequent sieges, as well as devastating conflagrations. Its importance declined about the time of the Reformation when it ceased to be a resort of pilgrims.


TROON, a police burgh, seaport and watering-place of Ayrshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901), 4764. It is situated 6 m. N. by W. of Ayr, and 35 m. S.W. of Glasgow by the Glasgow & South-Western railway. It has the best natural harbour in the county, with over a mile of quay e, a breakwater 5000 ft. long, and two graving docks. Shipbuilding is the leading industry, and there is a rope and sail factory. The town contains a public hall and library and reading-room. The municipality controls the Waterworks and gasworks. Fullarton House, 1 m. south-east, is a seat of the duke of Portland; and at Auchans, about 3 m. west, Susannah, Countess of Eglinton, in 1773 entertained Dr Johnson. Adjoining this estate stands the ruined castle of the Dundonalds.