The broom legend is challenged on three grounds. The gesture would have been out of character for Tromp, and no contemporary account records it. More decisively, a broom fixed to a mast in the Netherlands could signal that a ship was for sale rather than that its commander had swept the enemy from the sea. The passage is a compact lesson in testing colourful naval traditions against sources and period practice.
Notable Point · 3:01:03-3:01:40
Why Tromp probably did not hoist a broom
The famous story that Tromp hoisted a broom to show he had swept the seas lacks contemporary evidence and conflicts with period symbolism.