During the course of the Dutch van's disengagement from fighting, de Ruyter was fatally wounded when a cannonball struck him in the leg, and he died a week later at Syracuse. It is recorded that his French opponents honoured him by firing salutes as the ship carrying his embalmed body to the Netherlands passed the French fleet. On 18 March 1677, De Ruyter was given an elaborate state funeral. His body was buried in the Nieuwe Kerk of Amsterdam. He was succeeded as supreme commander by Cornelis Tromp in 1679.