On 16 March in 1631, he married a farmer's daughter named Maayke Velders. On 31 December that year, Maayke died after giving birth to a daughter; who also died just three weeks later. In 1633 and 1635, De Ruyter sailed as a navigating officer aboard the ship "Groene Leeuw" ("Green Lion") on whaling expeditions to Jan Mayen. Until 1637, he did not yet have a command of his own. In the summer of 1636 he remarried, this time to a daughter of a wealthy burgher named Neeltje Engels, who gave him four children – one of whom died shortly after birth. The others were named Adriaen (1637), Neeltje (1639) and Aelken (1642).