After the fleet was disbanded, De Ruyter returned to merchant service, which he undertook either as master of a Lampsins ship, or after buying his own ship, the "Salamander". Between 1642 and 1651, he made a number of profitable trading sailings to Morocco, Brazil and the West Indies, and by 1651, he had saved enough money to retire. In 1650, De Ruyter's second wife, who in 1649 had given him a second son named Engel, unexpectedly died. On 8 January 1652, he made the widow Anna van Gelder his third wife and bought a house in Flushing for his proposed retirement, which however lasted less than a year.