Off until Sunday night As I will be travelling home for the holiday, I don't expect to be doing any posting until I return, Sunday night. I have been focusing more of my interest on the English fleet, both in terms of orders of battle as well as ship drawings. One conclusion that I have reached is that though most of the Dutch ships used by the English during the First Anglo-Dutch War were captured merchantmen, they seem to have been built to some of the standard dimensions. Our best information concerns the Amsterdam Directors' ships. The biggest surprise was their large size, generally. There were a few of the 116 foot length, but most were larger. The next size larger was 118 feet, which was what many States ships built during the 1630's were. There seem to have been a large number of ships that were 120 feet long. They varied widely in armament, ranging from 28 to 38 guns. The former including the Amsterdam ship, the Bommel while the latter includes the Noorder-Kwartier ship, the Monnikendam, Pieter Florissen's flagship for the First Anglo-Dutch War. The largest ship captured by the English was the Vogelstruis (called Estrich by the English). Herbert Tomesen, with Artitec, the Dutch modelmakers, says that this ship was 160 feet long (Amsterdam feet).