On page 113 of Witte de With's journal for May 1653, there is an interesting reference to a ship that I have not heard of before. Under the heading of Directors' ships of Amsterdam, there are two entries. The second is obvious enough, Capn Rietbeeck, which refers to Bartholomeus van Rietbeeck, who commanded the ship Rooseboom at this date. The first entry is the interesting one. It says, in Dutch, as best as I can tell:
Capn. Jacob Swart
t'schip de Matenives
The "n" could be a "u", but that does not make any sense (although I can't say that what I wrote does, either). I had briefly thought that the "v" was part of an "r", until looked at the entries nearby, such as Lt-commandeur Marevelt.
Sources:
- Witte de With, journals from 1652 to 1658, Archive E8812 from the Riksarkivet, Stockholm
