Sunday, November 05, 2006

My one project for Saturday was a list of Witte de With's fleet in April 1653

While the main fleet was disbanded and ships were repairing after the Three Days Battle, Witte de With assembled a small fleet, little more than a large squadron, and conducted operations. One of those operations was the raid on Scarborough, with 18 ships. My project for Saturday was to annotate a list of Witte de With's fleet in April 1653. I had at least one error that Carl Stapel corrected for me. I had thought that the ship commanded by luitenant-commandeur Pieter Jacobsz might have been the Gelderland, but he supplied the correct information. Pieter Jacobsz was Jan de Haes's luitenant, and the ship was the Beer: 
Witte de With's fleet in April 1653

Van Squadron

Adm    Ship          Guns Crew Commander
A      Phesant       32   110  vice-commandeur de Lapper
A      Dolfijn       30   110  kapitein Schatter
A-Dir  Valck         28   111  kapitein Brouwer
R      Beer          23    94  lt-commandeur Pieter Jacobsz
A-Dir  Sampson       28   110  kapitein de Groot
N      Prins Maurits 32    97  kapitein Taenman
Z      Amsterdam     32   116  kapitein Kempen
A      Westfriesland 28   110  kapitein Huijskens
F      Postpaert     30   106  kapitein Kodde

Center Squadron

Adm    Ship              Guns Crew Commander
A      Leeuwarden        34   158  vice-admiraal de With
                              vlag-kapitein Reael
A      Graaf Willem      40   155  kapitein Verburgh
R      Overijssel        24    98  kapitein Vijgh
A      Omlandia          32   109  kapitein Schaeff
A      Prins Willem      30   106  kapitein Boermans
A-Dir  David en Goliat   34   125  kapitein Jaersvelt
A      Leiden            30   107  kapitein Kroeger
A      Bommel            34   110  kapitein Braeckel
R-VOC  Wapen van Nassouw 32   124  kapitein van der Werff
A      Zutphen           26   120  kapitein Hillebrandt Jeroensz
Ha-Dir Sint Vincent      28   110  kapitein Kleijntje
A-VOC  Gerechtigheid     34   105  kapitein Evert Swart
Z      Goes              26    97  kapitein Kuijper

Rear Squadron

Adm    Ship            Guns Crew Commander
R      Utrecht         22    98  commandeur Haexwant
A-Dir  Sint Pieter     28   109  kapitein Schuijt
A-Dir  Engel Michiel   28   110  kapitein Bogart
A-Dir  Blauwe Arend    28   110  lt-commandeur Hendrick Heij
                            (kapitein Dirck Pater's luitenant)
A-VOC  Huis van Nassau 34   112  kapitein van Strijp
Z      Sandenburgh     24   100  kapitein Gorckum's luitenant
*                      30   120  lt-commandeur Bontecoe
En-Dir Vergulde Zon    28   115  kapitein Jacob Duijm
A-VOC  Mercurius       36   110  kapitein Bitter
A-Dir  Catarina        28   110  kapitein Kop
Sources:
  1. James C. Bender, unpublished manuscript "Dutch Ships 1600-1700", 2006
  2. Johan E. Elias, Schetsen uit de geschiedenis van ons zeewezen, Vol.VI, 1930
  3. Witte de With, journals from 1652 to 1658, Archive E8812 from the Riksarkivet, Stockholm
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