Sunday, December 03, 2006

I now can make sense of the Onstelde-Zee

Given the new information from the last few months, what is written in the Onstelde-Zee (1654) about the Three Days Battle (or Battle of Portland) makes much more sense. On page 80, after talking about the sinking of Cornelis Jansz Poort's ship Kroon (Kroon Imperiael) and Isaac Sweer's ship Engel Gabriel, captains Kleydijk and Regermorter are mentioned. The information is now obviously pretty accurate. Jacob Kleijdijk commanded the Rotterdam Directors' ship Meerman (30 guns) in the battle and Johannes van Regermorter commanded the Middelburg Directors' ship Leeuwinne (30 guns). Captain Kleijdijk's ship was sunk and Captain Regermorter saved some of the crew. The ship seems to be called Leeuwen on this page. Page 80 also mentions that Captain van den Kerckhoff's (or Kerckhoven) had 7 men dead and had taken six shot underwater, so that his ship had 5 feet of water in the hold.

On page 82, a ship is mentioned called the Prins Willem te Paard (called Prins Willem te Peert) referred to the Prins, commanded by Corstiaen Corstiaensz de Munnick, a Rotterdam Directors' ship. The sunk Meerman is described as having 4 brass guns and 24 iron guns (not accurate, but apparently based on having 4-24pdr and 28 smaller). The Leeuwinne is called Leeuwin (the modern spelling, except mangled as Leewin or Leewwin) on the bottom of page 82. The ship is correctly identified as the one that rescued men from Captain Kleijdijk's crew.

On page 83, at the top, the Poort van Troijen is mentioned as having been sunk. I would guess that this referred to Abraham van Campen's ship Arke Troijane, sunk in the battle and the captain killed. On mid-page, the ship Burght is mentioned as having mastered an English ship. I would now guess that this referrs to the Burgh (or Nassouw van den Burgh) commanded by Hendrick Adriaansz Glas. At least one source other than the Onstelde-Zee refers to this ship as the Burcht.

I think that I had misunderstood the Onstelde-Zee, before I had learned more about the ships and captains.

Sources:
  1. Jodocus Hondius, Onstelde-Zee, Oft Zee-Daden, 1654
  2. Carl Stapel, unpublished manuscript "Directieschepen van de Maze d.d. 6 maart 1653", 2006
  3. Carl Stapel, unpublished manuscript "Lijst van Nederlandse schepen in maart 1653", 2006
  4. Witte de With, journals from 1652 to 1658, Archive E8812 from the Riksarkivet, Stockholm

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