Friday, December 22, 2006

A remaining mystery: the ship Sint Johannes

The Sint Johannes is a mystery ship because while the ship appears in Jan Glete's notes with very specific information, we can find no other reference to the ship. No ship that we know about has this combination of dimensions and armament. The ship Walvisch has the same dimensions but a different armament. The listing for the Sint Johannes is dated 8 February 1653. The only explanation that I can find is that ship was hired on that date and almost immediately lost at the the Three Days Battle, The trouble is that there is not obvious mention of the ship being lost, or even there being a plausible captain. Jan Glete's notes give the dimensions as 125ft x 29ft x 12-1/2ft with a height between decks of 7ft. The Sint Johannes carried 28 guns, consisting of 2-18pdr, 8-12pdr, 10-8pdr, 6-6pdr, and 2-3pdr guns. I have not seen a good list of ships at the Three Days Battle, so that is why my theory still could be true. I cannot believe that Jan Glete would have such specific information, if the ship did not exist, even if it had another name.

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