The Noorderkwartier ship Hollandsche Tuin

From the book by Dr. Graefe, we know that the Noorderkwartier ship Hollandsche Tuin was 250 lasts and that the ship in 1636 carried 32 guns (16 bronze and 22 iron). The crew at that date was 100 sailors and 20 soldiers. We know that ships of 250 lasts were about 128ft x 31ft x 13ft. The Hollandsche Tuin was apparently one of the 12 ships in Brazil in 1650 to 1652.

J. C. De Jonge's list from March 1653

A striking feature of J. C. De Jonge's list of ships in March 1653 is that it actually is a list from before the Battle of Portland (what the Dutch call the Three Days Battle). Things fall into place when you realize that. That explains the eight Directors' ships that were lost from the original fifty ships. The list also seems to ignore the new ships that were hired, starting in January 1653.

The Three Days Battle or Battle of Portland

Today, I made several small corrections to the Dutch Wikipedia page for the Driedaagse Zeeslag (the Three Days Battle). The English call this the Battle of Portland. I am working on a list that only has ships that I have a good deal of confidence were in the battle. For some reason, there is not a fleet list for the Dutch in the most obvious places at the Nationaal Archief. There may be a such a list in an "obvious place", but if so, it is not so easily accessed by my researcher. I am reduced to how I had always operated prior to gaining access to archival information. I look at the published sources for references. I also had several references from archival sources following the battle, from March 1653. That allowed me to build a list with 58 ships of about 70 that fought in the battle. I can guess at more but I don't actually have a solid reference for them.

Did Dirk Gerritsz Pomp command the St. Jan Battista?

I have been studying the list of captains in the Fishery Protection Squadron on 22 July 1652, as shown in the book by Lambertus van den Bosch, Leven en Bedryf van den Vermaarden Zeeheld, Cornelis Tromp, published in 1692. There were 15 ships in the squadron and some of them are easy to list. For Amsterdam, just consult The First Dutch War, Vol.IV and the list of Amsterdam ships. The list shows the Marcus Curtius and the Catarina lost. Apparently, the ships discarded were also in the squadron, such as the Patientia and Engel. For Rotterdam, we know the Paulus and the Sphera Mundi. For the Noorderkwartier, we know the Sampson, Wapen van Holland, Adam en Eva, and Land van Beloften for sure. The published list of 12 ships that excludes the Marcus Curtius seems to be at least partially incorrect. From analysis, I wonder if Dirk Gerritsz Pomp commanded the St. Jan Battista, which I believe was in the squadron. Van den Bosch lists Dirk Gerritszoon, which I assume was him.

Friesland ships

So, what do we make of the lists that say this about Friesland ships in early 1652?:

2 Convoyers
2 in the North Sea
2 in Brazil
5 of the 17-1/2ships of the 100

and this:

Directors

Friesland         2
Stadt en Landen   1

200 last ships

I recently received some information from Ron van Maanen about Zeeland ships. Some of the older ships were larger than most of the ships in service in 1652. For example, the Middelburg, built in 1632, and the Vlissingen, also built in 1632 were both 200 lasts. A 200 last ship might be 125ft x 29ft x 11-1/2ft, in Amsterdam feet.

The Vogelstruis

The Vogelstruis was a ship built for the Amsterdam Chamber of the Dutch East Indian Company (the VOC). The Vogelstruis seems to have been smaller than the biggest "Retourschepen" of the VOC and had acquitted herself well in the First Anglo-Dutch War, up until the Battle of Portland when the English took her after a hard fight. The Vogelstruis was so heavily damaged that the English just made her a hulk. I now can see that the reason that the Vogelstruis did so well was the combination of being small enough to have some speed and maneuverability and because she was well-armed. She had a complete 18pdr lower tier. That made her one of the most heavily armed Dutch ships in the war.

Claes Jansz Sanger in early August 1653

One curiosity that I noticed today, in a page that I received, is that the list shows Claes Jansz Sanger, on 1 August 1653, as captain of the ship Milde Maerten. That is curious because there is every reason to believe that on 10 August, he was captain of the Zeeland ship Westcappel, when it was lost in the Battle of Scheveningen. Presumably, this is just because a feature of documents from the First Anglo-Dutch War is that they are often mistaken, or at least have errors introduced by copyists.