The notation about Cornelis Tiebij and the English ship lying at Veere in late July 1653 still interests me. There is another page that places the Bonaventura at Veere in that period, as well. We believe, however, that contrary to published sources, the Bonaventura was not at the Battle of Scheveningen and was not sunk there. Sources had indicated that the Bonaventura had been hired by the Directors of Middelburg and that the ship was used in the battle. We don't think that Cornelis Tiebij's ship Luipaert was the Bonaventura, renamed, but you have to wonder at the reason for the note about him and the English ship.

The ship Edam in English service

Both the figure 103ft given by Pepys and the 86ft figure given in Van Foreest and Weber's book both seem incorrect for a keel length for the captured Dutch ship Edam. The Edam was called the Black Bull in English service, after the symbol of Edam. There are conflicting figures for the length of the Edam. The published figures all were 120ft, but there is considerable documentary evidence that indicates that the length was 124ft. Using my rule of thumb, a length of 124ft in Amsterdam feet would give an English keel length of 94ft (or perhaps 93ft). If the Dutch length were 120ft, the English keel length would be 89 or 90 ft., not 86ft.

The Wkipedia page on the Brederode

I ended up looking at the version in English of the Wikipedia page about the Dutch ship Brederode. I decided to go ahead and make several corrections at the bottom of the piece.

Yet another source that says that the Graaf Hendrick was a Groningen Directors' ship

Early this morning, I was reading documents from late 1652 and saw another reference to the ship Graaf Hendrick, commanded by Jan Reijndersz Wagenaer, being a Groningen Directors' ship. All the lists from 1653 assign the ship to the Admiralty of Friesland. The document that I read this morning was dated 6 December 1652, four days before the Battle of Dungeness.

The Goeree Gat

After looking at the island of Goeree in Google Maps, I still wonder which side is the "Goeree Gat" mentioned in The First Dutch Wars volumes. Also, after the Zeeslag bij Nieuwpoort (the Battle of the Gabbard), a few ships sought shelter at Goeree. Were they in the water immediately to the north or to the south of the island? Does someone know? Google Maps is useful from my desk at work, but Google Earth really gives you the capability to see what an area is like, with the ability to view from an angle above the earth, or even down to the water level.

A list of ships from 30 June 1652

I have this list of ships under the flag of Admiral Tromp, dated 30 June 1652. I suspect that the number of ships is greater than the number in the printed list of the fleet that is divided into three squadrons. Still, I would be interested to see the comparison between the two lists. If the printed list is at all valid, we should be able to tell which captains are meant by the names we do not recognize in that list. The handwritten list gives the admiralty, the captain's name, the guns and the crew size for each ship. The ship names are omitted, but we know which ship each captain commanded, so that is not an issue.

The Friesland ship Groningen

The Friesland ship Groningen was captured by the English in 1665 and fought in the Four Days' Battle with the English fleet in 1666. We first saw the Groningen mentioned in late 1653, not earlier. The one other mention that I have seen is in 1658. For example, on 8 August 1658, the Groningen was with the fleet headed for the Sound. The Groningen's captain at the time was Laurens Degelencamp (or Degelcamp). Most of the ships carried fewer guns for oveseas voyaging, later in the year. By the time the ships went to the Sound, they did not carry topgallant masts or sails and did not have a spritsail topmast. In August, Groningen carried 34 guns and had a crew of 100 sailors and 15 soldiers.