22 July 1652

Today, July 22, 2010, is the anniversary of the English attack on the Dutch fishing fleet and fishery protection squadron on 22 July 1652, off the coast of Scotland. Amazingly, we do not have an accurate list of ships with all the details for the fishery protection squadron. The First Dutch War, Vol.I, reprinted, in translated form, the list of ships from the Hollandsche Mercurius from 1652. I now suspect that the piece of paper with the information that was used by the Hollandsche Mercurius was misinterpreted. There are some obvious mistakes, but the list seems likely to be accurate, and we just don't know enough to recognize that fact.

I had not realized that Teemu Koivumäki's site is gone

I was surprised to find that Teemu Koivumäki's website about sailing warships is gone. That is too bad, as it was a good, online resource. UPDATE: just the URL has changed: Sailing Warships

The Middelburg, a Middelburg Directors' ship

Jan Le Sage commanded the Middelburg Directors' ship Gulden Haan, a 36-gun ship, at the Battle of Portland, but he apparently commanded a different ship in 1652. Hendrick de Raedt's pamphlet gives his ship as a 30-gun ship with a crew of 105 men with Tromp's fleet in July and August 1652. From the letter written by Johan Evertsen in mid-August, after returning from the Shetlands, we see that Jan Le Sage's ship was named Middelburg. Our chances of finding out any more information about Jan Le Sage's ship are slim, but perhaps there is something in the Zeeuws Archief or in private hands that would tell us more.

Is there a key to the ships in the Zeeslag bij Dunkirk drawing?

I now have the drawing of the Zeeslag bij Dunkirk (18 February 1639) as my desktop picture. Is there a key to the ships in the drawing? Willem van de Velde de Oude clearly had specific ships in mind when he created the drawing. Each ship seems to be a portrait.