Rotterdam ships with the fleet on 24 July 1652

One page that I received about a week ago has the list of captains with Tromp's fleet on 24 July 1652. This is the list of Rotterdam captains, suitably annotated:

Adm   Ship               Guns Commander
R     Brederode          54   Lt-Admiraal Tromp
R     Utrecht            22   Cornelis Engelen Silvergieter
R     Gorcum             30   Jan van Nes, the Boer Jaep
R     Overijssel         22   Leendert Ariensz Haecxwant
R     Schiedam           30   Dirck Juijnbol
R     Holland            30   Hendrick de Munnick
R     Roscam, hired      24   Costiaen Eldertsz
R     Maria, hired       24   Quirijnen van den Kerckhoff
R-Dir Hollandia          26   Ruth Jacobsz Buijs
R-Dir Jonas              36   Jan de Liefde
R-Dir Meerman            32   Jacob Cleijdijck
R-Dir Prins te Paard     38   Corstiaen Corstiaensz (de Munnick)

The gun list for the Vogelstruis (oops, I don't have it!)

My main regret about my trip to the Netherlands and my trip to the Nationaal Archief in The Hague, slightly more than a month ago was that I failed to write down the gun list for the ship Vogelstruis, when I saw it. Instead, I thought that I had arranged to have the page copied, so I didn't need to take the time to write it down. The Vogelstruis was a ship of the Amsterdam chamber of the VOC. It was apparently built in 1641. The dimensions of the Vogelstruis were 160ft x 36-38ft x 13ft with three decks, based on some calculations made using the dimensions taken by her English captors and from email from Herbert Tomesen of Artitec. There is a page about Herbert (in Dutch) and video of him with a ship model. The Vogelstruis (old spelling is Vogel Struijs) carried between 40 and 44 guns, as far as I can tell. One page gives the crew as 200 men, but I am not certain if that is correct, or not. As I remember, the Volgelstruis carried 4-24pdr guns and perhaps a lower tier of 12pdr guns.

Ships in 23 June 1653 with the Rotterdam Chamber of the VOC

I am not sure of these ships all actually belonged under the category of the Rotterdam Chamber of the VOC (the East India Company), but in the classic list of ships that had been at the Battle of the Gabbard (the Zeeslag bij Nieuwpoort), these all fall under that category:

Nr.   Adm     Ship                  Guns Crew Commander
60    R-VOC   Nassou                32   124  Jan Adriaensz van der Werf
61    R       Haij, advijs boot      6    14  Teunis Willemsen van der Heiden
62    R       Coninck David,fireship ?    14  Jacob Arentsen
63    R       Orangie boom, fireship ?    13  Dirc Janssen Stroo

The Haij, number 62, is noteworthy, as the summary list looked like it said "advijs berck". Actually, it should have said "advijs boot".

The "Prins te Paard"

Michael Robinson, in catalog of Van de Velde paintings, calls the ship first commanded by Corstiaen Corstiaenszoon the Prins te Paard. The actual documents that I have from the Nationaal Archief all call the ship the Prins, except for a page that I received two days ago. That page gives the captain's full name, which was Corstiaen Corstiaensz de Munnick (perhaps a relative of Hendrick de Munnick, the Rotterdam captain). That page also calls his ship, which carried 38 guns, the Prins te Paerde. I have heard that perhaps that full name for this ship was the Jonge Prins Willem te Paard. The names of Dutch ships in the 1640's and 1650's seems to have been rather fluid and allowed for many alternative names that were frequently used. For example, the document that includes this page has Barent Cramer's ship listed as the Swarte Bul, which was the frequently used nickname for ships name Edam. The black bull was the symbol for the city of Edam.

Friesland Directors' ships in December 1652

One question has been: what ship was hired by the Groningen Directors in 1652? The answer seems to be the Graaf Hendrick, commanded by Jan Reijndersz Wagenaer. I have a photograph of a document dating from early December 1652 that says that this is the case. There were other ships hired by Groningen, but this seems to be the Directors' ship.

My current arrangement for research

With me being in the United States and the information that I desire being in the Netherlands, I have relied on people there to obtain copies for photographs for me. I am really pleased with my present arrangement with the Dutch Archives Research Bureau and the work that Eric Ruijssenaars is doing for me. I also have been greatly helped by Carl Stapel and others there in the Netherlands, such as Ab Hoving, Ron van Maanen, Nico Brinck, and Herbert Tomesen of Artitec, and others who have helped me over the last five years in the Netherlands. I owe a great deal to the help provided by Prof. Jan Glete in Stockholm. I would not know nearly as much as I do without his assistance over the last four years. Of course, I have also greatly benefitted from the help and advice from Frank Fox, the author of Great Ships and A Distant Storm, since late 1999. Frank is here in the United States, although he lives quite a distance from where I am. There is an amazing community of enthusiasts, researchers, authors, artists, and model makers interested in 17th Century warships and naval history.

Jan Glete's book was a revelation to me

I had originally started to get information from the Nationaal Archief in The Hague through Drs. Rick van Velden, through "The Missing Link" service. I had contacted him in August 2002, after I found "The Missing Link" by searching on the Internet. I believe that it was after that that I had Jan Glete's book Navies and Nations. Navies and Nations was a revelation to me, as Jan Glete's references and footnotes indicated that there were more information to be found than I had guessed. He mentioned that Ron van Maanen had told him about the information about Directors' ships. After seeing that, I looked for and found Jan Glete's email address. He kindly provided me with a copy of his notes. I had to switch to dealing with the Nationaal Archief at the beginning of 2003. I was able to get copies of some of the Extraordinarie Equipage documents that listed dimensions and had gun lists for the Amsterdam Directors' ships. I just kept with the process of finding more information and I continued to use Navies and Nations in my search. I was able to get copies of the Staet van Oorlog te Water for the years 1628, 1629, 1631, and 1633, as I have previously written. I have just continued the process of getting information to this day.

The ship Sint Vincent

Barring any evidence that this is wrong, I suspect that the Sint Vincent mentioned in David de Wildt's list is the ship hired by the Harlingen Directors for service in the First Anglo-Dutch War. In 1652 and into 1653, the Sint Vincent was commanded by Andries Douwesz Pascaert. The Sint Vincent seems to have been a 113ft long ship that carried 28 guns. From May 1653, Jacob Kleijntje commanded the Sint Vincent and did so up through the voyage to Norway, under Witte de With's command, from September to November 1653. You would think that the Sint Vincent must have been a good ship.

Not every Amsterdam hired ship was small

The hired ship Amsterdam is an example of larger ship that was hired by the Admiralty of Amsterdam. The Amsterdam must have been a good ship, as she served through the war. The Amsterdam was large, with a 130ft length. The armament included 18 8pdr and 12pdr guns. That was out of a 30 gun armament. The rest were mostly 6pdr guns, along with 2-3pdr guns. the crew was substantial: 120 sailors and 30 soldiers. Paulus Egbertsz Sonck was appointed to replace Sijmon van der Aeck, probably by about April 1653.

Gideon de Wildt's ship Vrede in June 1653

The 23 June 1653 list gives the length of the Vrede, commanded by commandeur Gideon de Wildt, as 135 ft. Gideon de Wildt was a very young man and owed his appointment to being the younger brother of David de Wildt, the secretary of the Admiralty of Amsterdam. Carl Stapel says that Gideon de Wildt was hated by his men. The Vrede carried 44 guns. The main battery was a large number of 12pdr guns, supplemented by a few 24pdrs. The upper tier was incompletely armed with 8pdr guns. I would guess that the few 6pdr guns were carried on the quarterdeck. The crew was quite large by this date. The establishment was for 192 men. There were 176 actually on board: 145 sailors and 31 soldiers.

Is the Morgen Sterre the same ship as the Star?

I have an set of dimensions, with a gun list, dating from September 1652, for the Amsterdam ship Star. I had wondered if this was the same ship as the Morgen Sterre listed on 14 July 1653. Jacob Paulussen Cort had commanded the Star up to about April 1653. The ship was not listed in the 23 June 1653 list of ships with the fleet. On 14 July, the captain was Albert Claesz de Graeff and he commanded the ship at the Battle of Scheveningen. Previous lists give the number of guns as 28, but the 14 July entry gives just 26 guns. They both give only 6-12pdr guns and 12-8pdr guns, but the smaller guns vary considerably. Still, I tentatively accept that they were the same ship.

d'Oude Prins Willem (23 June 1653)

This fascinating list from 23 June 1653 has information about the ship Prins Willem, here called d'Oude Prins Willem. The ship's length is given as 128ft, which if corret is quite long for a 30 gun ship. The Prins Willem had a main battery of 8pdr guns with a few 12pdr and a mixture of smaller guns between 6pdr and 3pdr. The crew is given as 106 men. There is no information listed about the mixture of sailors and soldiers.

Ship names

So, I assume that all the ships named with some variation of "Jonge Prins", "Prins Willem", "Prins te Paard", or even "Jonge Prins Willem te Paard" were named after Willem II, rather than his infant son, Willem III. The Rotterdam Directors' ship usually called simply the Prins was actually named in this pattern. The name may even have been the longest version, Jonge Prins Willem te Paard (young Prince William on horseback).

A good email just got deleted and can't be recovered

A good email got caught in the Gmail spam bucket and it was being deleted before I realized that I didn't want to lose it. Gmail does not allow recovering deleted mail, so it is gone. If you sent me an email about the Dutch in the Arctic, please send it again. Having a spam bucket is problematic, as good emails occasionally end up being classified as spam and I do not recognize them until it is too late.

I have this document with a title

The title on a document that I received today is sort of interesting (to me): "Ceedes van Behoefte van 't Jacht vijrat (?) Hollandia daer Capt op is Rut Jacobsen Buis". The captain's name is often given as "Ruth Jacobszoon Buijs". This is apparently his handwriting, however, so perhaps the spelling is more authoritative. This probably dates from late October 1653. He was with Witte de With's fleet.

The storm off the Texel in November 1653

The last few days, I have been receiving inventories from ships, dating from right before the storm off the Texel in early November 1653. Two of the recent inventories were from ships that foundered in the storm, the Gecroonde Liefde (Marcus Hartman's ship) and the Luipaert (Cornelis Tiebij's ship). The inventories have entries, like "one Prince's flag" and "one wimpel". At the top of the Gecroonde Liefde inventory is "one cable of 15 inches". By the way, there is this page called "Vlag en Wimpel". A wimpel is apparently a pennant or streamer. The storm was quite disasterous in its effect. Brave men and stout ships were lost in the storm. The lucky were wrecked on the coast. The worst foundered and were lost with all hands (they say "man and mouse"). Ships like the 37-gun Luipaert, the 34 gun ship Keurvorst van Keulen, 30 gun Coninck Radbout, the 36 gun Gecroonde Liefde foundered. Witte de With saved his fine ship, the Huis te Zwieten, by cutting the mainmast and letting it go over the side. The storm had the effect that was worse than losing the Battle of Scheveningen, where about nine or ten ships were lost.

The Zeeland ship, the Haes

The Zeeland ship, the Haes, was listed as one of the Hundred Ships of the Extraordinary Equipage, in 1652. The Haes was apparently a fluit. From early in the First Anglo-Dutch War up to the Three Days Battle (the Battle of Portland), Johannes Michielszoon commanded the Haes. He was killed in the battle. By June 1653, Jan van Housen commanded the Haes. The Haes only carried 20 guns, and these were primarily 6pdr guns. There were a few 8pdr guns and the rest were 4pdrs. After the Battle of the Gabbard (the Zeeslag bij Nieuwpoort), the Haes had 2500 lbs of gunpowder on board. Her crew included 75 sailors and 22 land soldiers.

The Friesland ship Sint Nicolaes

The Friesland ship Sint Nicolaes was sunk in a collision, during the summer of 1652. This was a 116ft ship with a main battery of 8pdr guns, with some additional 6pdr, 4pdr, and 3pdr guns, as well. The crew consisted of 90 men. Captain Bouckhorst did not survive the collision, along with the ship.

Gijsbert Malcontent's ship, the Maeght van Enkhuijsen

I was just looking at the list of guns carried by Gijsbert Malcontent's Hoorn Directors' ship, the Maeght van Enkhuisen (Maagd van Enkhuizen). This was a 120ft ship that carried 28 guns. The main battery, at the time of the Three Days Battle, consisted of 12pdr guns. The rest were 8pdr and slightly fewer 4pdr guns. The crew was 110 men. The Maeght van Enkhuijsen was lost on the first day of the Three Days Battle (called the Battle of Portland by the English).

My current list of the Amsterdam ships with Tromp's fleet in the Shetlands

In Hendrick de Raedt's pamphlet, with the list of the Dutch ships with the fleet on the voyage to the Shetlands, the ships in Witte de With's squadron are listed separately. Of those listed with the main fleet, I recently have made some revisions, based my analysis of the latest information:

Admiralty’s ships of Amsterdam

Rank               Name                             Adm/Dir  guns crew Ship                
commandeur         Gideon de Wildt                  A        42   160  Vrede               
kapitein           Abraham van der Hulst            A        26   100  Overijssel          
kapitein           Gerbrandt Schatter               A        26    95  Dolphijn            
kapitein           Jacob Paulusz Cort               A        28    95  Star                
kapitein           Govert Reael                     A        36   140  Leeuwarden          

Joris de Colerij’s ship is to be deducted from the hundred.
kapitein           Joris de Colerij                 A        28   100  Hoop                

kapitein           Joris van der Zaan               A        38   130  Groningenn          
commandeur         Nicolaes Marrevelt               A        36   120  Zeelandia           
kapitein           Barent Pieterszoon Dorrevelt     A        34   125  Amsterdam           
kapitein           Cornelis Hola                    A        28   105  Leiden              

Jan ter Stege’s ship is to be deducted from the hundred
kapitein           Jan ter Stege                    A        26   100  Keijser