A tidbit from 1671

In the list from 1671, there is this entry:

Officers                  Ships         Date  Sailors Soldiers  Guns
Jan Paulussen van Gelder  Noordholland  1670  180     40        44

Lt-Cdr Hessel Gerritsz

On 23 July 1653, luitenant-commandeur Hessel Gerritsz commanded the Friesland fluit Graef Willem (26 guns). The appointed captain for the Graef Willem was Jan Coenders.

A hired ship fighting in the Battle of Livorno on 15 March 1653

We don't know which ship this was, but it was almost certainly one of the ships hired by the Admiralty of Amsterdam in Italian ports. All of these ships carried 28 guns and had a crew (at least nominally) of 100 men. The ships were rather large, being 128 to 140 feet long (Amsterdam feet).

De Reede van Texel diorama

Yesterday, I played the "The Making of De Reede van Texel" DVD for my sister-in-law. Her reaction was that she would like to have a copy for her fellow teacher who builds boats with students. They are also both art teachers. Despite the fact that the audio is all in Dutch, the video is still very interesting. I just wish that when it was available online, that I had downloaded some of the pictures that showed multiple ships in the Texel Roads. I would like to try my hand at constructing some new images that would show the Dutch fleet lying in the Scheldt in late June, early July 1653. This is the individual ship page for the VOC ship Nagelboom hired by the Admiraliteit van de Noorderkwartier. If someone could help me with more images besides those which are presently on the website, I would appreciate your help.

A list from 24 July 1661

Earlier today, I received a list for the Admiralty of Amsterdam, dated 24 July 1661, that gave the length, beam, and hold, along with captain and guns for some of the ships of the Admiralty of Amsterdam. Included in that list was the Koevorden (50 guns), which this document spells "Coeverden".

The plan for Dutch ships in 1652

When described in books, the Dutch plans for equipping the navy with ships in 1652 seem to be very well-defined. There were the 40 convoyers authorized in 1648, the 36 cruisers authorized in 1651, the 50 Directors' ships and the 100 ships, both authorized in 1652. The reality was that the plan was less certain then what was published. There may only have been 36 of the 40 still in service by May 1652, for example. As for the 100 ships, there were never that many ships hired or activated from the reserve.

"We gather together"

I had not heard this story before about the inspiration for the hymn "We gather together". I know the song well, but didn't realize that it derived from the Dutch. The battle it commemorated was at Turnhout in 1597. The Dutch name for the hymn was "Wilt Heden Nu Treden". Yesterday was the Thanksgiving holiday in America. "We Gather Together" is a typical Thanksgiving hymn.

A few big guns on small Dutch ships

A typical practice at the time of the First Anglo-Dutch War was for Dutch many ships to have a few larger guns. I consider this practice to be a continuation of the Elizabethan arming scheme for ships. The Zeelanders certainly followed this pattern:

Zeeuwsche Leeuw      2-bronze 24pdr
Westcappel           2-bronze 16pdr
Amsterdam            2-bronze 24pdr, 2-bronze 20pdr
Wapen van Zeeland    2-bronze 18pdr (the ship of Joost Willemsz Block)
Hollandia (in 1652)  4-bronze 24pdr, 4-bronze 18pdr, 2-bronze 15pdr
                                        (Johan Evertsen's flagship)

Dirck Cleuter

I received a page this morning that shows that Dirck Cleuter was the luitenant of Evert Anthoniszoon when the Hollandia was lost at the Battle of Scheveningen in 1653. The sum of the small pieces of information is how I build the larger picture. My approach to historical research is a bottom-up process.

Someone asked me about my ancestry

This morning, I was talking to my fellow "greeter" and she asked me about my ancestry, given my last name. That question got me thinking again about Matilda Lehman (not Lemon), who married a Beardsley in the 19th Century. Her son told the 1870 census taker that his mother was born in Holland. Other indications were that she was born in Ohio, but I can accept that she might have in fact been born in Holland, in the early 19th Century. What I have learned over the last few months was that the name Lehman was associated with Anabaptists in Germany and the Netherlands in the 17th Century.

The Beardsleys apparently had the custom of greeting men in the family by their middle name. My grandfather was called Moore. The president of Miles Laboratories, who thought of the idea for Alka Seltzer, was called Hub or Hubble, his middle name. He was my great-grandmother's brother. In the 1950's, there was a Beardsley man who they called Lehman, obviously his middle name. They pronounced it Lay-man, not Lee-mon. The name came from my ancestor, Matilda Lehman.

The French intelligence reports from the 1670's

I just had one of those flashes of inspiration. In the French intelligence documents that Jan Glete gave me in 2003, there is a ship called "Tsuy derthuis". I just realized that this was the Amsterdam ship Zuiderhuis!

"Swarten Pieter"

A report from early March 1653 about the Three Days Battle says the commander of the Zeeland ship Faam was "Commandeur Swarten Pieter". He had commanded Cornelis Loncke's ship Faam in the battle. The report also names the dead captains, although Dirck Scheij would seem to have been in error. Also, Sipke Fockes was killed, but his ship was not captured (the Sint Maria).

Google Books

Google Books now has Gijs Rommelse's book about the Second Anglo-Dutch War as full view in the United States. You can't download it, but you can read it online. Also in the United States, they have Vol.II of William Laird Clowes' book The Royal Navy: A History.... Last night, I finally downloaded Vol.II of Granville Penn's biography of William Penn. I also downloaded quite a few volumes of a Dutch biographical dictionary: Biographisch woordenboek der Nederlanden.

It turns out that I have lists from 12 September 1653 that I need to use

I had missed the fact that I have two lists dated 12 September 1653 that I need to use in my analysis. They both include the ship Mars (38 guns), commanded by Reijnst Cornelisz Sevenhuijsen.

Thurloe's State Papers

The First Dutch War often has quotations from Thurloe's State Papers. The volumes are available online at British History Online.

Legier Pietersz (van Cruyningen)

This is my translation of what Mollema has about Legier Pietersz:

Legier Pietersz (van Cruyningen)
about 1540-1 May 1620 Zeeuwsche kapitein in 1583

1588 probably served under Loncq against the Armada.
1592 captured a Dunkirker.
1595 distinguished himself at Dunkirk in the blockade fleet, attacked
two privateers at Calais.
1597 off Spain under Duivenvoorde.
1599 was wounded in a fight against a galleon from Sluys.
1600 fought under Evertsen at Lillo and captured a Spanish admiral from Antwerp.
1603 distinguished himself in a sea fight off Sluys.
1606 flag captain for Haultain in the expedition to Spain,
 dismissed from the service due to his old age and wounds.

Source: J. C. Mollema, De Eere Rol, from Geschiedenis van Nederland ter  Zee, Vol.II, 1940.

The latest questions

In analyzing the lists of the Dutch fleet from May to June 1653, we immediately notice that the Prinses Louise, commanded by Abel Roelantsz, and the Groningen, commanded by Gilles Thijssen Campen are not mentioned. The problem with that is that in Brandt's biography of De Ruyter and Vol.V of The First Dutch War, in De Ruyter's journal entry, the two officers are named as division commanders in two squadrons. The question is, where is the error. Is it in the lists?

How large is a 110 last ship?

The Amsterdam ship Omlandia, built in 1625, was apparently a vessel of 110 lasts. So how large would a 110 last ship be? I estimate that a 110 last vessel would be about 108ft x 25ft x 8-1/2ft in Amsterdam feet. The Omlandia carried 24 guns.

The Friesland ship Omlandia, said to have been built in 1628

The Friesland ship Omlandia mentioned in Vreugdenhil's list as being built in 1628, it turns out, is a vessel of 200 lasts. That is despite the 122ft length and narrow beam. The hold is 13ft and that gives the volume needed to be 200 lasts.

The Groote Vergulde Fortuijn

The commanded by Frederick de Coninck during the First Anglo-Dutch Wars, the Groote Vergulde Fortuijn was apparently a 300 last ship. I base that on a baseline factor for calculating lasts from J. C. De Jonge's book, Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Zeewezen, in Vol.I.