A ship of interest from David de Wildt's list from 22 February 1652

David de Wildt, the secretary of the Admiralty of Amsterdam, compiled a list of ships at Amsterdam that were suitable for hiring for service with the navy. Several ships are of particular interest. The names and dimensions in the list do not always agree in every detail with that in other sources. One name I had originally read as Graeff Monais, I later realized was the Graeff Morais (Maurits). This was a ship owned (I think)by Albert Claesz Graeff. Albert Claesz Graeff commanded several ships during the course of the First Anglo-Dutch War (the 30-gun ship Hollandia and the Star or Morgen Star or Ster). David de Wildt's list gives the dimensions of the Graeff Morais as 132ft x 30ft x 13ft x 7ft. I believe that this was the ship hired by the Amsterdam Directors for service under the name Prins Maurits or Mauritius. The sihp was wrecked in November 1652.

Dutch fleet lists in the First Anglo-Dutch War

I don't really count the Dutch fleet lists for the Mediterranean battles in the First Anglo-Dutch War, as they are very well-known. I don't have everything that is known, as I don't have the good list for the Battle of the Kentish Knock that I have been told exists. I do have two good lists for the opening battle of the war at Dover. I don't have a definitive list of the Fishery Protection Squadron that was attacked on 22 July 1652 (new style). We do have fairly good information about De Ruyter's fleet at the Battle of Plymouth. I have some information, but the published list is at best ambiguous and would seem to be wrong in some particulars. I also have a list that could be refined for the fleet at the Shetland Islands at the time of the storm in early August 1652. We do have a good list of captains for Tromp's fleet at the Battle of Dungeness. You have to have more information, which we have, to actually give the ship names and guns carried. We lack a good list for the fleet in the Three Days Battle (the Battle of Portland). Seemingly, the documents were destroyed in the fire in 1844. Again, we have good lists that need to be refined for the Battle of the Gabbard and the Battle of Scheveningen (Ter Heide). We also have good information for the ships in Witte de With's fleet that went to Norway in September 1653 and returned in early November, only to be devastated by a severe storm off the Texel. Hopefully, some of this will be published in the next few years. Rif Winfield published a small amount, without the details in his new book.

The Princess Maria (Dutch prize)

I just received my copy of Rif Winfield's new book. I noticed what he wrote about the Dutch prize, Princess Maria, that served in the First Anglo-Dutch War for the English. The Princess Maria had been built as the Rotterdam ship Princess Roijael Maria in 1643. I did some calculations about the ship:

Dimensions in Maas feet: 114ft x 27ft x 12ft   200 Rotterdam lasts
Dimensions in Amsterdam feet: 124.36ft x 29.45ft x 13.09ft  230 lasts
Dimensions using English measurements:
Keel Length in English feet: 97ft
Beam outside the planking:   28ft-6in
Depth:                       12ft-2.5in

When captured in 1652, the Princess Maria carried: 2-24pdr, 4-18pdr, 4-12pdr, 22-8pdr, 2-6pdr guns

Is there a key to the ships in the Battle of Livorno drawing?

I use the Battle of Livorno drawing as my desktop image on one computer. This is the classic drawing by Willem van de Velde de Oude that shows the stern of the Maan, presumably capturing the English Leopard in the battle. The stern of the Witte Oliphant, a 34-gun hired ship, is visible to the left, somewhat closer. I have wondered if there is a key to the ships in the drawing that identifies them.

The Jaarsveld and Vrede

Two large ships were built in 1650, right before the Vrijheid was built. Lists from 1652 give the Jaarsveld and Vrede very similar dimensions. The Vrede may have been slightly larger. We really don't know how accurate the dimensions listed for the Jaarsveld were: 130ft x 32ft x 13ft x 7ft. The Vrede is listed in later lists as 131-1/2ft x 32-1/2ft x 13-1/2ft x 7ft. The Jaarsveld is listed as carrying: 4-24pdr, 22-12pdr, 16-8pdr, and 2-6pdr guns. In 1652, the Vrede was listed as carrying: 4-24pdr, 22-12pdr, 14-8pdr, and 4-6pdr guns. The crew size listed for the Jaarsveld, 150 men, seems like a nominal number, rather than an exact figure. We actually have what seem to be real figures for the Vrede, at least in 1653. Even on 16 November 1652, the crew was listed as 162 men, which seems like a real crew size, not a nominal number. The Jaarsveld came to a premature end on an uncharted rock near Livorno (Leghorn), but the Vrede was in service up to about 1667.

The "Three Days Battle"

The Three Days Battle (more prominently known as the Battle of Portland to the English-speaking peoples) was a hard-fought action between the main English fleet and the main Dutch fleet, which was protecting a large convoy. The battle was fought from 28 February to 2 March 1653 (new style dates). None of the accounts that are known have a fleet list for the Dutch. Presumably, the records were destroyed in the fire at the Ministry of Marine in 1844. Dr. Ballhausen made an attempt to reconstruct the fleet list and organization in his book, but I have little faith in it. I have thought that we could take the Dutch fleet list and organization from Johan Evertsen's journal from late 1652 and derive the fleet list for the Three Days Battle. We have information about what ships were absent and have information about the Zeeland ships that survived the battle. There is also the account in the book Onstelde-Zee that gives some accurate information, including ship names. Our only hope is that some important documents are in private hands and just unknown, but are preserved.

Another look at the 30 June 1652 Dutch fleet list

I was looking again at the published Dutch fleet list dated 30 June 1652 that Carl Stapel had passed to me several years ago. The good thing about the list is that it shows the fleet organization and all but two of the ships can be identified by the captains' names. But while the list is dated 30 June, there are some anomolies. By 30 June, Adriaan de Zeeuw had been killed and Sijmon Cornelisz van der Meer's ship had been sunk in action with English frigates. Also, I believe that Jan Warnaertsz Capelman's ship had been captured. All those, however, are included in this list. It clearly represents the fleet sometime earlier in June, or else it was what had been planned. Clearly, the list is accurate, so why the two names who are so unfamiliar: Jacob van Nove and Jan Elbertsz van Enkhuizen?

Google Book Search: now has snippet view of Schetsen uit de Geschiedenis van ons Zeewezen

I was surprised to see that Google Book Search now has Dr. Elias' book, Schetsen uit de Geschiedenis van Ons Zeewezen in Snippet View. I would like to see the book be part of the coming "Google Editions", so I could have portable access to the book.

The documentary "Broadside"

When I got home from work yesterday, a package had arrived for me. In the package was a copy of a new version of Frank Fox's book about the Second Anglo-Dutch War and a DVD with the documentary that Bruce Twickler had produced through his company Docema. They had a deal where for about $29.95 and shipping, you got the book and the DVD, a huge bargain. I saw in the DVD box that they have also reprinted the original version of Frank's book A Distant Storm: the Four Days' Battle of 1666. One of the family of website is www.broadsidethefilm.com.

A small Dutch warship Neptunus in 1629

In the first half of the 17th Century, the Dutch used many small warships, mostly on the rivers. One of these in 1629 was the Rotterdam ship Neptunus, built in 1623. Captain Cornelis Arentsz de Jonge commanded the Neptunus. The Neptunus was 30 Rotterdam lasts, or by my theory, 40 lasts when measured in Amsterdam feet. The crew consisted of 31 sailors and the ship was armed with 6-iron 4pdr, 2-iron 2-1/2pdr, and 10 steenstukken. There were 20 chambers, two for each of the steenstukken (literally "stone guns", which are usually said to be swivel guns). Two chambers for a "stone gun" allowed one to be in the gun and one to be loaded, providing a higher rate of fire. The steenstukken were iron breech loading guns. The Neptunus was at Batenborgh.

Breechloaders and chambers

One issue that I see writers frequently misunderstand is to count the chambers associated with breechloading guns as some sort of gun. For example, Dutch ships in the 17th Century, specially prior to 1648, carried "steenstukken" (literally, stone guns). The Roode Leeuw, in 1629, carried 8 steenstukken and had 16 chambers for them. That allowed the breech loading guns to have a higher rate of fire, so that while one chamber was being loaded, the other could be in the gun, ready to fire. The English ships in the 16th and early 17th Century carried port pieces and fowlers, which originally fired stone shot. They were breech loaders, as were the early steenstukken. Often, lists in the late 16th Century would show that a ship carried so many fowlers and twice that number of chambers for them. Some of the summary lists of English ships would add the chambers to the overall numbers of guns carried, which is obviously a mistake. Archibald's book about wooden English warships had some of these lists from the period of 1590 to 1620. These are generally pulled from Charles Derrick's classic book from the early 19th Century.

Rotterdam and Amsterdam last measurements

I am going back over the Staat van Orlog te Water for the year 1629. The Rotterdam ships (it calls the admiralty the Admiraliteit tot Rotterdam, not the Admiraliteit van de Maze). This list does not give dimensions, only the size in lasts. My theory is that the last measurements of Rotterdam ships is based on the dimensions in Maas feet (about 308mm), not Amsterdam feet (283mm). The basis for my theory is a list of Rotterdam ships from 1642. I have dimensions for most of those ships and can tell how the last figures were calculated. The small frigates Utrecht, Overijssel, and Gelderland are all listed as being of 90 lasts. Their dimensions in Maas feet are

100ft x 23ft x 8ft

. The calculation then is

90 = 100 x 23 x 8 / 207

. The usual way is round to the closest ten lasts. Of course, we are used to dimensions written in Amsterdam feet. The dimensions in Amsterdam feet are

109ft x 25ft x 8ft-8in

. The size in lasts, calculated from Amsterdam feet is

120 lasts = 109ft x 25ft x 8.727273/207

. You can see that the size in what I call "Amsterdam lasts" is about 1.3 times greater than the size in "Rotterdam lasts".

I was doing a literature search in Google Books

I had decided to look in Google Books to see what was currently available for 17th Century naval history and naval history generally. What had gotten my attention is that several books are available that I had not expected to find, such as the biography of Richard Badiley, among others. After I had downloaded 33 volumes, Google Books freaked out and blocked any further searches, as they were concerned that this was an automated search and download. I suppose that was because I was so consistently on topic.

A 30-gun Dutch warship in 1616

The second ship in the list of guns on Dutch warships in the year 1616, on page 750 of Vol.I of Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Zeewezen is one that I cannot name. This is a ship armed with 2-24pdr, 16-18pdr, 2-12pdr, 2-6pdr, and 8-5pdr guns. I thought that I had pretty complete information for Dutch warships in service in 1616, but this one is not a ship that I can name. I have no ship for this period armed with 16-18pdr guns.

Vol.I of Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Zeewezen is finally available in Google Books

Google Books has finally made Volume One of the classic Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Zeewezen available. For a long time, it was the only volume that could not be downloaded.

Dutch warship inventories after the Battle of the Kentish Knock

I believe that I have already mentioned that Witte de With asked the captains in his fleet to compile inventories of their ships and to report damage following the Battle of the Kentish Knock. I am reviewing the inventories compiled after the Battle of the Gabbard in 1653. They are often very interesting and useful, so the same would probably be true of the inventories from October 1652. They would be useful to precisely define the ships present at the battle and to give details that might not be found elsewhere.

The size of the Rotterdam ship Brederode

The two large flagships provided by the Admiralty of the Maze (or Rotterdam) for use by the fleet commander were both said to be 300 lasts in size. Those were Rotterdam lasts, and not comparable to ships from other admiralties. To compare, you have to multiply by 1.3 and then round to the nearest ten lasts. The problem is that the 300 number is an estimate or nominal number, not a real figure. The Brederode is often said to have dimensions of 132ft x 32ft x 13-1/2ft. Those are Maas feet, however, not Amsterdam feet. The calculated size in Rotterdam lasts is about 275 lasts, not 300. You have to very liberally round to get the 300 last figure. My estimate of a real size for the Brederode, in Amsterdam lasts, is 360 lasts.

Ships involved with the capture of New Netherlands in 1664

I found the best list of English ships that arrived to capture New Netherlands in 1664. This is from the History of New Netherland: or, New York under the Dutch By Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan (from Google Books). The ships were the Guinea (36 guns), commanded by Capt. Hugh Hyde. The Elias (30 guns) was commanded by Capt. William Hill. The Martin (16 or 18 guns) was commanded by Capt. Edward Groves. The hired ship William and Nicholas (10 guns) doesn't have a captain listed. This shows that in fact, there were four ships, as most sources indicated. The Elias was an Amsterdam Directors' ship captured by the English in 1653, on 12 June 1653 in the Zeeslag bij Nieuwpoort. The ship was lost on returning from the New World overloaded with wood from the New Netherlands. the Elias was usually armed with 36 guns. The Martin was a Sixth Rate, probably armed with 12 or 14 guns. The Martin had served in the First Anglo-Dutch War and would serve in the second, as well. The William and Nicholas doesn't appear in the list of ships that were hired by the navy in the war.

A ship Maria, built in 1639

Would someone know anything about a ship Maria (IHS Maria Anno De 1639) wrecked on the north coast of Hispaniola, probably in the 1640's? There are Dutch, Spanish, and English wrecks at the same general location. If this were a Dutch ship, it would seem likely to be a West Indiaman. I would guess that it is more likely a Spanish ship.

Maas feet again

I realized this morning that I have been estimating dimensions, all week, for Rotterdam ships without taking into account my theory about the size. I theorize that all Rotterdam sizes in lasts are based on calculations using Maas feet of 12 inches of 308mm. This is certainly true for ships from pages dating from 1642. My theory is that this applies to all Rotterdam ships from 1600 to 1652, not just 1642.

After a certain date, all Dutch ships were measured in Amsterdam feet of 11 inches and 283mm. The usual last calculations are based on measurements in Amsterdam feet. I always convert dimensions to Amsterdam feet, so we have a common basis for comparison.