Dingeman Cats in 1652 to 1653

Dingeman Cats served as a captain for the Admiralty of Zeeland in 1652 and 1653. At the beginning of the First Anglo-Dutch War, he commanded a hired ship, the Dolphijn. The Dolphijn was quite small with dimensions of 105ft x 24ft x ? x 5-1/2ft. The Dolphijn was armed with 14-8pdr, 8-4pdr, and 2-3pdr. A report on 6 December 1652 gave the crew as 73 sailors and 25 sailors. That was actually after the Dolphijn had been discarded. Dingeman Cats was appointed to command a larger ship, the Liefde (sometimes called the Gecroonde Liefde). The definitive information that we have about the Liefde is from the same report from 6 December 1652. That document gives the dimensions as being 110ft x 23-1/2ft x ? x 5ft. The armament given there was 12-8pdr, 6-4pdr, and 5-3pdr. The list compiled on 23 June 1653 gives the armament on that date as 12-8pdr, 7-4pdr, and 4-3pdr. The crew was nominally 94 men in September and October 1653.

What we know about the Gecroonde Liefde, Marcus Hartman's ship, in 1653

Captain Marcus Hartman commanded the Middelburg Directors' ship Gecroonde Liefde in 1653. Early in the year, Michiel De Ruyter used the ship as his temporary flagship. After that, the Gecroonde Liefde continued to serve in his squadron. The Gecroonde Liefde was one of the ships that was lost in the storm off the Texel on about 9 November 1653. We know the dimensions of the Gecroonde Liefde: 136ft x 29ft x ? x 6-1/2ft. The we don't know the exact armament, but we are close: 4-18pdr, 2-12pdr, 20-8pdr and 9pdr, 8-6pdr, and 2-4pdr. In April 1653, the crew was 145 men. That must have been a nominal number, because the number is too exact. The Gecroonde Liefde was very long and narrow and is similar to Straatsvaarders that were designed for speed for service in the Mediterranean Sea. This is another ship with a large number of 8 pounder guns, although there was actually a mix of 8 pounder and 9 pounder guns. We always suspect that 9 pounder guns were of English manufacture. This information is partly from documents from the Nationaal Archief and information supplied to me by Carl Stapel.

The Zeven Provincien on 3 March 1672

We have a handwritten list that includes the details for the Zeven Provincien (the Dutch fleet flagship) as of 3 March 1672:

Name:  Zeven Provincien
Admiralty: Admiralty of the Maze or Rotterdam
Built: 1665
Length in Amsterdam feet: 163 feet
Beam in Amsterdam feet:    43 feet
Hold in Amsterdam feet:    16-1/2 feet
Deck height in Amsterdam feet: 7-1/2 feet
Guns
12-36pdr
16-24pdr
12-18pdr
18-12pdr
20-6pdr
4-clockwise 6pdr

Book: Dutch Ships in Various Operations in the First Anglo-Dutch War

I have had this book project, Dutch Ships in Various Operations in the First Anglo-Dutch War, in work for more than a decade. I would like to push to complete this as a Kindle book. I am in the process of doing the necessary reformatting. I have the information needed, although some analysis remains to be done.

Dutch warship inventories

There must be a way to exploit the inventories for Dutch warships. The largest number date from around 23 June 1653, after the Battle of the Gabbard. A typical report after a battle in the Seventeenth Century included an inventory for each ship. The inventories from 1638 and 1640 just seem to have been made as part of normal reporting. The best inventories are in great detail and might include a gun inventory with the weight of each piece. Some inventories were very shot and were only made to satisfy the requirement, although not what was wanted. Leendert Haexwant's inventory for the Overijssel from 23 June 1653 was neatly written and very complete, although it did not give the ship's dimensions or the gun weights. The next inventory in my photograph collection is for the Brederode and was signed by Maerten Harpertszoon Tromp, the fleet commander. I was just looking again at inventories this morning, and they are very much on my mind.

Dutch warship inventories 1640-1653

I have been wondering how researchers might exploit the Dutch warship inventories that still exist. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had inventories for ships back to 1640. For example, I have the inventories for the Friesland ship Breda and the Amsterdam ship Deventer dating from 1640. There are a group of inventories dating from 1652 and from 1653. Many of the inventories for 1652 were made when ships were hired for the Admiralty of Amsterdam. There are some of those from 1653, as well, such as for the Pelikaan and the Gulden Reael. A large group of inventories exists dating from 23 June 1653 that were made for the ships that lay off Vlissingen following the Battle of the Gabbard on 12 and 13 June 1653. A variant type of inventory includes just the guns carried, but gives the weights of the pieces. The earliest of that sort that I have date from 1613 and are for Rotterdam ships, such as Lambert Hendrickszoon's ship Leeuw. The best of the inventories are very detailed and give information such as the weights of anchors, the weights of stores, and other things that might be of interest to a specialist historian. Much of this information is stored at the Nationaal Archief in The Hague, but there are ship inventories in the notary papers found by Dr. Hart at the Municipal Archive in Amsterdam.

Staat van Oorlog te Water for the year 1654

A very small number of lists that give the state of the Dutch navy for a year have survived to modern times. The complete, formal lists include the years 1628, 1629, 1631, 1633, and 1654. There are a collection of documents for 1655 that amount to an additional list. An oddity for the year 1654 is that there are multiple versions of the list. They differ in the amount of content. Two of the lists are dated 7 July 1654 and 17 July 1654. I am currently using the 7 July 1654 in my work. The 1654 lists are often treated as the definitive word on ship dimensions, but they actually are inferior, in many ways, to documents from 1652 and 1653. The various lists can all be found at the Nationaal Archief in The Hague.

Guns on the Zeeuwsche Leeuw in 1652 and 1653

The Zeeland ship Zeeuwsche Leeuw was Cornelis Evertsen's ship during the First Anglo-Dutch War, until the Zeeuwsche Leeuw was sunk at the Battle of Scheveningen. I have seen this ship incorrectly called the Wapen van Zeeland. We have three guns lists for the ship in 1652 and 1653. We have one list dated 6 December 1652, from the Collectie Johan de Witt. I believe that the inventory number was 2774h: 2-bronze 24pdr, 5-bronze 12pdr, 6-iron 12pdr, 4-bronze 6pdr, 6-iron 6pdr, and 4-iron 4pdr. We also have a list that shows the guns on 27 March 1653, shortly after the Battle of Portland or the Three Days Battle. This is from the Lias Admiraliteiten Inv.Nr.5554. The last gun list is dated 23 June 1653, shortly after the Battle of the Gabbard. This is from the Sekrete Loketkas 12561-126: 2-bronze 24pdr, 6-bronze 12pdr, 6-iron 12pdr, 2-bronze 6pdr, 4-iron 6pdr, 2-bronze 4pdr, 4-iron 4pdr, and 2-bronze 3pdr guns. The March 1653 document includes gun weights and an inventory.

Zealand ship documents

Ron van Maanen had pointed out interesting documents from the Zeeland archives with ship specifications. Benoit Strubbe, who has a Master's Thesis about Zeeland ships was able to find the documents and photograph them for me. I thought that there could be some benefit in having the original documents, if only for posterity. For example, there is a document about the galleas Zeeuwsche Leeuw built at Veere in 1637. The captain from early on was Cornelis Evertsen de Oude. He must have commanded the ship at the Battle of the Downs. There were many ships built around this time that were 116 feet long (Amsterdam feet). The Zeeuwsche Leeuw was 116ft x 27ft x 11ft x 7ft. Another document says that the first captain was Pieter Adriaenszoon Ita originally. He was succeeded in command by Cornelis Evertsen.

I am grateful that Teemu Koivumaki still has his Sailing Warships website

I have been a past contributor to Teemu Koivumaki's Sailing Warships website. I had lost touch with the correct URL, but now have it again.

The frigate Middelburg, with 28 guns, in 1665

Has anyone know anything about a small frigate Middelburg that was mentioned along with the frigate Leiderdorp in 1665? The Middelburg and Leiderdorp seem to have been similar ships, both carrying 28 guns and having crews of 120 men. They both were used by the Admiralty of Amsterdam. There was another, larger ship named Middelburg that was also used by the Admiralty of Amsterdam. This was a ship probably built in 1659 and was the ship commanded by Willem van der Zaan in 1661 when he captured a Turkish pirate ship. The ship Middelburg, built in about 1659, was the ship burnt at Tobago in 1677.

The Noorderkwartier ship Westfriesland

I was surprised to find that I had good information that I didn't realized that I had about the Noorderkwartier ship Westfriesland. The Westfriesland was 8 years old on 26 February 1674, so the ship was built in 1666. The dimensions were: 160ft x 40ft x 14-1/2ft x 7-3/4ft. I also have the gun list dating from 16 May 1673: 6-bronze 36pdr, 2-bronze 18pdr, 18-iron 18pdr, 28-iron 12pdr, 6-bronze 6pdr, and 22-iron 6pdr. The crew on 16 May 1673 was 324 men. The captain was Jan Heck, who had commanded the old Eenhoorn during the First Anglo-Dutch War. My sources were a photograph of a document from the Nationaal Archief and a list of ship from Carl Stapel that he had sent me in 2007. By the way, I have a new Kindle book available: "Arming the Dutch Navy in the First Anglo-Dutch War". This is the link to download the book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B0Q72I6.

The hired ship Prins

One of the ships hired for service with the fleet sent to aid the Portuguese in 1641 was named the Prins. The Prins was armed with 38 guns and had a crew of 120 men. My question is if this was the same ship hired by the Rotterdam Directors in 1652 for service in the First Anglo-Dutch War? Both ships carried the same number of guns and had the same crew size. The Prins in 1653 later had a larger crew. We happen to know the dimensions of the Prins hired in 1641: 142ft x 29-1/2ft x 13-1/2ft x ?. We don't know the deck height.

The ship Prinses Albertina van Orangien

In 1652 into 1653, Rombout van der Parre commanded a small ship hired by the Admiralty of Friesland: the Prinses Albertina van Orangien (the document from 1652 says Princesse Albartina van Orangien). In July 1652, he was assigned to Michiel De Ruyter's fleet that was to convoy merchant ships up and down the Channel. The specifications for the ship were as follows:

Length:     107-1/2ft
Beam:        26ft
Hold:        11-1/2ft
Deck height:  6-1/4ft

26 iron guns: 6-8pdr, 14-6pdr, 4-4pdr, 2-3pdr

Crew: 90 men: (the document has numbers which do not sum: 68 sailors and 12 soldiers)

The Prinses Albertina (as it was usually called) was probably one of a group of ships  stranded at Scheveningen in a storm in early 1653.

The Friesland ship Graaf Hendrik

The ship Graaf Hendrik was hired by Groningen and served with the Admiralty of Friesland in the First Angl0-Dutch War. There are some pages from late 1652 that say that the Graaf Hendrik was a Groningen Directors' ship, but in 1653, the ship is always said to have served the Admiralty of Friesland. From the beginning of the war up until sometime in the spring of 1653, the Graaf Hendrik carried 30 guns. The ship was up-gunned to 36 guns and carried that number until her loss in the storm off the Texel in early November 1653. The Graaf Hendrik had a crew of 110 men, even after being up-gunned. The dimensions were:

Length: 129ft

Beam: 27-1/2ft

Hold: 13ft

The 36 gun armament was:

2-bronze 24pdr klokwijs guns

2-bronze 12pdr guns

2-bronze 12pdr klokwijs guns

4-bronze 3pdr klokwijs guns

2-iron 12pdr guns

2-iron 10pdr guns

8-iron 8pdr guns

10-iron 5pdr guns

4-iron 3pdr guns

Note that Jan Reyndersz Wagenaar commanded the Graaf Hendrik from the time that the ship was hired in 1652 until the Graaf Hendrik foundered in the storm off the Texel in November 1653.

Some interesting tidbits from Carl Stapel from early 2007

I have been the beneficiary in the past of receiving documents from Carl Stapel with the fruits of his research. What has interested me lately has been a list of Noorderkwartier ships from 1642 with sizes in lasts and dates when the ships were built. These were ships that served in 1652-1653, some with the same captain. In some cases, the nominal lasts do not match the dimensions (such as the Eendracht and Prinses Roijaal).

Adm Ship                  Built Lasts Guns Sailors Captain                 
N   Alkmaar               1639  150   22   95      Jan Warnaertsz Capelman 
N   Samson                1627  250   23   95      Floris Cornelisz Schellingkhout
N   Monnikendam           1640  150   24   95      Arent Dirckszoon
N   Kasteel van Medemblik 1640        24   95      Pieter Jacobz Schellinger
N   Stad Medemblik        1625  175   27   95      Gabriel Teuniszoon
N   Prinses Roijaal       1641  250   34  100      Cornelis Albertsz 't Hoen
N   Wapen van Holland     1639  200   28   90      Cornelis Lievensz de Zeeuw
N   Witte Eenhoorn        1626  200   34   90      Jan Tijssen
N   Hollandse Tuin        1632  250   32   97      Jan Heindrijchsz Backer
N   Eendracht             1639  300   36  101      Pauwels Vincentsz Coolen

Estimate dimensions:
150 lasts: 116ft x 25-1/2ft x 10-1/2ft
175 lasts: 120ft x 27ft x 11ft
200 lasts: 125ft x 29ft x 11-1/2ft
250 lasts: 129ft x 31ft x 12ft (estimated)
300 lasts: 130ft x 32ft x 12ft

The Battle of Dunkirk in early 1639

Our faithful reader and fellow researcher found this page that seems to give the names of the five Dutch warships in the foreground in the Van de Velde drawing of the Battle of Dunkirk on 18 February 1639: the Rotterdam, the Nassau, the Prins Hendrik, the ‘Deventer’ and the Aemilia.

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.