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.

Another question about 1665

Another question about 1665: there were ships named Hoorn and Eenhoorn in service in 1665 and which fought in the Battle of Lowestoft. There is every reason to think that the Eenhoorn built in 1625 had been discarded sometime after 1655. Still, a ships named Hoorn or Eenhoorn in 1665 had dimensions approximating the dimensions of the ship from 1625. The ship Hoorn, which served in the First Anglo-Dutch War, as well, was 120ft long and carried a main battery of 8pdr guns. The larger ship carried a mixed armament of varying from 12pdr down to 3 or 4pdr guns. No other ship with a similar name is mentioned from 1652 to 1655. I am tempted to think that it was the larger ship that was called Eenhoorn in 1665 and the smaller ship was called the Hoorn. The commander of the Hoorn was none other than the veteran of the First Anglo-Dutch War, Claes Cornelisz Hen (or Valehen). There is a gun list, pretty modest, for the Hoorn, while we lack a similar list for the Eenhoorn. If we had one, we might be better able to understand the situation in 1665. We also might be in better shape, analytically, if we knew about one or more other ships named Hoorn or Eenhoorn for the Admiralty of the Noorderkwartier.

The Dutch ship Monnik in 1658 and 1665

Vreugdenhil says that the smaller Monnik or Wapen van Monnikendam was the ship lost in the Baltic in 1659. The larger Monnikendam carried 32 guns in the Baltic, while the Wapen van Monnikendam carried 26 guns. However, there is a page in the Collectie Johan de Witt from 1665 that shows that the Monnik in 1665 was 116ft x 27ft. Another point is that the ship Monnik in service in 1665 had an extremely light armament. The larger ship Monnikendam carried 8-18pdr guns in 1652 to 1654. Knowledgeable people, however, swear that it was the smaller ship that was lost. From what is in Anderson's book, Naval Wars in the Baltic, the ship captured was the ship that carried 32 guns, so therefore, this was the 120ft long ship, not the smaller ship.

The Amsterdam ship Westfriesland in 1633

The question is whether the Amsterdam ship Westfriesland, listing in the Staat van Oorlog te Water for the year 1633 is the same ship that served in the First Anglo-Dutch War. The size of 180 lasts is plausible. The armament is even not that dissimilar. The main issue that the Westfriesland would be 20 years old or more in 1653. The Noorderkwartier ship Eenhoorn, built in 1625, was still in service in 1652 and 1653, so the Westfriesland being the same as the ship in 1633 is possible.

The hired ship Profeet Samuel

I noticed a little piece of trivia. The ship Profeet Samuel, hired by the Admiralty of the Noorderkwartier, was a vessel of 200 lasts, according to my calculations. The broadside weight of the Profeet Samuel was only 104 pounds. The Profeet Samuel fought in the Battle of the Gabbard (the Zeeslag bij Nieuwpoort) and was heavily damaged. The Profeet Samuel was finally discarded and the crew moved to the newly hired ship Mars in July 1653.

The ship Engel Gabriel (1636), No. 16 in Vreugdenhil's list

In the past, we had been confused about the ship Engel Gabriel (from 1636), which was number 16 in Vreugdenhil's list of Dutch ships. We now understand that the Engel Gabriel of 1636 was the jacht commanded by Gerrit Veen. It was NOT inservice until 1653. There were at least three ships named Engel Gabriel in service in 1652-1653. One was the ship commanded by Isaac Sweers, with 36 guns, that was sunk by gunfire in the Battle of Portland. Another was an Amstederdam Director's ship commanded by Bastiaan Bardoel. The third was a ship hired by the Admiralty of Amsterdam that was commanded by Adriaan van den Bosch (or Bos).

Steenstukken

On page 750 of Volume I of Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Zeewezen has two pieces of information about steenstukken ("stone guns"), which Jan Glete says are swivel guns. Page 750 lists the guns of a 36-gun ship. They include eight 3pdr steenstukken. In the table of guns, De Jonge lists a 4pdr steenstukken. I am currently using the 3pdr figure for my broadside weight calculations. I believe that I have the document that is behind this page from the Nationaal Archief in The Hague.

The Dutch ship Deventer

The Amsterdam ship Deventer too part in the campaign leading up to the Battle of the Downs in 1639. The Deventer and the larger of the two ships named Zutphen were both nominally 250 lasts. The Deventer was said to have carried 32 guns in 1636 and had a crew of 100 sailors and 20 soldiers. My guess is that the Deventer had similar dimensions to the Zutphen, which by my calculations was 240 lasts, rather than the nominal figure of 250 lasts.

The Rotterdam boeier Bonte Craij

The handwriting seems ambiguous. The "ij" could be an ""n", so that instead of Bonte Craij, it could be Bonte Cran. I am going with Ron van Maanen's reading, though, of Bonte Craij. This is from the Staet van Oorlog te Water for the year 1629. I have the Staets for 1628, 1629, 1631, 1633, and 1654. I have been making a spreadsheet where I estimate missing information. The Rotterdam boeier Bonte Craij was built in 1615 and was still in service in 1629. The Bonte Craij was a vessel of 28 lasts. My estimated dimensions are 56ft x 16ft x 6.5ft. The handwritten page does not specify the shot weight, but I would estimate the six guns were 4 pounders. There were also 12-steenstukken, which Jan Glete says were a sort of swivel gun. The crew consisted of 30 sailors. This link is to a photograph of a boeier.

More about the Agatha

A reader reminded me that the Zeeland ship Agatha, hired from the Hoorn Chamber of the VOC about 1665, later was sold to Denmark in 1666. The Agatha was renamed Faero in the Danish service. We know the dimensions, in Danish feet, for the Faero, so we can calculate the Dutch dimensions. We write the name in English as Faero, but the Danish name could be written as Farø. The dimenensions in Amsterdam feet are calculated as 132ft x 30ft x 13-1/2ft. I estimate that the deck height would be 7ft. This is a larger ship than I would have guessed. The typewritten page in Danish says that the ship was built in 1653.

The ship Agatha in 1665

The Admiralty of Zeeland hired the ship Agatha from the Hoorn Chamber of the VOC for service in the war, probably in 1665. The Agatha was classed as a jacht by the VOC. We know the guns carried by the Agatha but not the dimensions. My guess would be that the Agatha was probably about 120ft x 29ft x 11ft. The Agatha only had 4-12pdr, with the other 28 guns being smaller.

Speculation about the "Kameel"

Kameel was the name that was noted on at least one picture drawn by Willem van de Velde de Oude for Joost Bulter's ship in 1653. From actual documents, we know that his ship was actually named Stad Groningen en Ommelanden. This was a purchased ship, bought by Groningen for service with the Admiralty of Friesland. I have wondered if Kameel was the original name of the ship, prior to being purchased, and that the picture on the tafferel remained the picture of the Camel, even though the ship had been renamed Stad Groningen en Ommelanden. That is just my latest theory to try and explain why the name Kameel appeared on the drawing and in the published literature as the name of Joost Bulter's ship.

155ft is a plausible length for the Vogestruis

The ship Vogelstruis, which played an important part in battles in the First Anglo-Dutch War from August 1652 up to the Three Days Battle in early 1653, had an English-measured keel length of 116ft. If you use my rule of thumb of multiplying that by 1.33, you get 154.2 ft in Amsterdam feet for the length from stem to sternpost. The VOC ship Vrede had a length of 155ft. I have wondered if the two ships, Vrede and Vogelstruis, might have been built to the same dimensions.

I may have accidentally deleted another good email

As it was on the way to being deleted, I noticed that the subject of an email included "Karel V". It was too late, but I concluded that I had just deleted an email that I would rather have not deleted. If you sent me such an email, please send it again. I get thousands of emails a day in Yahoo Mail (where I also forward my KentishKnock mail). Most of that is caught in the Yahoo Mail spam bucket. I try to review all the mails to be sure not to delete a good email, but I sometimes miss them.

English ships and armaments in 1652 to 1654

I had spent a great deal of time in the past studying English ships during the First Anglo-Dutch War. The main problem with that period for me is ship armaments. I don't have that much trouble with having many ships with estimated dimensions based on the burden, but all my armaments in the past have been concocted. I had seen the gun lists from 1664 and later and those from Oppenheim. There are also a few tidbits in Brian Lavery's books, but the real armament information either does not exist or has not been found. We might argue that the Commonwealth, under Cromwell, was unconcerned with administration and did not keep records, although I am unconvinced. Does anyone have any idea about where to look?

If there was a Fries ship named Gelderland in 1652

There is scant evidence for the existence of a Fries ship named Gelderland and commanded by Laurens Degelcamp (or Degelencamp). The only page with that information is from the papers of De Ruyter from 1652. I admit that the most likely explanation is that it was a mistake and that Laurens Degelcamp's ship in August 1652 was the Groninger Nicolaes. I find the X mark by the Gelderland and the Sint Nicolaes fascinating, however. Perhaps I was hallucinating, but I swore that I saw a page with a ship named Gelderland and the dimensions and guns similar to the Groninger Nicolaes. My explanation would be that two ships were hired built to the same specifications. One was named Gelderland and one was named Groninger Nicolaes. Perhaps the Gelderland was lost in the Battle of Plymouth in August and Laurens Degelcamp moved to the Groninger Nicolaes. I think that the possibility that this is the case is very low, but not impossible.

The mystery around the reference to a Friesland ship named Gelderland in 1652

The First Dutch War, Vol.VI has a list of ships from Michiel De Ruyter's fleet in late July 1652. The editor of the volume, C. T. Atkinson, didn't recognize the list because of his lack of familiarity with the material. The volume was also published much later than the preceding volume. I actually have the document that the list is drawn from. The list gives the name of Laurens Degelcamp's ship as Gelderland. The Gelderland and the St. Nicolaes have big X marks next to them. My interpretation is that both ships were lost. We know that the St. Nicolaes was lost in a collision with the Rotterdam ship Gelderland. We have no other certain reference about the Gelderland, and you could easily question the existence of such a ship. I was certain, in the spring of 2007, that I saw a photograph of a page that showed the Gelderland as having the same dimensions and gun list as the Groninger Nicolaes. If I had such a page, I lost it when I ran out of email storage space and had a problem with duplicate file names of photographs. So the mystery remains. Why have we seen no other reference to a Friesland ship named Gelderland during 1652? The St. Nicolaes continued to be included in the list of Friesland ships through the war with the notation that the ship had been lost. Either the Groninger Nicolaes and the Gelderland were the same ship, or the list mentioning the Gelderland is in error. That possilibility also seems unlikely, as the rest of the information in the list is accurate.

Admiralty of the Noorderkwartier 1648-1654

We know somewhat more about the ships of the Admiralty of the Noorderkwartier in 1654, but for completeness, I think that we need to consider the entire period from the peace treaty with Spain in 1648 up through the end of the First Anglo-Dutch War. I am fairly familiar with what is in the Nationaal Archief from this period and I would agree that we do not know a very complete story about this admiralty during 1648-1654. We have hypothesized that either there is more in the Westfries Archief in Hoorn, or else the rest of the information is lost. I hope that it exists somewhere, because we have relatively good information about the other admiralties during this period.

Jan Glete's paper about the Dutch navy and state

I enjoyed reading Jan Glete's paper from 2001 about the Dutch navy and state: "The Dutch navy, Dutch state formation and the rise of Dutch maritime supremacy".

Paper for the Anglo-American Conference for Historians:
The Sea, 4-6 July 2001
University of London,
Institute of Historical Research

Convoyers of the Admiralty of Amsterdam on 9 June 1652

I found that the specified number of 18 convoyers for the Admiralty of Amsterdam in 1652 is hard to prove. I can find 15 or 16 at most. To reach 18, I would have to count ships that were later funded under the 100 ships of 1652. The Edam and Star are prominent candidates, as they were both built as warships for the Admiralty of Amsterdam. On 9 June, there were only 11 ships funded by the 100 ships for the Admiralty of Amsterdam.

A hired ship fighting in the Battle of Livorno on 14 March 1653

This is my latest attempt at a photograph of a ship at the Battle of Livorno on 14 March 1653. The ship is probably one of the large ships hired in the Mediterranean Sea by the Admiralty of Amsterdam. Most of the ships were approximately 130ft long and carried 28 guns, the largest being 12pdr guns. The crews were nominally 100 men.

Commander of the fluit Graaf Willem, later in 1653

Captain Jan Coenders commanded the hired fluit Graaf Willem in the Battle of the Gabbard. He was judged to be too inexperienced in war for further service. His luitenant, lt-cdr Hessel Gerritsz Bertson, is mentioned in a retrospective list from 22 November 1653 as commander. The Graaf Willem was a large 26-gun ship hired by the Admiralty of Friesland.

Some Rotterdam guns from 1615

I have not seen that many cases where there are the weights of guns listed, but I recently received pages that had gun weights for Rotterdam guns from 1615:

24pdr 4473 pounds
24pdr 4616 pounds
12pdr 3180 pounds
12pdr 3131 pounds
 8pdr 2070 pounds  bronze
 8pdr 2060 pounds  bronze
 6pdr 2186 pounds
 6pdr 1584 pounds
 5pdr 1600 pounds
24pdr 2480 pounds Spanish chambered piece
18pdr 1400 pounds chambered piece
 4pdr 1400 pounds bronze
 3pdr 1000 pounds bronze
 

What ship did Pieter Aldertsz command in the first part of 1652?

I have some trouble believing that Pieter Aldertsz commanded the Hoorn (32 guns) prior to August 1652. I have the list from 30 June 1652 and the list of ships from Hendrick de Raedt's pamphlet from the voyage to the Shetlands that clearly show that he commanded a ship armed with 24 guns, as if this was one of the smaller, 116ft ships, such as the smaller Enkhuizen. He definitely commanded the larger Hoorn, a 120ft ship, from late 1652 to when he was killed at the Three Days Battle. His brother Claes Aldertsz commanded the Hoorn after that for the rest of the war, I believe.

21 September 1652

I have an interesting list dated 21 September 1652. This is a list of ships of the Admiralty of Amsterdam. The list has ship names, commmanders, guns, crew, and victuals (months or weeks). A nice feature is that the list has the names of Watt convoyers and fireships, with their commanders.

The supposed 226 ships in 1652

The plan for equipping the Dutch navy in 1652 called for 226 ships: 40 convoyers funded at the peace treaty in 1648, 36 cruisers funded in 1651, 50 Directors' ships funded in 1652, and 100 ships to be hired by the admiralties in 1652. I have not seen these figures mentioned after December 1652. In fact, there were never this many ships hired at one time. There seem to have been fewer than 40 convoyers left by April 1652. All 36 cruisers were in service by then. It may be the case that all 50 Directors' ships were hired and in service by about May 1652. Almost immediately, two were lost. The Sint Laurens was captured by the English on 29 May and the Erasmus was sunk in June. There is a debate over whether there was ever a Directors' ship hired by the Stad en Lande or Groningen. The admiralties were never able to provide the 100 ships. Many were soon lost or discarded, so that by December the total had fallen well below the eighty-some actually hired. By June 1652, the the lists seem to be jumbled, in that ships that had served an admiralty were listed as Directors' ships and ships were listed under different Directors.

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).