The Dutch ship Vrijheid on 21 June 1653

I have the inventory for the Dutch warship Vrijheid, dated 21 June 1653. The thing that caught my eye was that I had thought that the Vrijheid carried 52 guns on that date, but I was wrong, the Vrijheid had 50 guns:

Lower Deck
4-24pdr
18-12pdr

Upper Deck
4-12pdr
20-8pdr
2-6pdr
2-3pdr

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.

Is there a key to the ships in the Zeeslag bij Dunkirk drawing?

I now have the drawing of the Zeeslag bij Dunkirk (18 February 1639) as my desktop picture. Is there a key to the ships in the drawing? Willem van de Velde de Oude clearly had specific ships in mind when he created the drawing. Each ship seems to be a portrait.

The sea battle at Dunkirk on 18 February 1639

Wikipedia has a good, high-resolution image of the drawing by Willem van de Velde, the Elder, of the sea battle at Dunkirk on 18 February 1639. Could someone with knowledge about the upper stern pictures could tell what ships are depicted?

My ancestor, Matilda Lehman

My ancestor, Matilda Lehman, was born 18 Oct 1812. Her son, Solomon Lehman Beardsley, told the census workers twice that his mother was born in Holland. I take that to mean the Netherlands. I don't know a birth location. Earlier censuses give her birth place as Ohio (twice). Her son was the one who said that she was born in Holland. Solomon Beardsley was the father of my great-grandmother, Jesse Beardsley. One of her family was a co-founder of Miles Laboratories, and two others were presidents of the company (Andrew Hubble Beardsley and Charles Sumner Beardsley, whom I met as a young child).

Continued Vreugdenhil commentary: 24-27

    Name                  Guns  Adty.       Date   Length   Beam    Depth
11. Edam                  28-34  A          1644   124      28      11
                  The length of this ship was said to be 120ft in the
                    Staat van Oorlog te Water for the year 1654, but
                    lists in 1652, 1653, and 1665 give the length as 124ft.

24. Goes or Ter Goes      40-48  A          1641   125      31      12
      The Staat van Oorlog te Water for the year 1654 gave the length as 124ft

25. Gorcum or Gorinchem   30-36  M          1639   115-7/11 27-3/11 10-10/11

26. Gouda                 28     A          1636*  116    29     11-1/4
      The Gouda may be one of the ships sold in 1648 and then reacquired in 1652

27. Graaf Willem          12     F          1644   74    18-1/2     8
      In 1648, the Graaf Willem was armed with 2-bronze 6pdr, 
         4-bronze 3 and 4pdr, and 6-iron 4pdr guns

More Vreugdenhil commentary

This is a continuation of what I started on the other blog:

    Name                  Guns  Adty.       Date   Length Beam   Depth
11. Edam                  28-34  A          1644   124    28     11
                  The length of this ship was said to be 120ft in the
                    Staat van Oorlog te Water for the year 1654, but
                    lists in 1652, 1653, and 1665 give the length as 124ft.

12. Eendracht             41-48  N          1639   130    32     12

13. Eendracht (galjoot)   24     M (bought) 1647

14. Eenhoorn              22*    Z          1639*  100*   25*    10*

15. Hoorn                 29-32  N          1636   120    27     11

16. Engel Gabriel (jacht) 16*    A          1636   78*    20*    8.5*
        This jacht was sold in 1637 and replaced by the Drente

17. Enkhuizen             28-30  N          1645   116    26-1/2 10
        This was the ship commanded by Dirk Gerritsz Pomp in 1654

18. Wapen van Enkhuizen   30-34  N          1645   120    29     11-1/4
        This was the ship commanded by Gerrit Femsen in 1652-1653

19. Fazant                28-32  A          1646   120    29     12
        This was the ship commanded by Jan de Lapper in 1652-1653

So are there any hidden sources for the Driedaagse Zeeslag?

From a search of the obvious sources at the Nationaal Archief in The Hague, it seems that there are no sources that give details about the Dutch ships or fleet in the Battle of Portland (early 1653), or as the Dutch call it, the Driedaagse Zeeslag. My question is if there are some sources either in private hands or in places that we have not though to look? We have Dr. Ballhausen's book, but what he has seems to be speculative, at best. I even think that his map might be incorrect. We have really good information from April to October 1653. There are good fleet lists and ship data for that period. The data for the Battle of Dungeness is adequate, but I don't have all the details that I would like. There is also said to be good data for the Battle of the Kentish Knock, such as the reports given to Witte de With after the battle, but I don't have those.

My Ancestor Matilda Lehman

I am starting to have more confidence that my ancestor, Matilda Lehman (sometimes phonetically spelled as Matilda Lemon), was born in "Holland". Both in the 1870 and 1900 United States Census, Matilda Lehman's son, Solomon Beardsley, told the census that his mother was born in "Holland". She was apparently born in 1812, although I don't know at what location. So perhaps I really do have a Dutch connection.

The Amsterdam Directors' ship Walvisch

The Walvisch (the archaic spelling) was number 38 on the list of ships in the Dutch fleet on 23 June 1653. Dr. Elias mentioned the Walvisch in his book, Schetsen uit de geschiedenis van ons Zeewezen. The ship specifications in the 23 June 1653 list are often not correct, but they still are of interest:

Length:        125ft
Beam:            29ft
Hold:              11-1/2ft
Deck height:   6ft

30 guns and a crew of 110 men

Guns:  10-12pdr, 8-8pdr, 10-6pdr, 2-3pdr

Dr. Ballhausen's book is now in snippet view in Google Books

Dr. Ballhausen's book about the First Anglo-Dutch War and the war between the Netherlands and Sweden is now in snippet view in Google Books. That is a slight improvement over not being visible at all. I have a copy of the original book, although it is not very accessible, being in German, which I know less well than Dutch. At least it is now searchable in Google Books, which can be a help.

The Friesland ship Gideon in 1631

I received a photograph of a page from 1631 with information about the Friesland ship Gideon, a pinnace used as a convoyer:

the pinnace Gideon
commanded by Tiebbe Auckes
of 96 lasts
manned by 70 men

Armed with:
2-bronze 15pdr
2-bronze 9pdr
10-iron 9pdr
4-steenstukken

I estimate a 96 last ship to have dimensions:
89ft x 23.5ft x 9.5ft x 5.5ft

This seems like some good information that our friends in Friesland might like to see.

The Amsterdam ship Haerlem in 1631

Yesterday, I received the first few pictures from an Amsterdam ship list dating from 1631. One of the ships was the Haerlem, said to be a vessel of 225 lasts. I did a calculation and the ship could be one of those with dimensions 125ft x 31ft x 12ft x 7ft, which eventually carried 40 guns. In 1631, the Haerlem carried 2-bronze 24pdr, 4-short bronze chambered 18pdr, 2-bronze 12pdr, 14-iron 12pdr, 6-iron 5pdr, and 8-steenstukken. The Haerlem had a crew of 106 men and was commended by Commandeur Hendrick Cleuter. The page is annotated with 4 July 1631.

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.

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).

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.

A list from June 1652

One list of Rotterdam ships that I received early last year was apparently compiled prior to June 1652, but is annotated to include what happened in June and July. The list is dated 28 July 1652. The Dolphijn had been in Brazil, with Philips Jacobsz Schooneman as captain. The Dolphijn is listed as 110ft x 25-1/2ft x 12-1/2ft, all in Maas feet of 12 inches. The Dolphijn was armed with 28 guns at that date. Those dimensions translate to 120ft x 27ft-9in x 13ft-7in in Amsterdam feet of 11 inches. That is, of course, quite different from what is listed in Vreugdenhil's list.

The 38 ships of the 100 hired by 9 June 1652

Dr. Elias, in Vol.II of Schetsen uit de Geschiedenis van Ons Zeewezen mentions that at first, only 38 ships of the 100 were hired. We know that by 9 June 1652, that the 38 were hired:

 8 from Rotterdam
11 from Amsterdam
 7 from Zeeland
 7 from the Noorderkwartier
 5 from Friesland

We know that some of these ships were actually built as warships. Some were sold or laid up after 1648, at the Peace. Some ships of that sort were reactivated after July 1651 as part of the 36 ships (variously mentioned as between 35 and 37 ships). Even the newly built warship Campen (40 guns) was funded by the 100 ships appropriation.

A new version of my picture of the Huis van Nassau sailing for the Sound in 1645 from the Vlie

Witte de With's fleet sest sail from the Vlie in 1645, destined for the Sound. The mission was to push the fleet of merchant ships into the Sound without paying the toll to Denmark.