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.