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