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Monday, April 03, 2006

"Captain Volderij" is actually Joris Caulerij

The First Dutch War, Vol.V, has a list of ship, showing their remaining gunpowder and damage after the Battle of Scheveningen. The list is called "Report on Condition of Ships", and addresses ships belonging to the Admiralty of Amsterdam. One entry has the name "Captain Volderij". I was suspicious of the name, and sure enough, I found that the captain of the Jonas was Joris Caulerij (Colerij). One list in The First Dutch War calls him "Joris der Taullerye". His name seems to have been frequently mangled in the process of transcription from handwritten documents, in the preparation of The First Dutch War, particularly by C. T. Atkinson. By the way, the entry in the list says that the Jonas had two men killed and two wounded in the battle. The ship lost her foresail yard ("shot to pieces") and had a damaged mizzen mast. The ship was leaky, and taken three shots below the waterline. She also must have lost her rudder, as she had to be steered by her sails. She had fired off 1,300 lbs. of the 5,200 lbs. that she had at the start of the battle. That would be about 13 barrels of powder, as one keg was 100 lbs. according to one source. Sources:
  1. C. T. Atkinson, Ed., The First Dutch War, Vol.IV, 1910
  2. C.T. Atkinson, Ed., The First Dutch War, Vol.V, 1912

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