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Saturday, April 15, 2006

A new piece of information about the Halve Maan

The Halve Maan had been commanded by Hendrick Pieterszoon at the Battle of the Gabbard, where the ship was captured. We know that when the ship first entered service with the English, she carried 30 guns. It seems a safe guess that the ship had carried 30 guns at the Battle of the Gabbard. There are numerous instances of Dutch ships taken by the English that carried the same guns, when the first entered the English service. In case you wondered, the Halve Maan in English service initially had a crew of 110 men, a familiar number. For example, Jan Fredrickszoon Houcbout's ship, the Sampson, carried 30 guns and had a crew of 110 men. The Sampson was a Edam Director's ship. We know the English measurements, which were:
Length of Keel:              97ft
Beam outside the planking:   25ft
Depth of Hold at the center: 10ft-8in
From that, we can estimate the Dutch dimensions in Amsterdam feet:
Length from stem to sternpost: 130ft
Beam inside the planking:       28ft
Hold at the deck edge:          12ft
Sources:
  1. C. T. Atkinson, Ed., The First Dutch War, Vol. VI, 1930
  2. James C. Bender, unpublished manuscript "Dutch Ships 1600-1700", 2005
  3. James C. Bender, unpublished manuscript "Dutch Ships and the Relationship Between English and Dutch Measure", 2003
  4. Johan E. Elias, Schetsen uit de geschiedenis van ons zeewezen, Vol.V, 1928
  5. Frank Fox, Great Ships: The Battlefleet of King Charles II, 1980

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