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Saturday, May 13, 2006
The 50 Directors' ships funded in 1652
As part of the preparations for war that were instigated in 1652 by the Dutch, the Directors of the various ports were to hire ships for use a warships. They generally were either Straatsvaarders or West Indiamen. When hired, they had guns on board that could be augmented or changed. Dr. Elias, in Vol.II of Schetsen, points out that all 50 were probably not hired very quickly, as there were not enough suitable ships in some places, especially Rotterdam. J. C. De Jonge has a list of ships in service in the Dutch navy in March 1653, and he blithely assumes that the number 50 had significance, and that since 8 Directors' ships had been lost that there were 42 ships left. One variance from that is while there was a great hiring of ships, starting in March 1652, that hiring continued through 1653. We know that ships were hired from January to April 1653, for example. I am working on trying to put together a list that corresponds to the March 1653 list, and it is largely complete, but the Directors' ship list is a problem.
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