As I have previously written, many ships were hired by the Directors of the various port cities, starting in January 1653

Some interesting handwritten documents still exist that give information about ships hired by the Directors of the various Dutch port cities. Most of what exists is for the Amsterdam Directors. I only know about these documents because of Jan Glete's book, Navies and Nations. I contacted him and he provided me more information, and Rick van Velden, at the Nationaal Archief was able to find many of the documents, along with a few Jan Glete had not seen. Ron van Maanen had told Jan Glete about them, when Jan was doing research for Navies and Nations (as I understand).

These are ships that are mentioned in the manuscripts that I have, that were mentioned starting in January 1653. Some were not hired then, but just appear in lists:

10 January 1653

Ship          Length Beam    Hold   Height  Guns
                                    Between
                                    Decks
Engel Michiel 120ft  27.75ft 13ft   6.75ft  28 guns: 10-12pdr, 8-8pdr, 8-6pdr, 2-3pdr
Sint Pieter   123ft  28ft    12.5ft 6.5ft   28 guns: 10-12pdr, 8-8pdr, 8-6pdr, 2-3pdr

27 January 1653

Ship          Length Beam    Hold Height       Guns
                                  Between
                                  Decks
Samson        119ft  28ft    13ft 6.25 or 6.5ft 28 guns: 10-12pdr, 8-8pdr, 8-6pdr, 2-3pdr

28 January 1653

Ship                 Length Beam    Hold    Height  Guns
                                            Between
                                            Decks
Hollandsche Tuin     130ft  29ft    13.5ft  6.75ft  32 guns: 4-18pdr, 10-12pdr, 8-8pdr, 8-6pdr, 2-3pdr
Moor                 137ft  31ft    13.5ft  7ft     34 guns: 20-12pdr, 12-6pdr, 2-3pddr
Moorin               125ft  29ft    12.75ft 7ft     28 guns: 10-12pdr, 8-8pdr, 8-6pdr, 2-3pdr

30 January 1653

Ship          Length Beam    Hold Height  Guns
                                  Between
                                  Decks
Catharina     125ft  28.5ft  13ft 7ft     28 guns: 10-12pdr, 8-8pdr, 8-6pdr, 2-3pdr

18 March 1653


Ship            Length Beam    Hold   Height  Guns
                                      Between
                                      Decks
Gulden Pelicaen 126ft  26.75ft 12.5ft 6.25ft  28 guns: 10-12pdr, 8-8pdr, 8-6pdr, 2-3pdr

4 April 1653

Ship                 Length Beam    Hold    Height  Guns
                                            Between
                                            Decks
Keurvorst van Keulen 131ft  30ft    13.25ft 7ft     34 guns: 18-12pdr, 10-8pdr, 4-6pdr, 2-2-3pdr
Koning David         124ft  29ft    13ft    7ft     28 guns: 12-12pdr, 8-8pdr, 8-6pdr, 2-3pdr
Schacht den Harculus 120ft  28.5ft  13ft    7ft     28 guns: 10-12pdr, 10-8pdr, 6-6pdr, 2-3pdr

There are a few other ships that we know about that do not appear in the documents that I have:

Adm    Ship                 Guns Crew
Mi-Dir Bonaventura          ?    ?    ex-English Anthony Bonaventure
Mi-Dir Gekroonde Liefde     34   145
Me-Dir Koning Radboud       28   100
Ho-Dir Purmerland           34
A-Dir  Walvisch             30   110