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Sunday, July 23, 2006

Which Engel Gabriel did Isaac Sweers command in 1652 and 1653?

One question is which ship named Engel Gabriel did Isaac Sweers command in 1652 and 1653? The First Dutch War, Vol.IV, on page 310 gives the ship as carrying 36 guns and having a crew of 130 men. Ship number 108 in Vreugdenhil's list matches that description (at least the guns and being lost in 1653). There is another list, this time of ships that served in De Ruyter's fleet in July to September 1652, and Isaac Sweers is included. His ship's name is omitted as is the number of guns. His crew is given as 130 men. Vreugdenhil apparently thought that ship number 16 in his list was the Engel Gabriel commanded by Adriaan van den Bosch in 1653. The number of guns is not specified but only that the ship was built in 1636 and was a States' ship. We happen to know, thanks to Carl Stapel, that a ship named Engel Gabriel, with 28 guns, was hired on 19 June 1652 in Amsterdam. We apparently have to accept this ship as the one commanded by Isaac Sweers and which was sunk by gunfire in the first day of the Three Days' Battle, on 28 February 1653. The 28 gun Engel Gabriel is about the same size as Pieter Florissen's ship, the Monnikendam, which was eventually armed with 36 guns and had a crew of 138 men. The Engel Gabriel is somewhat smaller, but not by a lot. If the ship had its armament increased to 36 guns, they could have been rather light. I am not particularly comfortable with this assessment, but there is no real other option.

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