36pdr guns in the Dutch navy

Prior to 1665, and even after that, very few Dutch warships carried any 36pdr guns. The Aemilia and Brederode, both flagships, both carried them, as did the Eendracht blown up at the Battle of Lowestoft in 1665. Michiel De Ruyter's flagship, the Zeven Provincien carried more 36 pdrs than any Dutch ship previously seen, as it had 12 in 1666. The Aemilia and Brederode carried four each. A few other ships had 36pdrs. For example, the Groene Draeck, 250-last ship built in 1623, carried two of them. The Hof van Zeeland, lost at the Four Days' Battle had two, as well. The Delfland, Michiel De Ruyter's flagship in the summer and early fall of 1665 carried one 36pdr. Sources:

1. James C. Bender, unpublished manuscript "Dutch Ships 1600-1700", 2006
2. H.A. van Foreest and R.E.J. Weber, De Vierdaagse Zeeslag 11-14 Juni 1666, 1984
3. Ron van Maanen, unpublished manuscript "Dutch Warships 1600-1800", undated but circa 1992

One thing that interests me are keel lengths for Dutch ships

They only seem to be scarcely documented, but there are some keel lengths known for Dutch warships. They seem known for more ships built from the 1680's and beyond. Ron van Maanen has some of them in his long document:

Adm   Ship                Date Length    Keel Length  Length to Keel
A     Argo                1772 149ft-9in 140ft-2in    1.0688
N     Arnhem              1693 145ft     123-1/2ft    1.174
A     Beemster Koe        1686 138ft     115ft        1.2
N     Beschermer          1690 170ft     146-1/4ft    1.1624

Sources:

1. Ron van Maanen, unpublished manuscript "Dutch Warships 1600-1800", undated but circa 1992

One continuing mystery: the Dutch prize Bear, taken by the English

Somehow, Ron van Maanen has Dutch specifications for ship that was taken by the English and which served as the Bear. This ship is still a mystery, since the obvious conclusion was that this was the Monnikendam Directors' ship commanded by Jacob Claesz Boot in the summer of 1652. The Swarte Beer still seems to have been in service with the Dutch in August 1653, by now commanded by Jan Cornelisz Oli. This was a large ship, 132ft long, with 32 guns.

The Amsterdam ship Banier from 1691

The Amsterdam ship Banier was built in 1691 during the War of the English Succession. The Banier was built by Hendrik Cardinaal at Amsterdam. There was another report that the Banier had been built by Jan van Rheenen. Ron van Maanen has the details about the Banier. The dimensions were 145ft x 39ft x 15ft. The Banier carried 64 guns and had a crew of 325 men. The armament consisted of 24-18pdr, 24-12pdr, and 16-6pdr guns. The Banier was broken up in 1719 (or, perhaps, in 1718). Sources:

1. Ron van Maanen, unpublished manuscript "Dutch Warships 1600-1800", undated, but circa 1992

The Burcht van Leiden of 1653

Ron van Maanen has the details about the Amsterdam ship Burcht van Leiden, which was built at Edam in 1653 by Pieter Pietersz "Ouwtdaas". The contract called for a ship that was 130ft long with a 13ft hold. The ship was built larger than that. The ship survived at Amsterdam until 18 April 1685, when the ship was to be sold at auction, since it had become "unservicable". The dimensions usually given were 132-1/2ft x 32ft x 13-1/2ft, with a height between decks of 7ft. In April 1655, the guns were listed as 4-18pdr, 22-12pdr, 14-8pdr, and 4 drakes (probably 6pdr). The ship was often called the Burgh van Leiden. Sources:

1. Ron van Maanen, unpublished manuscript "Dutch Warships 1600-1800", undated, but circa 1992

Game programming books

I am still a rookie game programmer. I have done a small amount of 2D Blitz Basic programming, using the Visual Blitz IDE, but that is all I have done. I am an experienced Java programmer, so in my continuing program to get to the point that I can do some game programming, I purchased Jonathan Harbour's book Beginning Java 5 Game Programming. Last week, my wife bought me a book called The Game Maker's Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners, by Jacob Habgood and Mark Overmars (a Dutch professor). I am interested in developing simulation-style naval wargames for 17th Century naval gaming. I at least have the continuing delusion that I might have something to contribute on the subject. I suspect that my first effort will be 2D, not 3D, due to the difficulty of generating 3D models.

We should be able to estimate the rake and thickness of the side for Dutch ships captured by the English

Where we have both Dutch dimensions and English dimensions when a Dutch ship was captured and the dimensions were recorded, we should be able to estimate the rake and the thickness of the planking on the side. We might use the Amsterdam ship Edam. The only possible issue is that the length is somewhat in dispute. The usual length given is 120ft, but we have instances where the length was given as 124ft. If we use the "classic" dimensions, we find:

The ship Edam or Wapen van Edam, called the Black Bull by the English

Dutch Measurements

      Amsterdam ft English ft
Length  120ft      111ft-4in
Beam     28ft       26ft
Hold     11ft       10ft-2.5in

English Measurements 

      Amsterdam ft English ft
Keel    92ft-7.5in  86ft
Beam    30ft-6in    28ft-4in
Depth   12ft-1in    12ft

If this has any validity, we might think that the rake was 120ft - 92ft-7.5in, or 27ft-3.5in. The thickness of one side is (30ft-6in - 28ft)/2 = 1ft-3in. If we feel daring, we would see if we can tell the camber of the deck. The Dutch measured the hold at the side, where the deck connected with the side. The English measured at the high point, under the deck at the center. They may not have measured from the same place, but let us imagine that they did. That would make the deck camber 1ft-1in, seems rather high. I took these figures from an old post from 2004.

Carl Stapel says that I am mistaken about the Groninger Nicolaes and Gelderland

Carl Stapel says that the Groninger Nicolaes (or Groninger Sint Nicolaes) and the Gelderland were two separate ships. He says that they both took part in the Battle of the Kentish Knock. Despite the fact that I had seen the page with Laurens Hermansz Degelcamp in command of the Gelderland, I cannot find the photograph, today.

The ships Gelderland and Groeningen Nicolaes were the same ship

I have photographs of pages from the Nationaal Archief that show that the ships Gelderland and Groeningen Nicolaes were the same ship. This was a small ship with dimensions of 106ft x 25-1/2ft x 11ft, with a height between decks of 5-3/4ft. The guns were 4-8pdr, 8-6pdr, 10-4pdr, and 2-2pdr, according to Ron van Maanen. He says that this was a pinnace hired in Groningen in 1652, so that seems to rule out that this was a ship in service prior to the war.

I will be switching to a new look soon

To ease the difficulties in Blogger template maintenance, I will soon be switching 17th Century Naval Wargaming to the new style template, which is much easier to maintain.

I went to photograph some of the pictures from the Hollandsche Mercurius...

I had forgotten that the edition of the 1652 and 1653 Hollandsche Mercurius that I have lacks the nice Reinier Nooms drawings. I went to photograph them over the weekend and realized that I don't have them. I remember now, that when I received my copy a year ago, I saw that there were no drawings. I had also tried to get the James Ford Bell Library to make copies for me, in 2001, but I was only able to get a few. I may have to hire someone to photograph them for me. I do have this one image, showing Tromp fighting the Garland. It is rather large, although the file is just 62K:

The ship Faem, hired in 1642 for service in the Sound

In 1642, the Admiralty of Amsterdam hired ships for service in the Sound. Carl Stapel had sent me copies of the documents some time ago. I could not read several names that were obscured by dark patches, but by adjusting contrast and brightness, I could read the name of this ship. I had photographed the paper copy, which as usual, contains more information than is visible. These are the ship details:

The ship Faem, hired in 1642

Length from stem to sternpost: 118ft
Beam:                           28-1/2ft
Hold:                           14-1/4ft
Height between decks:            6-1/2ft

26 guns: 2-bronze 12pdr, 2-iron 12pdr, 14-iron 8pdr,
         2-copper 8pdr, 4-iron 5pdr, 2-iron 4pdr

A matter of vision

One thing that I found out from my work with digital photographs of documents is that much of my difficulties with reading pages in gothic typeface stem from the small size. I also find that adjusting the brightness and contrast, in conjunction with zooming in to larger size, that I do much better reading the text than if I am left with reading paper with the gothic type face. If I am trying to read from images of copies, the resolution really makes a difference. I have found that pages that I scanned from copies are much lower resolution than photographs, and the images with gothic typeface are much more difficult to read. I probably need to photograph my copies of the Onstelde-Zee, from the James Ford Bell Library at the University of Minnesota, to see if that helps readability. High-resolution digital cameras are good; scanners are not.

Quite a few Dutch ships had been lost or discarded by January 1653

I have a document dating from January 1653 that shows what it says are original numbers funded at the start of the war and those remaining in service:

Ships

Ordinary Convoyers

Originally
in
service  Admiralty     Remaining
 6       Rotterdam         3
16       Amsterdam        14
 8       Zeeland           7
 6       Noorderkwartier   4
 2       Friesland         0

36       Total            28


of the 36 against the French

Originally
in
service  Admiralty     Remaining
 6       Rotterdam         4
14       Amsterdam        13
 7       Zeeland           7
 7       Noorderkwartier   6
 2       Friesland         0

36       Total            30

of the 50 Directors' ships

Originally
in
service  Admiralty     Remaining
 7       Rotterdam         4
24       Amsterdam        16
 9       Zeeland           8
 7       Noorderkwartier   6
 3       Friesland         3

50       Total            30


of the planned hundred

Originally
in
service  Admiralty     Remaining
 9       Rotterdam         6
33       Amsterdam        24
16       Zeeland           9
10       Noorderkwartier   5
15       Friesland         9

83       Total            53

there was also the ship
Vogelstruijs of the East Indies Company

I had forgotten that Nico Brinck said that Dutch guns were bronze, not brass

I believe that Frank Fox always says that 17th Century guns were brass, but Nico Brinck, sea captain, who is into marine archaeology and Dutch guns, says that they were bronze. I had forgotten that is what he had told me. I looked up the old mail from late December 2004, and read that again. I had a question about what a "copere" gun meant, as opposed to "metaele", which is bronze.

Rombout van der Parre's ship in 1652

I have a page that gives the name of Rombout van der Parre's ship. The ship belonged to the Admiralty of Friesland and was named, in this document, "Princesse Albartina van Orangie". The crew was quite small, there being 68 sailors and 12 soldiers. The "main battery" consisted of iron 6pdr guns, supplemented by 6-8pdr and some 3 and 4pdr guns.

The second Friesland 36-gun ship

I have a page from a list of the Dutch navy, dated 28 November 1652, that indicates that there was a second Friesland ship that carried 36 guns, besides Hendrick Jansz Camp's ship, the Wapen van Nassau. That second ship did not have a name listed. Yesterday, I found out what that ship was. I received a photograph of a page that has dimensions, gun list, and crew for a 36-gun ship that does not have a name on the page. The page is from a list of Friesland ships dated 3 December 1652, just five days after the list was prepared. There is just an indication that this was a new ship. I immediately recognized that this was the ship that eventually went into service as the Zevenwolden and which was sunk at the Battle of Scheveningen.

Abraham van der Hulst, in 1652, up to August

I now have photographs of a list from 30 June 1652 that shows that yes, Abraham van der Hulst commanded a 26-gun ship at that date, as indicated by Hendrick de Raedt's list. The question remains: "which ship was that?" I do have the list, dating from 28 November 1652, that shows how the ships were divided into "convoyers funded at the peace in 1648", "the 36 cruisers funded in 1651", and the "hundred ships of the extraordinary equipage, funded in 1652". I would hazard a guess that the ship was one of the convoyers from 1648. My experience has been that when (if we ever do) we know the identity of his ship, we would say "Oh, yeah, of course!" The only thing that I can think to do is to take the list from 30 June 1652, and compare that against the list from 28 November, and look for ships from the latter list that we can't find in the first list. That would be the ship, if there is such a ship.

Some new information about Noorderkwartier hired ships

I just received a photograph (this one somewhat out of focus) of a page that gives the gun lists for the Noorderkwartier hired ships Peereboom and Vergulde Schel. Considering that they both fought through the First Anglo-Dutch War, the surprising thing is how light their armament is. The Peereboom has a main battery of 6pdr guns, with four 8pdrs and some smaller. The Vergulde Schel had 10 3 or 4pdr guns, with some 6 and 8pdrs, as well.

Rotterdam Directors' ships from 16 May 1652

I have a list of Dutch warships dating from 16 May 1652. This is not a fleet list, but a list of ships in service at that date. For the Rotterdam Directors, the list convirms the captains' names that are in Hendrick de Raedt's list, published after the storm in the Shetlands in early August 1652. This list gives the following captains, to which I have added ship information:

Adm    Ship        Guns Crew Captain
R-Dir  Meerman     32   110  Jacob Cleijdijck
R-Dir  Erasmus     ?    ?    Sijmon Corneliszoon (van der Meer)
R-Dir  Jonas       36   125  Jan de Lieffde
R-Dir  Sint Pieter 28   110  Adriaen de Zeeuw
R-Dir  Sint Pieter 29   110  Isaack de Jongh     short of 10 men
R-Dir  Hollandia   28   110  Ruth Jacobsz Buijs  short of  8 men

This list does not include Corstiaen Corstaiensz de Munnick's ship, the Prins. Sources:

1. Hendrik de Raedt, Lyste van de schepen van Oorloge onder het beleyt Admirael Marten Harpersz. Tromp, 1652
2. list of Dutch warships dating from 16 May 1652, attached to letter from Lt-Admiraal Tromp

Jan Olivierszoon's ship

From 1652 to 1653, Jan Olivierszoon commanded the Veere Directors' ship that I have seen called the "Wapen van der Vere" (you would expect something like "Wapen van Veere"). From the page that had the handwritten name "Wapen van der Vere", there were the dimensions: 123-1/2ft x 28ft x 12ft. I only noticed this morning that I have a photograph of a page that has a gun list for Jan Olivierszoon's ship. The sum claims to have 38 guns, but I could only see 34 guns: 4-brass 18pdr, 4-iron 12pdr, 18-iron 8pdr, 4-iron 6pdr, and 4-iron 3pdr. The page gives his crew as 125 men, consisting of sailors and soldiers. The date seems to be 27 November 1652, if I am reading the three letters correctly, as "nov".

Could the small ship Roode Hart be the captured English Hart?

The last ship in a list of Zeeland ships is named the Hart. The Hart was commanded by Jan Franssen Wasel. The Roode Hart was a 70ft-long "boot", with a crew of 40 men and an armament of 8 iron 4pdr guns. I had forgotten that this was the "Roode Hart", not just the "Hart", so perhaps it is not the English prize.

The frigates Overijssel and Utrecht were of the 100 ships of 1652

I was surprised to learn that the old Rotterdam frigates Overijssel and Utrecht were among the 100 ships funded in early 1652 for the First Anglo-Dutch War. These were both built as warships, and were of the same design as the frigate Gelderland, which was one of the 40 convoyers funded in 1648, at the peace. A list dated 28 July 1652 and another dated 28 November 1652 both confirm this fact.

In a list from late 1652, there is a note that Jan Bourgoigne commanded Willem Ham's ship

In a recently received document photograph, there is confirmation that Jan Bourgoigne commanded Willem Ham's ship. Willem Ham had commanded the Noorderkwartier ship Sampson, a landsschip, in the Battle of Dover on 29 May 1652, where he was wounded. His luitenant apparently commanded the Sampson on 22 July 1652 when the Sampson was taken by the English. Willem Ham was eventually appointed captain of the Noorderkwartier hired ship Tobias. The Tobias would be the ship that Jan Bourgoigne commanded at the Battle of Dungeness on 10 December 1652.

This list from late 1652 calls Claes Jansz Sanger "Claes Janssen Zanger"

I just received photographs of this wonderful list of Zeeland ships that dates from late 1652. In that list, the man that I usually call Claes Janszoon Sanger is called Claes Janssen Zanger. That does not surprise me particularly, as there is the constant interchange in use between the "sen" and "zoon", the former seeming more Scandanavian. So Janszoon (Jan's son) becomes Janssen. There is also the interchange between Z and S a great deal in 17th Century writing. There are also several occasions, such as Witte de With's journal in May 1653 when Claes Jansz Sanger is called "kapitien Claes". In May 1653, he commanded the ship Milde Maarten (26 guns).

Carl Stapel has the correct dimensions for the Essen

Carl Stapel sent me his information about the Essen, or Wapen van Essen. The dimensions should be 142ft x 36-3/4ft x 14ft. The armament from 1665 seems extremely odd, with the largest guns being 12pdr and there being 38-8pdr guns!

The Amsterdam ship Essen

Ron van Maanen has the dimensions for the Amsterdam ship Essen that was sunk after the Battle of Stromboli on 8 January 1676: 148ft x 42ft. At KentishKnock.com, I have a page with the Dutch order of battle. If you move up one level, you can get to my OOBs for the other battles in 1676.

Several ships named "Amsterdam" from 1652-1653

Ron van Maanen has two entries for ships named Amsterdam from the Admiralty of Amsterdam. One is for a ship with dimensions 120ft x 29ft x 11ft, with a height between decks of 6-3/4ft. This could be the ship commanded by Barent Pietersz Dorrevelt that was lost in the storm in the Shetlands in 1652. The second entry uses the same dimensions with question marks after them. He shows dimensions for another ship that has a length of 130ft and a hold of 13ft. This seems to be the ship Amsterdam that was originally commanded by Sijmon van der Aeck and later by Paulus Egbertsz Sonck. That ship carried 10-12pdr, 8-8pdr, 8-6pdr, and 4-3pdr guns. The other armament for a ship named Amsterdam that is listed by Ron has 18-12pdr, 10-6pdr, and 2-4pdr guns. One occurance of that gun list is in 1651. Another in in November 1653. The 130ft ship's armament is listed with a date of 16 November 1652. Sources:

1. Ron van Maanen, unpublished manuscript "Dutch Warships 1600-1800", undated, but circa 1992
2. list of Admiralty of Amsterdam hired ships from 1652 from the Wrangell Collection, 1652

Hendrick Ernestus de Bertrij's ship, the Hollandia

I received photographs of documents from the Nationaal Archief today. One shows some information about kapitein Hendrick Ernestus de Bertrij's ship, a pinnace named Hollandia. The Hollandia had a crew of 80 sailors and 20 soldiers. The armament consisted of 24 guns: 4-8pdr, 10-6pdr, 8-4pdr, and 2-2pdr guns. The Hollandia served with Witte de With's squadron during the spring and summer of 1652. The ship was discarded later in October 1652, after being inspected by Lt-Admiraal Tromp.

"Claes Hen"

I had forgotten that "Claes Hen" refers to Claes Cornelisz Valehen, who distinguished himself in the Second and Third Anglo-Dutch Wars. He had started the First Anglo-Dutch War as commander of a fireship. In the entry in Witte de With's journal for 8 July 1653, he mentions Capt. Claes Hen, on a ship with 24 guns and a crew divided between 38 "coppen" and 52 "alsont"(?). The ship carried victuals for 13 weeks and water for 9 weeks. The ship was the Schel or Vergulde Schel, which had been commanded for the first part of the war by Teunis Vechterszoon.

The Rotterdam ship Delft built in 1655

Ron van Maanen has the dimensions of the frigate Delft built in 1655. This must be the ship that Vreugdenhil says sank in harbour in 1658. The dimensions that Ron gives are 117ft x 29-3/4ft x 12-1/6ft. He says that they are in Maas feet. If that is so, then the dimensions in Amsterdam feet would be 127-7in x 32ft-5in x 13ft-3in. That would be a much larger ship. I just consulted Carl Stapel's list "Staet van de monture van de schepen anno april 1655", and that agrees on the dimensions. If the 32 guns given by Vreugdenhil is correct, then that must be the light peacetime armament designed for extended operations that was typical in 1654, in the Staet van Oorlog te Water. The Delft of 1655 seems to have been one of a group of ships built to these dimensions. The others were the Prins Willem, Prins Maurits, Prins Hendrick, and Utrecht from 1654 and the Dordrecht, Delft, Rotterdam, and Briel from 1655. Sources:

1. Ron van Maanen, unpublished manuscript "Dutch Warships 1600-1800", undated, but circa 1992
2. Carl Stapel, unpublished manuscript "Staet van de monture van de schepen anno april 1655", 2006
3. A. Vreugdenhil, Ships of the United Netherlands 1648-1702, 1938

Analyzing documents

Over at Anglo-Dutch Wars, I have tried transcribing and annotating a list from a document that I received in 2003 from the Nationaal Archief in The Hague. I have found that you cannot analyze information in a vacuum. If you have only seen one document or item in a published source, you probably do not have enough background to interpret what is there. The problem with all published sources is that there are errors. On the later volumes of The First Dutch War, C. T. Atkinson lacked the exposure to the subject matter than Dr. Gardiner had, so he made more errors, especially in the early volumes, but in all, even Vol.VI. In several cases, we have benefitted from the mistakes, as he put material in the work that we would not have seen if he understood the material better. For example, there is an English list from 1649 that was put into Vol.III, because Mr. Atkinson could not date the material. If he had known more, he would have recognized that this was prior to the 1650's.

Ron van Maanen calls the Harder "Grote Herder"

I believe that the ship that Ron van Maanen calls the "Grote Herder" is the larger of the two ships named Harder that appears in lists dating from May 1665. J. C. De Jonge had reproduced a document published in 1665 that includes ships not actually with the fleet. The Harder was one of those, as I recall. Ron has the length and beam: 118ft x 29ft. He also lists the guns as 18-12pdr, 16-6pdr, and 4-3pdr. He says that the armament was listed at 38 guns and the crew as 140 men. My list, derived partly from Brandt's biography of De Ruyter, gives the captain as Floris Florisz Bloem, and the crew as 134 sailors, 17 marines, and 5 soldiers in 1665. I see that Floris Florisz Bloem commanded the Groote Harder through the period of 1665 to 1667. Sources:

1. James C. Bender, unpublished manuscript "Dutch Ships 1600-1700", 2006
2. Ron van Maanen, unpublished manuscript "Dutch Warships 1600-1800", undated but circa 1992

In a May 1653 list the Roskam is listed as a Rotterdam Directors' ship

In Witte de With's journal, on page 121 from May 1653, he listed what he said were four Rotterdam Directors' ships. He actually only has the captains' names, the guns, and the crew size. We can supply the ship names:

Adm   Ship            Guns Crew Commander
R-Dir Hollandia       26    95  kapitein Ruth Jacobsz Buys
R-Dir Roskam          24    95  kapitein Corstiaen Eldertsz
R-Dir Sint Pieter               Sijmon Cornelisz van der Meer
R-Dir Prins           38   168  Jacob Cleijdijck

The Roskam is usually considered to be a ship hired by the Admiralty of the Maze (or Rotterdam), rather than the Directors. From May to August 1653, the lists seem to have the ships assigned to different organizations than we have thought, based on other sources. We believe that the Sint Pieter carried 28 guns and had a crew of about 93 men.