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Wednesday, April 25, 2007

The Sint Matheeus in April to June 1653

The Amsterdam Directors' ship Sint Matheeus has always interested me, as this was the largest of the Directors' ships. There was some ambiguity about the ship, as there are two sets of dimensions mentioned with this ship name. The dimensions usually mentioned are what I have at KentishKnock.com: 140ft x 34ft x 15ft x 7-1/3ft. David de Wildt's list, from February 1652, had the more expansive dimensions mentioned by Dr. Weber, in his book about the Four Days' Battle: 144ft x 36ft x 15ft x 7ft.By late April 1653, the Sint Matheeus was armed with 42 guns. This is what Witte de With's journal gives as the armament, in May. The ship carried the 4-bronze 24pdr and had a lower deck with 12pdr guns. The upper deck was 8pdr guns. There were the obligatory 2-3pdr guns, as well. I still don't understand their purpose, but most of the Amsterdam Directors' ships had them.

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