Google AdSense

Amazon Ad

Monday, June 11, 2007

The Amsterdam ship Westfriesland in June 1653

From a photograph that I took a month ago, I can see that in the list from about 23 June 1653, the ship Westfriesland, of the Admiralty of Amsterdam, is listed as having a length of 122ft. I would take the dimensions in this list very tentatively, as they tend to vary from the usual dimensions. Still, the information is very good for understanding how ships were armed and manned after the Battle of the Gabbard (the Zeeslag bij Nieuwpoort). The Westfriesland was another ship with a main battery of 8pdr guns, supplemented by a few 12pdrs and some smaller. The crew size was mandated as 110 men, but only 103 were on board when this list was compiled. One bit of trivia is that the ship had 1200 lbs of gunpowder on board and had six weeks of victuals.

No comments:

Amazon Context Links