No.40 in the list of 22 June 1653

I still have not decided which ship is meant by the entry at no.40 in the status list dating from 22 June 1653. This was a ship with 30 guns and a crew of 120 men. The captain was named Bartold Simonssen. This was an Amsterdam Directors' ship that was missing at the time that the list was compiled. This would not have been a ship that was actually lost at the Battle of the Gabbard (the Zeeslag bij Nieuwpoort). The next ship in the list, No.41, was the Gulden Pelicaen, commanded by Barent Timonsz Soudaen, which was lost in the battle. the ship before, no.39, was the ship Burg (or Nassouw van den Burgh), commanded at this point by Lt-Commandeur Hendrick Adriaensz. Glas. The Burg now carried 38 guns and had a crew of 125 men. These were all Amsterdam Directors' ships.

The klein Zutphen on 22 June 1653

There were two ships named Zutphen that were owned by the Admiralty of Amsterdam in during the First Anglo-Dutch War. They were sometimes known as the Groot Zutphen and the Klein Zutphen. Hillebrandt Jeroenszoon de Moy commanded the smaller Zutphen in the Battle of the Gabbard (or Zeeslag bij Nieuwpoort). The Zutphen carried 26 guns and had a nominal crew of 120 men. The 26 guns consisted of 8-12pdr, 10-8pdr, 4-6pdr, 2-4pdr, and 2-3pdr guns. We are using the figures in the status list from 22 June 1653.

The Amsterdam ship Hollandsche Tuin on 22 June 1653

Joris Block commanded the Amsterdam ship Hollandsche Tuin at the Battle of the Gabbard (and at Scheveningen). This Hollandsche Tuin was a hired ship that carried just 24 guns, and these were small. The status document compiled on 22 June 1653 has some details:

No.18  Hollantsche Thuijn  Joris Block  97 men  24 guns
Length 116ft
Beam    25-1/2ft      79 men actually on board
Hold    12ft
Above    5-3/4ft

24 guns:  6-8pdr, 8-6pdr, 4-4pdr, 2-3pdr, 4-2pdr

The Amsterdam Directors' ship Sint Pieter from 22 June 1653

Gerrit Schuyt commanded the Amsterdam Directors' ship Sint Pieter in 1653. He fought in the Battle of the Gabbard on 12 and 13 June. I have this status document from 22 June that has some details of his ship:

Sint Pieter    kapitein Gerrit Schuyt

Length: 128ft  Beam: 28ft

Planned crew: 109 men  Actually on board: 96 men

Guns: 10-12pdr, 8-8pdr, 8-6pdr, and 2-3pdr

Of these, five 12pdr were unusable, as were four 8pdr guns.
Two of the 12pdr were burst as was one 8pdr gun.

The Sint Pieter had 2700 lbs of gunpowder.

The David en Goliat on 22 June 1653

These figures differ somewhat from what is usual. Perhaps they not exactly right, but the gun list is likely to be what the Amsterdam Directors' ship David en Goliat actually carried on 22 June 1653, and at the Battle of the Gabbard (Zeeslag bij Nieuwpoort). The dimensions are listed as a length of 136ft, a beam of 32ft, and a height above hold of 6-1/4ft. The crew was intended to be 125 men, but we do not know how many were actually on board. The David en Goliat had 34 guns: 18-12pdr (3 damaged), 4-8pdr, 10-6pdr, and 2-3pdr guns. This information is from the status report after the battle.

I wondered one thing about Witte de With in 1652 and 1653

When Witte de With was restored to the service by 1651, he was given the Rotterdam ship Prinses Louise (36 guns) to use as his flagship. Except for the Battle of the Kentish Knock, when he temporarily used the big East Indiaman Prins Willem (56 guns) as his flagship, he continued to use the Prinses Louise. From 1645 until he returned from Brazil after the failed mission to restore the WIC control over Brazil, he had commanded the big Rotterdam ship Brederode (54 guns). From right before the Battle of Dungeness until after the Three Days Battle in 1653, he was ashore, sick, or at least emotionally drained. He was back by April 1653, but for the rest of 1653, he flew his flag on Amsterdam ships. He was originally using an admiralty jacht with 6pdr guns as the largest gun. But he moved to using the larger ship Leeuwarden (34 guns) as his flagship through April and into May 1653. The Leeuwarden was his flagship for the raid on Scarborough. He eventually moved to the much larger ship Vrijheid. He had also started to fit out and prepare the very large ship Huis te Swieten for use as his flagship, but was not ready by the Battle of Scheveningen, so he was in the Vrijheid. By September, he had the Huis te Swieten and used it for the rest of the year. By the spring of 1654, he was back in the Brederode, the Rotterdam ship. So why was he using Amsterdam ships for this period in 1653?

The retourschip Prins Willem, built in 1649

As I have written before, Herbert Tomessen, model maker extraordinaire with Artitec, believes that the VOC retourschip Prins Willem, built in 1649, was the same approximate size as the retourschip Oranje, which fought the Duke of York at the Battle of Lowestoft in 1665. He thinks that the ships were about 170ft long and had a beam of 38ft. The famous model of the Prins Willem is in storage at the depot on the military base next to the Scheepvaart Museum. That is where Ab Hoving, the other great model maker and ship expert showed it to me. It was wrapped in plastic for protection while it was being stored. Apparently, there is some source that gives the length of the Prins Willem as being 181ft. Witte de With's journal gives the armament as 56 guns in September 1652. The Prins Willem was given back to the VOC in 1653 and went back into service making voyages to the Far East, and was eventually wrecked in 1662. The Prins Willem was a poor sailer and was difficult to steer, all of which made the ship a poor warship.

Odd names for the Dutch service

Today, I received photographs of documents of which I previously had only poor photocopies. The documents date from 1658. One document listed the six transport fluits that were taking soldiers to reinforce Copenhagen, which was under siege by Sweden. For the fluit Fruijtboom, two names appear: James Schot (Scott) and Captain Kirckpatrick (Kirkpatrick). These men appear to be Britons, serving in the Dutch army, each commanding a company of soldiers. James Schot is interesting, as Charles II's eldest son was named James Scott, later the Duke of Monmouth. He was Charles' and Lucy Walter's son, born in 1649. She died before the Restoration. James was not in the line of succession, although he thought that he should be. He was executed after the unsuccessful Monmouth Rebellion. The painting of James Scott looks something like Charles II.

Lt-Commandeur Hessel Franszoon

I have this document that I received yesterday from late July 1653. This list ships, captains, and crews, including how many men short they were. For the Friesland ship Graaf Willem, the captain is listed as being Lt-Commandeur Hessel Franszoon. I had thought that he was commander of another Friesland ship, the Sara, in place of Captain Hans Carelssen Beecke (or some such spelling). The hired Friesland ship Postpaert is also listed as being commanded by a Lt-Commandeur, in this case "t'jaert Douwes", as the document seems to say.

YouTube videos of Privateers Bounty 17th Century battles?

I am going to investigate how I might capture the video from using Privateers Bounty to run my Anglo-Dutch Wars and other 17th Century scenarios. I would run the scenarios from both sides (Dutch-English, Swedish-Dutch) and put the video on YouTube. I would demonstrate the various tactics that I employ. Privateers Bounty is a long way from being ideal, but it is the only thing that I have seen that will allow me to run these scenarios on my desktop computer.

The Windhondt and Brack in July 1653

Even though the two three-masted jachts, the Windhondt and the Brack were similar, in July 1653, there some subtle differences:

Windhondt             Brack
Capn. Heertjes        Capn. Jan Admirael

73 men, 12 men short  62 sailors and 15 soldiers

18 guns               18 guns
4-8pdr, 10-4pdr,      4-8pdr, 8-4pdr, 
2-3pdr, 2-2pdr        4-3pdr, 2-3pdr clockwijs

The list of captains from 14 June 1653

I just received a document that has a letter from Lt-Admiral Tromp and then has a list of captains in his fleet during the Zeeslag bij Nieuwpoort (the Battle of the Gabbard) on 12 and 13 June 1653. This was written just a day after the battle. After some of the captain's names is written the work "genomen" (captured). This list has the error that Jacob Claesz Duijm is named "Jan Duijm", as I have seen in The First Dutch War, Vol.V. As his name has the word "genomen", as well, it is clearly meant to be the captain of the Edam Directors' ship Vergulde Sonne (or Schellinkhout).

Names: on 20 December 1652

Here is a list of names at the bottom of a letter signed by Dutch naval officers, dated 20 December 1652, with my expansion and corrections:

Written:                        Full Name:
M:Harperts Tromp                Maerten Harpertszoon Tromp
Johan Evertsz.                   Johan Evertsen or Evertszoon
Michiel Adr.de Ruijter          Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruijter
Augustijnus Balck               Aucke or Augustijn Balck (the more usual spelling)
G: de Wildt                     Gideon de Wildt
Cornelis Evertsen               Cornelis Evertsen de Oude
Capn. Gabriel Teunisz.          Gabriel Teuniszoon
Jan de Liefde                   Jan or Johan Evertszoon de Liefde
Gillis Jansz.                   Gillis Janszoon
Jacob Pouwelsz.                 Jacob Pauwelszoon Cort
Willem Nijhoff                  Willem van Nieuhoff
Cornelis Jansz. Poort           Cornelis Janszoon Poort
Jacob Pensen                    Jacob Adriaenszoon Pensen or Penssen
Hendrick de Munnick             Hendrick Janszoon de Munnick
Corstiaen Corstiaensz.          Corstiaen Corstiaenszoon de Munnick
Joris van der Saenen            Joris van der Zaan

Zeeland ships with Tromp's fleet in late July 1652

We continue to mine our latest photographs of documents. We now look at the list of captains, and their ships with Tromp's fleet in late July 1652, for Zeeland:

Admiralty ships of Zeeland

Captain                               Ship             Guns
vice-admirael Jan Evertsen            Hollandia        38
kapitein Gillis Jansz                 Zeeridder        28
commandeur Cornelis Evertsen de Oude  Zeeuwsche Leeuw  30
Adriaen Bancker                       Westcappel       26
Adriaen Kempen                        Amsterdam        30

Admiralty ships to be deducted from the Hundred

Captain                               Ship               Guns
kapitein Lambert Bartelsz             Eendracht          18
Johannes Michielsz                    Haes               20
Jacob Wolfertsz                       Sint Joris         23
Daniel Cornelisz Brachman             Abrahams Offerande 24
Dingman Cats                          Dolphijn           24

Directors' ships of Zeeland

Middelburch

Captain                               Ship             Guns
Jan la Sage                           Gulden Haan      30
Jacob Pensen                          Gouden Leeuw     30
Johannes Regermorter                  Leeuwinne        30

Vlissingen

Captain                               Ship             Guns
Jan Thijssen                          Lam              32
Cornelis Evertsen de Jonge            Vlissingen       26
Allert Jansz                          Dubbele Arent    28

Directors of Zierickzee

Captain                               Ship                 Guns
kapitein Cornelis Rocusz Fincen       Wapen van Zierickzee 34

Directors of Veere

Captain                               Ship               Guns
kapitein Jan Oliviersz                Wapen van der Vere 38

More ships from the late July 1652 fleet list

These are more ships from the late July 1652 fleet list. The list has only the captain's names, so I have supplied ship names and guns:

Directors' ships of Hoorn

Captain                    Ship           Guns
Jacob Pietersz Houck       Sampson        30
Pieter Ariens van Blocker  Liefde         28

Directors' ships of Enckhuijsen

Captain                    Ship                   Guns
Gijsbert Malcontent        Maeght van Enckhuijsen 28
Jacob Claesz Duijm         Vergulde Sonne         28

Directors of Medemblick

Captain                    Ship           Guns
Jan Pietesz Een-arm        Sint Jeronimus 30

Directors of Edam

Captain                    Ship                Guns
Jan Freddricksz Houckhoot  Vergulde Halve Maen 30

Directors of Monnikendam

Captain                    Ship           Guns
Jacob Claesz Boot          Swarte Beer    32

Some ships with Tromp's fleet on 24 July 1652

Today, I received a list of ships that were with Tromp's fleet on 24 July 1652. Here area some of those ships (the list only has the captains, so I have added the rest):

Admiralty ships of Rotterdam

Ship      Guns Crew Commander
Brederode   54 270  Lt-Admiraal Tromp
Overijssel  22  94  kapitein Cornelis Engelen Silvergieter
Gorcum      30 130  kapitein Jan van Nes Oude Boer Jaep
Utrecht     22  90  kapitein Leendert Ariens Haexwant
Schiedam    30 131  kapitein Dirck Juijnbol
Holland     30  95  kapitein Hendrick de Munnick

Admiralty hired ships to be deducted from the hundred

Ship      Guns Crew Commander
Roscam      26  105 kapitein Corstiaen Eldertsz
Maria       26  110 kapitein Quirijn van den Kerckhoff

Directors' ships of Rotterdam

Ship      Guns Crew Commander
Hollandia   26 105  kapitein Ruth Jacobsz Buijs
Jonas       36 125  kapitein Jan de Liefde
Meerman     30 120  kapitein Jacob Cleijdijck
Sint Pieter 29 110  kapitein Isaac de Jongh
Prins       38 110  kapitein Corstiaen Corstiaensz

Admiralty ships of Amsterdam

Ship      Guns Crew Commander
Vrede       42 160  commandeur Gideon de Wildt
Overijssel  26 100  kapitein Abraham van der Hulst
Dolphijn    26  95  kapitein Gerrebrant Schatter
Star        28  95  kapitein Jacob Paulussen Cort
Leeuwarden  36 140  kapitein Govert Reael
Hoop        28 100  kapitein Joris Colerij  to be deducted from the hundred
Groningen   38 130  kapitein Joris van der Zaan
Zeelandia   36 120  lt-commandeur Nicolaes Marrevelt
Keijser     26 100  kapitein Jan ter Stege  a hired fluijt
Amsterdam   34 125  kapitein Barent Pietersz Dorrevelt
Leiden      28 105  kapitein Cornelis Hola

I continue to be perplexed about Abraham van der Hulst's ship in early 1652

Hendrick de Raedt's pamphlet says that Abraham van der Hulst commanded a Landsschip that was armed with 26 guns and had a crew of 100 men. He was with Tromp's fleet on the voyage to the Shetlands in July and August 1652. By September, Abraham van der Hulst took command of the 40-gun ship Groningen, formerly commanded by Joris van der Zaan. A letter from Johan Evertsen to the Admiralty of Zeeland, later in August 1652 gives the name of Abraham van der Hulst's ship as Overijssel. We also think that we know that Jan van Campen was busy, in early August 1652, fitting out the ship Overijssel that was built in 1650. That means that if Abraham van der Hulst commanded a ship Overissel, it was not the ship built in 1650. The only problem is that the only other obvious candidate was the ship Overijssel that Dr. Elias says was sold in about March 1652, if I have the date right.

Two Noorderkwartier ships sent to Brazil

From documents that I received today, I see that Allert Jansz Tamessen, commanding the Hoorn (or Eenhoorn) and Jan Adriaensz Backer, commanding the Hollandsche Tuin, had been in Brazil immediately prior to the outbreak of the First Anglo-Dutch War. According to Vreugdenhil's list, the Hollandsche Tuin was built in 1636 and carried 36 guns. This may have been a 250 last ship (about 128ft x 31-1/2ft x 12ft). In 1636, the Hollandsche Tuin carried 32 guns and had a crew of 90 sailors and 20 soldiers.

The Amsterdam ships on 1 May 1654

One photograph that I received today shows a list of Dutch warships in the service of the Admiralty of Amsterdam on 1 May 1654:

Ship                      Captain                       Crew  Guns
't Huijs te Swieten       Vice-Admiraal De Ruijter      200   60
't Huijs te Cruijningen   Schout-bij-Nacht Tromp        180   54
't Huijs te Oosterwijck   Commandeur de Wildt           180   56
Amsterdam                 Capitein Verburgh             170   50
Stadt en Landen           Capitein Brakel               170   48
de Vrijheijt              Capitein Van der Hulst        170   46
de Vreede                 Capitein Ijsack Sweers        140   44
Campen                    Capitein Van der Zaen         140   42
Jeunieerde Provintien     Capitein Schaef               140   40
Staveren                  Capitein Evert Anthonisz      140   40
de Landtman               Capitein Verveen              140   40
Jaersveldt                Capitein Jan van Campen       140   40
Suijderhuijs              Capitein Dirck Scheij         140   40
de Maen                   Capitein Hendrick Huijskens   140   40
Groeningen                Capitein Gilles Thijsz Campen 140   40
Phesandt                  Capitein Lapper               110   32
Leeuwaerden               Capitein Ooms                 110   34

Sailed for Brazil

de Maeght van Enckhuijsen Capitein Roeteringh           125   34
Bommel                    Capitein Swart                125   34
de Windthondt             Capitein Jan Admirael         100   18

New Friesland ships: the Oostergo

On the 8th, I received a document with dimensions of the new Friesland ships. The document dates from early 1654. One of the entries is for the new ship Oostergo:

the ship Oostergo

Length:  140ft
Beam:     36ft
Hold:     14-1/2ft
Height 
between decks: 7-1/2ft

Crew: 200 sailors: 28 officers and 172 men
       50 land soldiers

Ships named Harder

Based on what I see, the ship named Harder (116ft long) that served the Admiralty of the Noorderkwartier in 1653 and 1654 was a different ship from any Harder that served the Admiralty of Amsterdam. Ron van Maanen mentions an Amsterdam Directors' ship named Harder, of 114ft, that served in 1653-1661. He gives the same dimensions for a ship named Harder that served the Admiralty of Amsterdam from 1658-1666 and that was named Klein Harder (ultimately burned in action in 1666). At least, how I would usually interpret Ron van Maanen's entries is that when he says "Board Amsterdam" or "Board Hoorn", he means the Directors.

Tromp's flagship Brederode on 28 July 1652

This one document that I received back in early February 2007 lists Rotterdam ships and has dimensions and gun numbers. The entry for the Brederode is interesting for the dimensions. They are similar to those in the 26 February 1652 list of Rotterdam ships, and differ from those which have been widely published and which are in the Staet van Oorlog te Water for the year 1654. The dimensions are in Maas feet: 132ft x 32ft-4in x 13ft. The Brederode is stated to have 53 guns on board, but no specifics. As we are usually interested in Amsterdam feet rather than Maas feet, we convert the dimensions: 144ft x 35ft-3in x 14ft-2in. The Brederode is the size of a small English 3rd Rate from the 1650's.

Rotterdam Directors' ships in 1652

I have this general problem in that I have very little information about Rotterdam Directors' ships in service in 1652. For one ship, the Erasmus, all I have is the name, and that the captain was Sijmon Cornelsz van der Meer. The Erasmus was sunk in June 1652. For the ship Sint Pieter, commanded by Isaac de Jongh, I have the guns (29) and the crew (110) and that is all. This Sint Pieter foundered during the storm off the Shetlands in early August 1652. The other Sint Pieter was originally commanded by Adriaen de Zeeuw, but from what I have heard from Carl Stapel, he must have been wounded in the action where the Erasmus was sunk and later died. Sijmon Cornelisz van der Meer was appointed to command that ship named Sint Pieter. This Sint Pieter carried 28 guns, but they were quite light, with just a few 12pdr guns and the rest were smaller. Ruth Jacobsz Buy's ship, the Hollandia, was also lightly armed. The Hollandia carried 26 guns and had a crew of 105 men. The Hollandia was armed similarly to the Sint Pieter. Jacob Cleijdijck's ship, the Meerman, was more heavily armed, as among the 32 guns, the Meerman carried 4-24pdr. Corstiaen Corstiaenszoon's ship, the Prins, also had 4-24pdr guns and was the most heavily armed, carrying 38 guns. The other Rotterdam Directors' ship was the Jonas, commanded by Jan Evertsz de Liefde. The Jonas was armed with 36 guns, of which over half were 12pdr while the rest were smaller. The Jonas was apparently discarded after the storm in the Shetlands, as by late 1652, Jan de Liefde was Witte de With's flag captain on the Prinses Louise.

Inventories of ships

I have wondered how Ab Hoving and those like him would use the inventories of ships that still exist. There are many inventories that exist for Dutch ships in late June 1653, following the Battle of the Gabbard (the Zeeslag van Nieuwpoort). There are more inventories from November 1653, following the great storm off the Texel where many ships were lost. In some cases, the inventories include gun weights, and more have the number of the various size shot carried.

A list from 14 December 1652

One list that I have is a list of captains in Tromp's fleet on 14 December 1652. The list actually covers the ships in the fleet for the Battle of Dungeness on 10 December. I find the list for the Admiraliteit van de Noorderkwartier particularly interesting. We can do a better job of listing the ships and guns that go with captain's names:

Adm  Ship                    Guns Commander
N    Monnikendam             36   Schout-bij-Nacht Pieter Floriszoon
N    Prins Maurits           28   kapitein Cornelis Pietersz Taenman
N    Wapen van Monnikendam   24   kapitein Arent Dircksz
N    Peereboom               24   kapitein Tijs Tijmensz Peerebom
N    Tobias                  30   commandeur Johannes Bourgoigne
N    Eenhoorn                28   kapitein Jan Heck
N    Lastdrager              28   kapitein Volckert Schram
N    Schel                   24   kapitein Theunis Vechterszoon
N    Casteel van Medemblick  28   kapitein Gabriel Teuniszoon
N    Wapen van Enkhuizen     30   kapitein Herman Munnekes

More thoughts about Abraham van der Hulst's ship in early 1652

From a letter written by Johan Evertsen, following the storm in the Shetlands, we see that Abraham van der Hulst's ship is named Overijssel. We know that Hendrick de Raedt's pamphlet says that the ship carried 26 guns and had a crew of 100 men. The mostly likely scenario, I believe, is that this was the Amsterdam ship Overijssel built in 1650. The other possibility is that this was the old Overijssel that Dr. Elias said was sold on 11 April 1652. Because of that, and because I have seen no information about a second Overijssel, the odds are that this was the new Overijssel. The story would be that after the storm in the Shetlands, Abraham van der Hulst passed the Overijssel to Jan van Campen, who had been fitting out a new ship, perhaps the Campen. Abraham van der Hulst took over the 125ft 40 gun ship Groningen from Joris van der Zaan. Joris van der Zaan gave up the Groningen and took over the newly constructed 128ft 40 gun ship Campen. The other possibility is that Jan van Campen was fitting out the new Overijssel, which had laid in dock since being completed in 1650. In this scenario, Abraham van der Hulst commanded the old ship Overijssel, despite the 11 April sale date. I guess that we need to know more before we can be sure which was the case.

From the Dutch arming plan for new ships in late 1653

I just posted the 58 gun and 52 gun arming plans at Anglo-Dutch Wars from this document from late 1653:

A ship of dimensions 134 or 136ft x 36ft x 14ft with 46 guns:

Lower Deck:
 4-bronze 24pdr
10-iron 18pdr
 8-iron 12pdr

Upper Deck:
 8-bronze 12pdr
 8-iron 8pdr
 8-bronze 6pdr drakes