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Saturday, September 22, 2007

Captain "Belevelt" revisited

The only place that I have seen the name of a Friesland captain named "Belevelt" is in Witte de With's lists from September 1652. In this one list, from 25 September, which has the section labeled "Admiralty Ships of Friesland", there are the following entries:
                          Crew   Guns Weeks of Victuals
Capn. Belevelt
Capn. Wickelma             108   29   13
Capn. Degelcam              77   28   11
Capn. Adriaen Bruijnsvelt  103   28   13

Our working hypothesis is that "Belevelt" is a corruption of Bulter, Joost Bulter's last name. I find that explanation pretty unsatisfying, however.

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