The Amsterdam ship Overijssel in 1655

By May of 1655, the 112ft Amsterdam ship Overijssel carried a much lighter armament than it had previously. Initially, the Overijssel carried a lower tier of 10pdr guns. By 1655, the armament was now mixed, with six 12pdr and the rest 8pdr guns. The 6pdr guns seem to have been retained and there were two "drakes", which could have been the original 3pdr drakes. The new broadside was about 111 pounds while the original broadside weight was 147 pounds. We could imagine that the 10pdr gun was now non-standard and there could have been a desire to move to the standard shot weights. The ship would probably have carried a lighter armament, although we would have to know the weights of the guns to be sure. Of course, we don't have those figures.

A bothersome fact about 17th Century Dutch ship data

I just received the photographs for pages showing Amsterdam ship specifications, dating from 1655. The bothersome feature is that while they are consistent with what was published by Vreugdenhil in 1938, they differ considerably from lists dating from 1652 and 1653. I knew that this was the case, but the dimensions for many Amsterdam ships are what is different. In one case, the length is shown as five feet shorter (for the Maeght van Enkhuizen).

A Friesland ship in 1655 named Omlandia

I am now receiving photographs of documents from 1655. There is one page that shows a ship of the Admiralty of Friesland that is named Omlandia. This is a ship of approximately the dimensions of the Zevenwolden that was sunk at the Battle of Scheveningen. The Omlandia was also 122ft long. The Omlandia only carried 30 guns, unlike the Zevenwolden, which carried between 34 and 38 guns at different dates. The ship in this document doesn't match other listing that I have seen for a Friesland Omlandia in service in 1655.

La armada invencible by Cesáreo Fernández Duro

I suddenly thought of looking to see if La armada invencible By Cesáreo Fernández Duro might be available through Google Books, and it was. I just downloaded the PDF file. I had despaired of ever finding the book and now I (sort of) have it. This is an important source book, from the Spanish perspective, about the Spanish Armada. The book is reportedly based on a cache of documents discovered in an old Spanish castle, back in the latter 19th Century.

Fort Rammekens in Google Earth

In Google Earth, I can see Fort Rammekens and the sandy beaches nearby where ships could be beached and careened. The picture is copyrighted by the Aerodata International Surveys, so you probably just need to get Google Earth and go the area east of Vlissingen.

"Aitzema" in Google Books

It is amazing, but Google Books has Lieuwe van Aitzema's work Historie of Verhael van Saken van Staet en Oorlogh In / ende omtrent de VEREENIGHDE NEDERLANDEN. I am not sure if they have the entire work or just part, but they may have the entire thing. It is heavy going, but if you have references that point into the work, you can find interesting passages.

More Vlissingen

I would like to show the Google Maps satellite view of Vlissingen, but I probably should let you go and look, yourself, due to "rights" issues. One nice thing is that Wikipedia has a picture of Fort Rammekens, near Vlissingen. There was a sandy area near there where ships could be beached, repaired, and have their bottoms cleaned. That was how the Rammekens was used after the Battle of the Gabbard, when about two-thirds of the Dutch fleet anchored off of Vlissingen. The Wikipedia page is in Dutch.

My concept of a compact Dutch ship of the line

In a picture book of ships that I had, there was a picture of a Dutch warship from the early 1600's. The ship had fewer than 20 guns, but the lower tier might have been 18pdr guns. When I later saw that Michiel De Ruyter's flagship during the summer of 1652 had only 28 guns, I imagined that the Neptunus was armed in a similar fashion. I was wrong, of course. His ship was just very weak. The only ship that I have seen described has having an armament like what I had seen was the Rotterdam ship named Rotterdam, which was said to have a lower tier of 18pdr guns, with a gun total of 30 guns. In June 1653, the Rotterdam had a more conventional armament, but the Staet van Oorlog te Water for the year 1654 had the 18pdr lower tier, as did lists from 1652.

Deployment of Amsterdam ships in June 1652 (Revised)

While reading documents that I received a year ago, I found some answers to how to fill in the outline of how Amsterdam ships were deployed in June 1652, but the letter with the list dates from December 1652. The list only has the names of captains, but I think that I can fill in ship names:

In the Mediterranean Sea

Commandeur Joris van Cats        Jaarsveld              44 guns
kapitein Anthonis van Salingen   Zon                    40 guns
kapitein David Jansz Bont        Maan                   40 guns
kapitein Hendrick Claesz Swart   Vereenigde Provincien  40 guns
kapitein Dirck Quirijnen Verveen Haarlem                40 guns
kapitein Jan Uijttenhout         Zutphen                34 guns
kapitein Cornelis Tromp          Maeght van Enkhuizen   34 guns

Cruising off Cape St. Vincent

Commandeur Gideon de Wildt          Vrede               42 guns
kapitein Cornelis van Velsen        Gelderland          28 guns
kapitein Jan Jansz Boermans         Prins Willem        28 guns
kapitein Govert Reael               Leeuwarden          34 guns
luitenant-commandeur Jan van Campen Windhond            18 guns

I had thought that there was a problem with the Overijssel and Jan van Campen and Abraham van der Hulst, but I saw the notes derived from Isaac Sweers' journal, and that explained these five ships. I revised this as soon as I saw it in my book draft this morning.