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Monday, September 08, 2008

The Onstelde-Zee book

My original thoughts about the Onstelde-Zee book, published in 1654, were that the book was not to be trusted. After learning more, I found that the book's description of the Battle of Portland, which the Dutch call the Three Days Battle, is quite accurate. The book mentions the Prins Willem, when referring to the ship usually called the Prins. The Prins must actually be called "Prins Willem te Paard". The Van de Velde drawing of the Battle of Dungeness calls the ship Prins te Paard, as does a letter from Johan Evertsen from mid-August 1652. The book calls Jacob Cleijdijck's ship Meerman, which is correct. Johannes van Regermorter's ship is correctly called the Leeuwin. Abraham van Campen's ship is called by an alternative name "Poort van Troijen", which is what Johan Evertsen called the ship in mid-August 1652. The more usual name was Arke Troijane. One seeming error is the mention of the Groote Sint Lucas being Sipke Fockes' ship. All indications were that Sipke Fockes still commanded the Sint Maria in the battle and that the ship was not captured, although he was killed. We have no explanation, at this date, for the Groot Sint Lucas.

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