A mistaken idea that I had in the past

Perhaps 15 years ago, before I had very much knowledge and information about Dutch warships in 1652-1653, I could only imagine what the ships were liked. From The First Dutch War, I knew that Michiel De Ruyter's flagship Neptunus in 1652 was said to be armed with 28 guns. I imagined that if there were so few guns, that the ship might carry larger guns on the lower tier. I got that idea from a book about sailing warships from the late 16th to the 18th Century that showed an armament for a Dutch ship from about 1600. The ship had perhaps 18 guns, but there were mostly larger guns, perhaps 18pdr. I had thought that the Neptunus might be armed like that: 18pdr on the lower tier and 6pdr and 8pdr on the upper tier and quarterdeck. In fact, the Neptunus was quite small and lightly armed. You have to wonder how De Ruyter survived the Battle of Plymouth in such a modest ship.

Wargame pieces

If you wanted to make Dutch wargame pieces for the First Anglo-Dutch War, you would have the field pretty well covered if you had standard pieces of 116ft, 120ft, 125ft, 128ft, and 130ft. There were a very few larger ships. You would need lengths such as 132ft, 134ft, 136ft, 141 or 142ft, and 144 or 145ft long ships. The large East Indiamen were much longer than that. The smallest might be 155ft or 160ft and many were 170ft. The idea that the largest were 182ft or so is controversial.

Noorderkwartier ships

The idea that Noorderkwartier ships that served in 1652 were the same ones that had served since at least the 1630's is appealing. If it is true, then we know a great deal about some ships that would otherwise be a mystery. We have Dr.Graefe's book, we have De Sleutels van de Sondt, and we have what we know about the Dutch navy in 1652. The dates are from my analysis of those from Ron van Maanen. This list could be enhanced more, but this was what I could quickly do.

Ship                Lasts Date Guns Crew 1637               1645                1652
Eenhoorn              200 1625 32   110  Jan Keert de Koe                       Allert Tamessen
Eendracht             300 1622 31   110  Jan Bleecker       
Eendracht             300 1639 41   140                                         Jacob de Boer
Hollandsche Tuin      250 1632 32    90  Lambert Halffhoorn  
Hoop                  150 1622 26                           SbN Halffhoorn
Koninck David         250 1632 34   100  Claes Ham
Medemblick            170 1640 26    80                     Gabriel Anthonisz   Gabriel Anthonisz
Sampson               240 1625 28    92                     kapt Schellinckhout Willem Ham
Wapen van Alkmaar     150 1638 24    80                     Jan Cappelman    
Wapen van Holland     200 1639 28    90                                         Herman Munnekes
Wapen van Hoorn       150 1636 24    87                     Claes Tesselaar
Wapen van Monnikendam 150 1640 26    80                     Arent Dircksz       Arent Dircksz
Wapen van Nassau      250 1631 38   100  Hilbrant Quast