Some ships hired by Amsterdam in 1653 in the Mediterranean Sea

There is a document dating from 1652 that lists ships either hired, or considered for hiring by the Admiralty of Amsterdam in the Mediterranean Sea. There are no guns listed but there are partial dimensions:

Port     Ship            Schipper                    Dimensions
Livorno  Sint Pieter     Pieter van Breen            130ft x 30ft x ? x 6-1/4ft
Venice   Sint Philippo   Foppe Gerritsen             136ft x 30ft x ? x 6-1/2ft
Naples   Suzanne         Daniel Jansz de Vries       133ft x 29ft x ? x 6-1/4ft
Venice   Morgensterre    Hendrick Govertssen         125ft x 28ft x ? x 6-1/2ft
Venice   Venetia         Cornelis Schellinger        130ft x 28ft x ? x 6-1/2ft
Venice   Swarten Arent   (Pieter Jansz Bonttebotter) 130ft x 28ft x (13ft) x 6-1/2ft
Venice   Sint Marc       ?                           130ft x 30ft x ? x 6-1/2ft
Livorno  Witte Oliphant  Seijbrant Jansz Mol         134ft x 29ft x ? x 6-1/2ft
Zemia ?  Salomons Ordeel Meijndert Teunisz OostWout  141ft x 31ft x ? x 7ft
Venice   Jupiter         Cornelis Jansz              130ft x 30ft x ? x 7ft
Naples   Sint Andries    Anthonij Claesz van Woglom  136ft x 29-1/2ft x ? x 6-1/4ft
Venice   Arent           Claes Cornelisz Roos        132ft x 29ft x ? X 6-1/2ft
Naples   Pellicaen       Cornelis Danielsz           136ft x 29-1/4ft x ? x 6-1/4ft

The Sint Matheeus

For a while in the 2007 timeframe, we believed that there must be two ships named Sint Matheeus. The reason for that is that there seemed to be two sets of dimensions for a ship named Sint Matheeus. One is the ship with length and beam quoted in Vreudenhil's list (144ft x 36ft x 15ft x 7ft) and the other was the ship with dimensions listed in lists of Amsterdam Directors' ships (140ft x 34ft x 15ft x 7-1/3ft). I think that we assumed that the 50 gun ship was the larger of the two. We knew that the 140ft ship initially carried 34 guns. By May 1653, that ship carried 42 guns. In fact, there was only one ship and that was the one captured by the English in the Battle of the Gabbard on 12-13 June 1653. This was the ship that Tromp fretted about in January 1653, when the ship was missing after a storm. Tromp feared that the Sint Matheeus had been captured by the English. He was concerned, because he expected that the Sint Matheeus was large enough that the English would arm the ship with 60 guns. In fact, in the Four Days' Battle in June 1666, the Mathias (as the Sint Matheeus was called by the English) was armed with 54 guns.

The Vrijheid in early June 1653

The Amsterdam ship Vrijheid was one of the best Dutch ships serving with the main fleet in early June 1653. Like some other ships, the Vrijheid had been up-gunned after the Battle of Portland (the Driedaagse Zeeslag). The Vrijheid carried 50 guns in the Battle of the Gabbard and for the rest of the First Anglo-Dutch War. They consisted of: 4-24pdr, 22-12pdr, 20-8pdr, 2-6pdr, and 2-3pdr guns. The Vrijheid had carried 46 guns in late 1652: 4-24pdr, 24-12pdr, 16-8pdr, and 2-6pdr guns. This was a very substantial ship for the time: 134ft x 34ft x 13-1/4ft x 7ft and had a crew of 210 men by the fall of 1653. Captain Augustijn Balck had commanded the Vrijheid up until the Battle of Portland, when he was killed. Abraham van der Hulst commanded the Vrijheid for the rest of the war, starting with the Battle of the Gabbard in June 1653.