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  

A question about the jacht Jaeger

The Jaeger, or Zeeuwsche Jaeger, was apparently built as a binnenjacht. The Jaeger played a significant role, especially with De Ruyter's fleet in the Channel, in 1652 into 1653. The entry in Vreugdenhil's list (No.350) gives a length of 60ft, which is too short. The Staet van Oorlog te Water for the year 1654 (July 1654) gives a length of 80ft. Given that Vreugdenhil would ordinarily use the data from the Staet, it is curious that he gave the wrong length. My question is: how was the Zeeusche Jaeger rigged? Was it a three-masted ship?

Progress report

The good news is that I am making progress on my new set of Dutch ship wargame pieces. Through the means of digital editing, I am making new ship drawings to the right scale. The best way is to do a detailed pencil drawing and then scan and print it. I would take that and ink it and color it with pencils. I then scan again and do editing. That takes too long, at least it takes longer than I have. This ship is a 128ft long ship to my own design.

I am making some new Dutch ship wargame pieces

I finally am making some progress on new Dutch ship wargame pieces. I am using a combination of Paint and the GIMP for graphic editing. I am working at a scale of 120 x 120 pixels per inch. My scale is set so that five pixels are two Amsterdam feet (what I said first one incorrect: five pixels = 1 foot). The ship drawings are really just symbolic, and not intended to be very realistic. I just don't have the time to do that sort of work. I am trying to mass-produce some new ship pieces based on what I have learned in the last two years.

Pieter Aldertszoon's ship up to early August 1652

The answer to the question "What ship did Pieter Aldertszoon command in the period from the beginning of the First Anglo-Dutch War up to early August" is answered in one letter that names captains and ship names. Pieter Aldertszoon is said to command the ship "Stadt Hoorn", or probably the same ship that he commanded up until the Three Days Battle in 1653, when he was killed.

Gunports on Dutch warships

From the Van de Velde drawings, we know something about gunports on Dutch ships in the period of 1639 to 1654. The Gorinchem is from a drawing of the ship in 1665. I would welcome corrections, as I am particularly uncertain about the Brederode. The picture of the Rotterdam is in Dr. M.G.de Boer's book, Tromp en de Duinkerkers, opposite page 49. The picture is so indistinct that I can't count ports.

Adm  Ship            Built Gunports
R    Aemilia         1632  13 on lower tier, 12 on upper tier, 6 on quarterdeck
A    Star            1644  10 on lower tier, 4 on quarterdeck
A    Vrijheid        1651  12 on lower tier, 9 on upper tier, 4 on quarterdeck
R    Prinses Louijse 1646  10 on lower tier, 6 on upper tier, 4 on quarterdeck
R    Gorinchem       1639  9 on lower tier, 8 on upper tier, 4 on quarterdeck
A    Fazant          1646  9 on lower tier, 6 on upper tier (2+4), 4 on quarterdeck
A    Leiden          1647  9 on lower tier, 5 on upper tier at rear, 2 on quarterdeck
A    Vrede           1650  12 on lower tier, 10 on upper tier, 3 on quarterdeck
R    Brederode       1645  12 on lower tier, 10 on upper tier, 5 on quarterdeckj
F    Groningen       1653  10 on lower tier, 10 on upper tier, 4 on quarterdeck
A    Edam            1644  10 on lower tier, 7 on upper tier (2+5)
R    Rotterdam       1639  10 on lower tier, unk on upper tier, 3 on quarterdeck

When did the Dutch fire on Deal?

The Dutch seemed to have fired on Deal, sometime during the period of 1639 to 1667. As far as I can tell, there were opportunities during the Battle of the Downs, in 1639, during the fight on 29 May 1652 (new style date) and on 3 July 1652 (old style date). There may have been other possible occasions, but I am not sure about them. Does anyone know?

The Friesland ship Groningen

I was just looking at the page from April 1653 (apparently) that mentions the ship Groningen, of the Admiralty of Friesland, at Sardam, presumably under construction, that would replace the Graaf Willem and Waterhond. The dimensions given, 132ft x 31ft x 14ft x 7ft, are those given in Van Foreest and Weber's book.

Jan van Campen in 1652 and 1653

In 9 June 1652, Jan van Campen was listed as being off Cape St. Vincent in command of the three-masted jacht Windhond. After returning home, he seems to have been responsible for fitting out the new ship Campen (40 guns). By September, he was appointed to command the ship Overijssel (26 guns) that had been commanded by Abraham van der Hulst. Ships and captains were shuffled in August and September 1652. Jan van Campen commanded the Overijssel through the rest of 1652 and 1653.

Pieter van der Does in 1599

I just had an inquiry about Pieter van der Does and the Dutch raid on the Canary Islands in 1599. I was able to find the image that I had seen before and several short paragraphs, but no ship list or anything of that sort of specificity. Is there a good source of information about this incident?

An interesting list from 1671

This morning, I received a photograph of a list from 1671. The list shows Dirck Scheij as captain of the ship Oudshoorn (70 guns), which was the captured English 2nd Rate Swiftsure. The Oudshoorn reportedly had some cosmetic changes that tried to hide the ship's identity.

A different version of the Dungeness "photo"

This is a different approach to the Dungeness photograph that has a different sort of water. The picture still shows the Dutch 40-gun ship Campen exchanging fire with Robert Blake's flagship Triumph.

Another attempt at a Dungeness "photograph"

This is my latest attempt at adding water to the Dungeness picture that shows the Campen (40 guns), in the left foreground, firing at Robert Blake's flagship Triumph.

December 10, 1652

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Dungness, fought on 10 December 1652 (the Gregorian date). This was the only victory of the Dutch over the English in home waters in a battle between the main fleets. The Dutch lost one ship, the Schiedam (for some reason sometimes called the Gelderland) (30 guns) and the English had two ships captured (the Garland and the Anthony Bonaventure). Shortly after the battle, Bastiaan Centsen, in the Haes, chased the hired English ship Hercules. The Hercules was run on shore and was abandoned by the cowardly crew. The Dutch got the Hercules afloat and took her as a prize. The Hercules had 34 guns while the Haes was a small ship with 30 guns.

The Maecht van Enckhuijsen on 6 September 1652

I happened to look at a page from a document that is dated 6 September 1652. The document has gun lists for some ships that seem like they reflect what was actually carried on that date and not what was planned or allowed. One such ship is the Enkhuizen Directors' ship Maecht van Enckhuijsen (presumably Maagd van Enkhuizen). The armament includes the 4-bronze klokwijs guns of unspecified shot weight, but presumably heavy, and 4-iron 18pdr guns. The armament listed is consideraly different from that listed in 1653 after the ship was lost in the Three Days Battle and includes a main battery of iron 9pdr guns, which are unique in a day when ships either had 12pdr of 8pdr guns in the main battery.

30 June 1652

I have this printed page from 1652 that claims to be the list of Tromp's fleet from 30 June 1652. Except for one ship name (Alkmaar) there are only captains and flag officers mentioned. Given the names listed, the actual date would be earlier. Either that or ships that were already lost are included. For example, Adriaen de Zeeuw is listed as is Jan Warnaertsz Capelman. After finding all the men in my list of the fleet from 15 July 1652, I am still not able to make sense of the two names listed in the van: Jacob van Nove and Jan Elbertsz van Enckhuijsen. These are the names mentioned in the 15 July 1652 list that are not obviously in the 30 June 1652 list:

Hendrick Jansz de Munnick        Rotterdam           ship Holland, 30 guns
Corstiaen Corstiaensz de Munnick Rotterdam Directors ship Prins, 38 guns
Joris van der Zaan               Amsterdam           ship Groningen, 40 guns
lt-cdr Nicolaes Marrevelt        Amsterdam           ship Zeelandia, 36 guns
Jan ter Stege                    Amsterdam           ship Keijser, 24 guns
Barent Pietersz Dorrevelt        Amsterdam           ship Amsterdam, 34 guns
Cornelis Hola                    Amsterdam           ship Leiden, 28 guns
Gillis Janszoon                  Zeeland             ship Zeeridder, 28 guns
Claes Jansz Sanger               Zeeland             ship Middelburg, 26 guns
Cornelis Evertsen de Oude        Zeeland             ship Zeeuwsche Leeuw, 28 guns
Adriaen Banckert                 Zeeland             ship Westcappel, 28 guns
Adriaen Kempen                   Zeeland             ship Amsterdam, 30 guns
Lambert Bartelszoon              Zeeland             ship Eendracht, 18 guns
Johannes Michielszoon            Zeeland             ship Haes, 20 guns
Jacob Wolphertszoon              Zeeland             ship Sint Joris, 23 guns
Daniel Cornelisz Brackman        Zeeland             ship Abrahams Offerande, 24 guns
Dingeman Cats                    Zeeland             ship Dolphijn, 24 guns
Reijnst Cornelisz Sevenhuijsen   Noorderkwartier     ship Roode Leeuw, 24 guns
Thys Tijmensz Peereboom          Noorderkwartier     ship Peereboom, 24 guns
Gerrit Munt                      Noorderkwartier     ship Huis van Nassau, 28 guns

There was also Witte de With's squadron, but they were omitted from the fleet list for 30 June.

The ship Hoop, in service in 1652 and 1653

I was looking at a page dating from July 1653, yesterday, that had the armament list for the hired ship Hoop. The gun list is distinctive, because the largest guns are 10pdr, an odd size for 1653. I had thought that the ship Hoop that had fought in the Battle of the Gabbard and the Battle of Scheveningen might have been a different ship from that which Joris Caullerij (sometimes spelled Colerij) commanded in 1652. The gun list, however, as almost identical. The only difference in that the Hoop, in 1653, carried two more 8pdr guns and two fewer 6pdr guns. I had seen a list of ships hired for service in March or April 1653 that had somewhat different dimensions for a ship named Hoop, but I have frequently seen these sort of variations.

Johan Regermorter

The short biography of Johan Regermorter, in Mollema's "Honour Roll" caught my eye today. I imagined that he was the son of Johannes Regermorter, who was killed in the Battle of Portland (the Three Days Battle). Johan's life seems to have been cut short. He had been in Cornelis Mangelaer's crew in the Goes in Brazil in 1650 to 1652. He served through the First Anglo-Dutch War in some unspecified capacity. In 1658, Johan Regermorter had been Adriaan Bankert's luitenant in the Sound. From 1661, he was Adriaan Bankert's flag captain. He died at the age of 32 in 1662, according to Mollema.