The Brederode in the Battle of Dungeness

I continue to be interested in the story of the Brederode (54 guns) and the Battle of Dungeness. In the initial contact, Tromp had made for Blake's ship, the 2nd Rate Triumph and board, but was intercepted by the 3rd Rate Garland (this type was reduced to a 4th Rate by the 1660's) (44 guns). The Garland had a lower tier of culverins (18pdr guns). We don't know her exact armament, but we believe that the upper tier was armed with 9pdr demi-culverins and her upperworks had either demi-culverins, or more likely, 5-1/4pdr sakers. Tromp went alongside the Garland and started fighting. When the 36-gun Anthony Bonaventure came along and grappled the other side of the Brederode, Tromp was in trouble. This fight took place southeast of Dungeness Point, with the wind blowing from the west-northwest. The English were winning the fight until Johan Evertsen brought his ship, the Hollandia (38 guns) alongside the Anthony Bonaventure and boarded. The Dutch were able to capture the Anthony Bonaventure and then combined against the Garland, and took her, as well. In the fight, the Garland lost her rudder, which complicated taking her back to the Netherlands. The English ships and the Brederode suffered a great deal of damage. Both English captains were killed in the process. The Brederode was a heavily armed ship, almost a small 2nd Rate. She may have had almost a complete lower tier of 24pdr guns by this date. The upper tier was 12pdr guns, with 10-6pdr guns on the quarterdeck. The Hollandia had a very mixed armament. By June 1653, she had 2-36pdr guns, along with some 24pdr, 18pdr, and 14-12pdr guns. The guns in 1652 included 24pdr, 18pdr, 15pdr, 12pdr, 10pdr, and 6pdr guns. This was probably due to the shortage of guns available to the Admiralty of Zeeland. We can only speculate about the armament of the Anthony Bonaventure. I would hazard a guess the armament had a mixed lower tier of 18pdr and 9pdr guns, an upper tier, with an unarmed waist of 9pdr, and sakers on the quarterdeck. But that is just an estimate.

The Wapen van Rotterdam became the English Falmouth

The Wapen van Rotterdam was the ship commanded by Jacob van Boshuijsen. The Wapen van Rotterdam was taken in an English port at the start of the First Anglo-Dutch War and was put into English service as the Falmouth. The Wapen van Rotterdam was one of the ships built to the dimensions that were approximately 116ft x 27ft x 11ft in Amsterdam feet. The Wapen van Rotterdam carried 26 guns: 2-bronze 24pdr, 1-bronze 12pdr, 3-iron 12pdr, 12-iron 8pdr, 4-bronze 6pdr, and 4-iron 6pdr guns. In the Dutch service, the Wapen van Rotterdam had a crew of 70 sailors and 20 soldiers.

The little frigate Gelderland

From Vreugdenhil's list, you would think that Aert van Nes's ship, the frigate Gelderland, was a 116ft ship. This Gelderland must be the ship at number 23 in the list. That entry gives the dimensions as 106ft x 25ft x 9-1/2ft. The list treats those as if they were in Amsterdam feet, but they are Maas feet. This is the information from the Staet van Oorlog te Water for the year 1654, but that seems to be wrong. As far back as the list of 26 February 1652, the Gelderland is stated to have dimensions of 100ft x 23ft x 8ft and to carry 20 guns. This is the same general sort of ship as the Utrecht and Overissel, entries 60 and 49 in Vreugdenhil's list. From what I have seen from the Nationaal Archief, dating from 1652 and 1653, the 100ft size seems to be correct, as that is always given as the length of Aert van Nes's ship. That corresponds to dimensions in Amsterdam feet of 109ft-1in x 25ft-1in x 8ft-8in. The Gelderland carried 24 guns, consisting of 4-bronze chambered 12pdr, 2-bronze 8pdr, 8-iron 8pdr, 6-iron 6-pdr, and 4-iron 4pdr guns in 1652 and 1653. The Gelderland was actively employed through the First Anglo-Dutch War, and still showed up in a list dated April 1655. The Gelderland had been one of the forty convoyers funded at the peace with Spain in 1648.

Henry Cruzado's page with the list of galleys at Lepanto

I had not thought that such a thing would exist, but Henry Cruzado contacted me today and pointed out his list of galleys at the Battle of Lepanto, the great victory of the Christian Europeans against Turkey in 1571. I would think that would be extremely useful for anyone wanting to study the battle and, perhaps, do some wargaming.

The list of ships of the Admiralty of Rotterdam, dated 13 June 1652

I have this list of ships belonging to the Admiralty of Rotterdam that is dated 28 July 1652. The list includes both landsschepen and hired ships. The list says that the kapitein Ernestus de Bertrij's ship Hollandia (24 or 26 guns, according to the list) and the Beer (commanded by Jan de Haes) were destined for a convoy of East Indiamen. The ship Sphera Mundi, commanded by kapitein Veenhuijsen (written very hastily, and with large curls) was by the fishery fleet. This captain's name is usually written Venhuijsen, as it might be a shortened form of Sevenhuijsen.

Joris Caulerij's ship the Hoop was very lightly armed

For a 28-gun ship, Joris Caulerij's hired Amsterdam ship Hoop, was very lightly armed. The Hoop had a crew of 90 men and carried 4-10pdr, 4-8pdr, 12-6pdr, 6-3pdr, and 2-2pdr guns. The largest guns were not even 12pdr, but the non-standard 10pdr. The standard guns followed the grouping of 36pdr, 24pdr, 18pdr, 12pdr, 8pdr, 6-pdr, 4-pdr and 3pdr guns. There was one alternate series that included 20pdr, 15pdr, 10pdr, and 5pdr guns. There were also stray 16pdr, 14pdr, 9pdr, 7pdr, and 2pdr guns in use. The 7pdr may have been a Spanish caliber.

Dirck Scheij's ship the Achilles

I have a page that actually spells the name of Dirck Scheij's ship as Achilles, not Achillis. The page says that the ship carried 28 guns and had a crew of 102 men, sometime in later 1652. The armament is listed as 4-12pdr, 12-8pdr, 10-4pdr, and 2-2pdr guns. The Achilles was hired by the Admiralty of Amsterdam. This may have been a case of a ship that was sold in 1648, at the peace treaty with Spain and then rehired by the admiralty. Some of these ships were eventually repurchased, it seems.

The Bronze 18pdr from 1632

Several years ago, Nico Brinck, the Dutch 17th Century gun expert and marine archaeologist (and sea captain) sent me several of his drawings. One drawing shows a bronze 18pdr manufactured in 1632 for the "Admiraliteit van West-Frislant", as the inscription says. The gun has a weight marking of 3480 lbs. The inside bore measures 13.8cm (5.433 inches). The gun has a length of 265cm from the ring at the rear of the barrel (with a 23cm part extending back) to the muzzle. That makes the gun 104-1/3 inches or 8ft-8-1/3in in English feet. The length in Amsterdam feet is 9ft-4in.

No.40 in the list of 22 June 1653

I still have not decided which ship is meant by the entry at no.40 in the status list dating from 22 June 1653. This was a ship with 30 guns and a crew of 120 men. The captain was named Bartold Simonssen. This was an Amsterdam Directors' ship that was missing at the time that the list was compiled. This would not have been a ship that was actually lost at the Battle of the Gabbard (the Zeeslag bij Nieuwpoort). The next ship in the list, No.41, was the Gulden Pelicaen, commanded by Barent Timonsz Soudaen, which was lost in the battle. the ship before, no.39, was the ship Burg (or Nassouw van den Burgh), commanded at this point by Lt-Commandeur Hendrick Adriaensz. Glas. The Burg now carried 38 guns and had a crew of 125 men. These were all Amsterdam Directors' ships.

The klein Zutphen on 22 June 1653

There were two ships named Zutphen that were owned by the Admiralty of Amsterdam in during the First Anglo-Dutch War. They were sometimes known as the Groot Zutphen and the Klein Zutphen. Hillebrandt Jeroenszoon de Moy commanded the smaller Zutphen in the Battle of the Gabbard (or Zeeslag bij Nieuwpoort). The Zutphen carried 26 guns and had a nominal crew of 120 men. The 26 guns consisted of 8-12pdr, 10-8pdr, 4-6pdr, 2-4pdr, and 2-3pdr guns. We are using the figures in the status list from 22 June 1653.

The Amsterdam ship Hollandsche Tuin on 22 June 1653

Joris Block commanded the Amsterdam ship Hollandsche Tuin at the Battle of the Gabbard (and at Scheveningen). This Hollandsche Tuin was a hired ship that carried just 24 guns, and these were small. The status document compiled on 22 June 1653 has some details:

No.18  Hollantsche Thuijn  Joris Block  97 men  24 guns
Length 116ft
Beam    25-1/2ft      79 men actually on board
Hold    12ft
Above    5-3/4ft

24 guns:  6-8pdr, 8-6pdr, 4-4pdr, 2-3pdr, 4-2pdr

The Amsterdam Directors' ship Sint Pieter from 22 June 1653

Gerrit Schuyt commanded the Amsterdam Directors' ship Sint Pieter in 1653. He fought in the Battle of the Gabbard on 12 and 13 June. I have this status document from 22 June that has some details of his ship:

Sint Pieter    kapitein Gerrit Schuyt

Length: 128ft  Beam: 28ft

Planned crew: 109 men  Actually on board: 96 men

Guns: 10-12pdr, 8-8pdr, 8-6pdr, and 2-3pdr

Of these, five 12pdr were unusable, as were four 8pdr guns.
Two of the 12pdr were burst as was one 8pdr gun.

The Sint Pieter had 2700 lbs of gunpowder.

The David en Goliat on 22 June 1653

These figures differ somewhat from what is usual. Perhaps they not exactly right, but the gun list is likely to be what the Amsterdam Directors' ship David en Goliat actually carried on 22 June 1653, and at the Battle of the Gabbard (Zeeslag bij Nieuwpoort). The dimensions are listed as a length of 136ft, a beam of 32ft, and a height above hold of 6-1/4ft. The crew was intended to be 125 men, but we do not know how many were actually on board. The David en Goliat had 34 guns: 18-12pdr (3 damaged), 4-8pdr, 10-6pdr, and 2-3pdr guns. This information is from the status report after the battle.

I wondered one thing about Witte de With in 1652 and 1653

When Witte de With was restored to the service by 1651, he was given the Rotterdam ship Prinses Louise (36 guns) to use as his flagship. Except for the Battle of the Kentish Knock, when he temporarily used the big East Indiaman Prins Willem (56 guns) as his flagship, he continued to use the Prinses Louise. From 1645 until he returned from Brazil after the failed mission to restore the WIC control over Brazil, he had commanded the big Rotterdam ship Brederode (54 guns). From right before the Battle of Dungeness until after the Three Days Battle in 1653, he was ashore, sick, or at least emotionally drained. He was back by April 1653, but for the rest of 1653, he flew his flag on Amsterdam ships. He was originally using an admiralty jacht with 6pdr guns as the largest gun. But he moved to using the larger ship Leeuwarden (34 guns) as his flagship through April and into May 1653. The Leeuwarden was his flagship for the raid on Scarborough. He eventually moved to the much larger ship Vrijheid. He had also started to fit out and prepare the very large ship Huis te Swieten for use as his flagship, but was not ready by the Battle of Scheveningen, so he was in the Vrijheid. By September, he had the Huis te Swieten and used it for the rest of the year. By the spring of 1654, he was back in the Brederode, the Rotterdam ship. So why was he using Amsterdam ships for this period in 1653?

The retourschip Prins Willem, built in 1649

As I have written before, Herbert Tomessen, model maker extraordinaire with Artitec, believes that the VOC retourschip Prins Willem, built in 1649, was the same approximate size as the retourschip Oranje, which fought the Duke of York at the Battle of Lowestoft in 1665. He thinks that the ships were about 170ft long and had a beam of 38ft. The famous model of the Prins Willem is in storage at the depot on the military base next to the Scheepvaart Museum. That is where Ab Hoving, the other great model maker and ship expert showed it to me. It was wrapped in plastic for protection while it was being stored. Apparently, there is some source that gives the length of the Prins Willem as being 181ft. Witte de With's journal gives the armament as 56 guns in September 1652. The Prins Willem was given back to the VOC in 1653 and went back into service making voyages to the Far East, and was eventually wrecked in 1662. The Prins Willem was a poor sailer and was difficult to steer, all of which made the ship a poor warship.

Odd names for the Dutch service

Today, I received photographs of documents of which I previously had only poor photocopies. The documents date from 1658. One document listed the six transport fluits that were taking soldiers to reinforce Copenhagen, which was under siege by Sweden. For the fluit Fruijtboom, two names appear: James Schot (Scott) and Captain Kirckpatrick (Kirkpatrick). These men appear to be Britons, serving in the Dutch army, each commanding a company of soldiers. James Schot is interesting, as Charles II's eldest son was named James Scott, later the Duke of Monmouth. He was Charles' and Lucy Walter's son, born in 1649. She died before the Restoration. James was not in the line of succession, although he thought that he should be. He was executed after the unsuccessful Monmouth Rebellion. The painting of James Scott looks something like Charles II.

Lt-Commandeur Hessel Franszoon

I have this document that I received yesterday from late July 1653. This list ships, captains, and crews, including how many men short they were. For the Friesland ship Graaf Willem, the captain is listed as being Lt-Commandeur Hessel Franszoon. I had thought that he was commander of another Friesland ship, the Sara, in place of Captain Hans Carelssen Beecke (or some such spelling). The hired Friesland ship Postpaert is also listed as being commanded by a Lt-Commandeur, in this case "t'jaert Douwes", as the document seems to say.

YouTube videos of Privateers Bounty 17th Century battles?

I am going to investigate how I might capture the video from using Privateers Bounty to run my Anglo-Dutch Wars and other 17th Century scenarios. I would run the scenarios from both sides (Dutch-English, Swedish-Dutch) and put the video on YouTube. I would demonstrate the various tactics that I employ. Privateers Bounty is a long way from being ideal, but it is the only thing that I have seen that will allow me to run these scenarios on my desktop computer.

The Windhondt and Brack in July 1653

Even though the two three-masted jachts, the Windhondt and the Brack were similar, in July 1653, there some subtle differences:

Windhondt             Brack
Capn. Heertjes        Capn. Jan Admirael

73 men, 12 men short  62 sailors and 15 soldiers

18 guns               18 guns
4-8pdr, 10-4pdr,      4-8pdr, 8-4pdr, 
2-3pdr, 2-2pdr        4-3pdr, 2-3pdr clockwijs

The list of captains from 14 June 1653

I just received a document that has a letter from Lt-Admiral Tromp and then has a list of captains in his fleet during the Zeeslag bij Nieuwpoort (the Battle of the Gabbard) on 12 and 13 June 1653. This was written just a day after the battle. After some of the captain's names is written the work "genomen" (captured). This list has the error that Jacob Claesz Duijm is named "Jan Duijm", as I have seen in The First Dutch War, Vol.V. As his name has the word "genomen", as well, it is clearly meant to be the captain of the Edam Directors' ship Vergulde Sonne (or Schellinkhout).

Names: on 20 December 1652

Here is a list of names at the bottom of a letter signed by Dutch naval officers, dated 20 December 1652, with my expansion and corrections:

Written:                        Full Name:
M:Harperts Tromp                Maerten Harpertszoon Tromp
Johan Evertsz.                   Johan Evertsen or Evertszoon
Michiel Adr.de Ruijter          Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruijter
Augustijnus Balck               Aucke or Augustijn Balck (the more usual spelling)
G: de Wildt                     Gideon de Wildt
Cornelis Evertsen               Cornelis Evertsen de Oude
Capn. Gabriel Teunisz.          Gabriel Teuniszoon
Jan de Liefde                   Jan or Johan Evertszoon de Liefde
Gillis Jansz.                   Gillis Janszoon
Jacob Pouwelsz.                 Jacob Pauwelszoon Cort
Willem Nijhoff                  Willem van Nieuhoff
Cornelis Jansz. Poort           Cornelis Janszoon Poort
Jacob Pensen                    Jacob Adriaenszoon Pensen or Penssen
Hendrick de Munnick             Hendrick Janszoon de Munnick
Corstiaen Corstiaensz.          Corstiaen Corstiaenszoon de Munnick
Joris van der Saenen            Joris van der Zaan

Zeeland ships with Tromp's fleet in late July 1652

We continue to mine our latest photographs of documents. We now look at the list of captains, and their ships with Tromp's fleet in late July 1652, for Zeeland:

Admiralty ships of Zeeland

Captain                               Ship             Guns
vice-admirael Jan Evertsen            Hollandia        38
kapitein Gillis Jansz                 Zeeridder        28
commandeur Cornelis Evertsen de Oude  Zeeuwsche Leeuw  30
Adriaen Bancker                       Westcappel       26
Adriaen Kempen                        Amsterdam        30

Admiralty ships to be deducted from the Hundred

Captain                               Ship               Guns
kapitein Lambert Bartelsz             Eendracht          18
Johannes Michielsz                    Haes               20
Jacob Wolfertsz                       Sint Joris         23
Daniel Cornelisz Brachman             Abrahams Offerande 24
Dingman Cats                          Dolphijn           24

Directors' ships of Zeeland

Middelburch

Captain                               Ship             Guns
Jan la Sage                           Gulden Haan      30
Jacob Pensen                          Gouden Leeuw     30
Johannes Regermorter                  Leeuwinne        30

Vlissingen

Captain                               Ship             Guns
Jan Thijssen                          Lam              32
Cornelis Evertsen de Jonge            Vlissingen       26
Allert Jansz                          Dubbele Arent    28

Directors of Zierickzee

Captain                               Ship                 Guns
kapitein Cornelis Rocusz Fincen       Wapen van Zierickzee 34

Directors of Veere

Captain                               Ship               Guns
kapitein Jan Oliviersz                Wapen van der Vere 38

More ships from the late July 1652 fleet list

These are more ships from the late July 1652 fleet list. The list has only the captain's names, so I have supplied ship names and guns:

Directors' ships of Hoorn

Captain                    Ship           Guns
Jacob Pietersz Houck       Sampson        30
Pieter Ariens van Blocker  Liefde         28

Directors' ships of Enckhuijsen

Captain                    Ship                   Guns
Gijsbert Malcontent        Maeght van Enckhuijsen 28
Jacob Claesz Duijm         Vergulde Sonne         28

Directors of Medemblick

Captain                    Ship           Guns
Jan Pietesz Een-arm        Sint Jeronimus 30

Directors of Edam

Captain                    Ship                Guns
Jan Freddricksz Houckhoot  Vergulde Halve Maen 30

Directors of Monnikendam

Captain                    Ship           Guns
Jacob Claesz Boot          Swarte Beer    32

Some ships with Tromp's fleet on 24 July 1652

Today, I received a list of ships that were with Tromp's fleet on 24 July 1652. Here area some of those ships (the list only has the captains, so I have added the rest):

Admiralty ships of Rotterdam

Ship      Guns Crew Commander
Brederode   54 270  Lt-Admiraal Tromp
Overijssel  22  94  kapitein Cornelis Engelen Silvergieter
Gorcum      30 130  kapitein Jan van Nes Oude Boer Jaep
Utrecht     22  90  kapitein Leendert Ariens Haexwant
Schiedam    30 131  kapitein Dirck Juijnbol
Holland     30  95  kapitein Hendrick de Munnick

Admiralty hired ships to be deducted from the hundred

Ship      Guns Crew Commander
Roscam      26  105 kapitein Corstiaen Eldertsz
Maria       26  110 kapitein Quirijn van den Kerckhoff

Directors' ships of Rotterdam

Ship      Guns Crew Commander
Hollandia   26 105  kapitein Ruth Jacobsz Buijs
Jonas       36 125  kapitein Jan de Liefde
Meerman     30 120  kapitein Jacob Cleijdijck
Sint Pieter 29 110  kapitein Isaac de Jongh
Prins       38 110  kapitein Corstiaen Corstiaensz

Admiralty ships of Amsterdam

Ship      Guns Crew Commander
Vrede       42 160  commandeur Gideon de Wildt
Overijssel  26 100  kapitein Abraham van der Hulst
Dolphijn    26  95  kapitein Gerrebrant Schatter
Star        28  95  kapitein Jacob Paulussen Cort
Leeuwarden  36 140  kapitein Govert Reael
Hoop        28 100  kapitein Joris Colerij  to be deducted from the hundred
Groningen   38 130  kapitein Joris van der Zaan
Zeelandia   36 120  lt-commandeur Nicolaes Marrevelt
Keijser     26 100  kapitein Jan ter Stege  a hired fluijt
Amsterdam   34 125  kapitein Barent Pietersz Dorrevelt
Leiden      28 105  kapitein Cornelis Hola

I continue to be perplexed about Abraham van der Hulst's ship in early 1652

Hendrick de Raedt's pamphlet says that Abraham van der Hulst commanded a Landsschip that was armed with 26 guns and had a crew of 100 men. He was with Tromp's fleet on the voyage to the Shetlands in July and August 1652. By September, Abraham van der Hulst took command of the 40-gun ship Groningen, formerly commanded by Joris van der Zaan. A letter from Johan Evertsen to the Admiralty of Zeeland, later in August 1652 gives the name of Abraham van der Hulst's ship as Overijssel. We also think that we know that Jan van Campen was busy, in early August 1652, fitting out the ship Overijssel that was built in 1650. That means that if Abraham van der Hulst commanded a ship Overissel, it was not the ship built in 1650. The only problem is that the only other obvious candidate was the ship Overijssel that Dr. Elias says was sold in about March 1652, if I have the date right.

Two Noorderkwartier ships sent to Brazil

From documents that I received today, I see that Allert Jansz Tamessen, commanding the Hoorn (or Eenhoorn) and Jan Adriaensz Backer, commanding the Hollandsche Tuin, had been in Brazil immediately prior to the outbreak of the First Anglo-Dutch War. According to Vreugdenhil's list, the Hollandsche Tuin was built in 1636 and carried 36 guns. This may have been a 250 last ship (about 128ft x 31-1/2ft x 12ft). In 1636, the Hollandsche Tuin carried 32 guns and had a crew of 90 sailors and 20 soldiers.

The Amsterdam ships on 1 May 1654

One photograph that I received today shows a list of Dutch warships in the service of the Admiralty of Amsterdam on 1 May 1654:

Ship                      Captain                       Crew  Guns
't Huijs te Swieten       Vice-Admiraal De Ruijter      200   60
't Huijs te Cruijningen   Schout-bij-Nacht Tromp        180   54
't Huijs te Oosterwijck   Commandeur de Wildt           180   56
Amsterdam                 Capitein Verburgh             170   50
Stadt en Landen           Capitein Brakel               170   48
de Vrijheijt              Capitein Van der Hulst        170   46
de Vreede                 Capitein Ijsack Sweers        140   44
Campen                    Capitein Van der Zaen         140   42
Jeunieerde Provintien     Capitein Schaef               140   40
Staveren                  Capitein Evert Anthonisz      140   40
de Landtman               Capitein Verveen              140   40
Jaersveldt                Capitein Jan van Campen       140   40
Suijderhuijs              Capitein Dirck Scheij         140   40
de Maen                   Capitein Hendrick Huijskens   140   40
Groeningen                Capitein Gilles Thijsz Campen 140   40
Phesandt                  Capitein Lapper               110   32
Leeuwaerden               Capitein Ooms                 110   34

Sailed for Brazil

de Maeght van Enckhuijsen Capitein Roeteringh           125   34
Bommel                    Capitein Swart                125   34
de Windthondt             Capitein Jan Admirael         100   18

New Friesland ships: the Oostergo

On the 8th, I received a document with dimensions of the new Friesland ships. The document dates from early 1654. One of the entries is for the new ship Oostergo:

the ship Oostergo

Length:  140ft
Beam:     36ft
Hold:     14-1/2ft
Height 
between decks: 7-1/2ft

Crew: 200 sailors: 28 officers and 172 men
       50 land soldiers

Ships named Harder

Based on what I see, the ship named Harder (116ft long) that served the Admiralty of the Noorderkwartier in 1653 and 1654 was a different ship from any Harder that served the Admiralty of Amsterdam. Ron van Maanen mentions an Amsterdam Directors' ship named Harder, of 114ft, that served in 1653-1661. He gives the same dimensions for a ship named Harder that served the Admiralty of Amsterdam from 1658-1666 and that was named Klein Harder (ultimately burned in action in 1666). At least, how I would usually interpret Ron van Maanen's entries is that when he says "Board Amsterdam" or "Board Hoorn", he means the Directors.

Tromp's flagship Brederode on 28 July 1652

This one document that I received back in early February 2007 lists Rotterdam ships and has dimensions and gun numbers. The entry for the Brederode is interesting for the dimensions. They are similar to those in the 26 February 1652 list of Rotterdam ships, and differ from those which have been widely published and which are in the Staet van Oorlog te Water for the year 1654. The dimensions are in Maas feet: 132ft x 32ft-4in x 13ft. The Brederode is stated to have 53 guns on board, but no specifics. As we are usually interested in Amsterdam feet rather than Maas feet, we convert the dimensions: 144ft x 35ft-3in x 14ft-2in. The Brederode is the size of a small English 3rd Rate from the 1650's.

Rotterdam Directors' ships in 1652

I have this general problem in that I have very little information about Rotterdam Directors' ships in service in 1652. For one ship, the Erasmus, all I have is the name, and that the captain was Sijmon Cornelsz van der Meer. The Erasmus was sunk in June 1652. For the ship Sint Pieter, commanded by Isaac de Jongh, I have the guns (29) and the crew (110) and that is all. This Sint Pieter foundered during the storm off the Shetlands in early August 1652. The other Sint Pieter was originally commanded by Adriaen de Zeeuw, but from what I have heard from Carl Stapel, he must have been wounded in the action where the Erasmus was sunk and later died. Sijmon Cornelisz van der Meer was appointed to command that ship named Sint Pieter. This Sint Pieter carried 28 guns, but they were quite light, with just a few 12pdr guns and the rest were smaller. Ruth Jacobsz Buy's ship, the Hollandia, was also lightly armed. The Hollandia carried 26 guns and had a crew of 105 men. The Hollandia was armed similarly to the Sint Pieter. Jacob Cleijdijck's ship, the Meerman, was more heavily armed, as among the 32 guns, the Meerman carried 4-24pdr. Corstiaen Corstiaenszoon's ship, the Prins, also had 4-24pdr guns and was the most heavily armed, carrying 38 guns. The other Rotterdam Directors' ship was the Jonas, commanded by Jan Evertsz de Liefde. The Jonas was armed with 36 guns, of which over half were 12pdr while the rest were smaller. The Jonas was apparently discarded after the storm in the Shetlands, as by late 1652, Jan de Liefde was Witte de With's flag captain on the Prinses Louise.

Inventories of ships

I have wondered how Ab Hoving and those like him would use the inventories of ships that still exist. There are many inventories that exist for Dutch ships in late June 1653, following the Battle of the Gabbard (the Zeeslag van Nieuwpoort). There are more inventories from November 1653, following the great storm off the Texel where many ships were lost. In some cases, the inventories include gun weights, and more have the number of the various size shot carried.

A list from 14 December 1652

One list that I have is a list of captains in Tromp's fleet on 14 December 1652. The list actually covers the ships in the fleet for the Battle of Dungeness on 10 December. I find the list for the Admiraliteit van de Noorderkwartier particularly interesting. We can do a better job of listing the ships and guns that go with captain's names:

Adm  Ship                    Guns Commander
N    Monnikendam             36   Schout-bij-Nacht Pieter Floriszoon
N    Prins Maurits           28   kapitein Cornelis Pietersz Taenman
N    Wapen van Monnikendam   24   kapitein Arent Dircksz
N    Peereboom               24   kapitein Tijs Tijmensz Peerebom
N    Tobias                  30   commandeur Johannes Bourgoigne
N    Eenhoorn                28   kapitein Jan Heck
N    Lastdrager              28   kapitein Volckert Schram
N    Schel                   24   kapitein Theunis Vechterszoon
N    Casteel van Medemblick  28   kapitein Gabriel Teuniszoon
N    Wapen van Enkhuizen     30   kapitein Herman Munnekes

More thoughts about Abraham van der Hulst's ship in early 1652

From a letter written by Johan Evertsen, following the storm in the Shetlands, we see that Abraham van der Hulst's ship is named Overijssel. We know that Hendrick de Raedt's pamphlet says that the ship carried 26 guns and had a crew of 100 men. The mostly likely scenario, I believe, is that this was the Amsterdam ship Overijssel built in 1650. The other possibility is that this was the old Overijssel that Dr. Elias said was sold on 11 April 1652. Because of that, and because I have seen no information about a second Overijssel, the odds are that this was the new Overijssel. The story would be that after the storm in the Shetlands, Abraham van der Hulst passed the Overijssel to Jan van Campen, who had been fitting out a new ship, perhaps the Campen. Abraham van der Hulst took over the 125ft 40 gun ship Groningen from Joris van der Zaan. Joris van der Zaan gave up the Groningen and took over the newly constructed 128ft 40 gun ship Campen. The other possibility is that Jan van Campen was fitting out the new Overijssel, which had laid in dock since being completed in 1650. In this scenario, Abraham van der Hulst commanded the old ship Overijssel, despite the 11 April sale date. I guess that we need to know more before we can be sure which was the case.

From the Dutch arming plan for new ships in late 1653

I just posted the 58 gun and 52 gun arming plans at Anglo-Dutch Wars from this document from late 1653:

A ship of dimensions 134 or 136ft x 36ft x 14ft with 46 guns:

Lower Deck:
 4-bronze 24pdr
10-iron 18pdr
 8-iron 12pdr

Upper Deck:
 8-bronze 12pdr
 8-iron 8pdr
 8-bronze 6pdr drakes

Armament weights

Since I do not have exact gun inventories for most Amsterdam ships in 1652 and 1653, I can only estimate armament weights. I thought that an interesting exercise would be to compare armament weights for 128ft 40 gun ship, in this case the Vereenigde Provincien, and for a 125ft 40 gun ship, the Maan. They both have four large guns with a 12pdr lower tier. The upper tier on each consisted of 8pdr guns. There were also more guns, perhaps on the quarter deck and poop. The larger Vereenigde Provincien, with my estimates, would have had a 113,400 lbs armament while the smaller Maan would have had a 103,800 lbs armament. Bronze 24pdr guns might have been 4400 lbs. Iron 18pdr guns might have been 3600 lbs. Iron 12pdr guns might have been 3000 lbs. Iron 8pdr guns might have been 2300 lbs. Iron 6pdr guns might have been 1700 lbs. Iron 4pdr guns might have been 1150 lbs.

Remember, this is news

I don't know if anyone besides myself noticed this, but the information that we found about two Noorderkwartier ships in 1652 is news. By that I mean that the only published information is in The First Dutch War, and all that is given is the name of the captain and the name of each ship. Otherwise, nothing else was known. One ship, the Huis van Nassau, was commanded by Captain Gerrit Munt (sometimes written as Munth). The other ship was the Nieuw Casteel, commanded by Captain Claes Allertszoon. We found in information from the Nationaal Archief in The Hague that the Huis van Nassau carried 28 guns and had a crew of 104 men while the Nieuw Casteel carried 14 guns and had a crew of 65 men. They were both hired as part of the 100 Ships of the Extraordinary Equipage in 1652. That was a massive funding to hire 150 ships into the service of the Dutch navy.

The different charters to which ships were built

Dutch ships that were specifically built as warships were typically built to charters. The charter was generally defined by the length of the ship in Amsterdam feet of 283mm. In the First Anglo-Dutch War, Ships were nominally built to a limited number of charters. This is not an exhaustive list:

130ft

Adm   Ship                    Guns Commander
A     Jaarsvelt               44   Johan van Galen
N     Eendracht               41   Cornelis Jacobsz de Boer
A     Vrede                   44   Gideon de Wildt

128ft

R     Gelderland              40   Michiel Fransz van den Bergh
A     Vereenigde Provincien   40   Hendrick Claesz Swart
A     Campen                  40   Joris van der Zaen
                                   Willem van der Zaen

125ft

A     Zon                     40   Anthonis van Zalingen
A     Maan                    40   David Jansz Bondt
A     Haarlem                 40   Dirck Quirijnen Verveen
A     Zutphen                 36   Jan Pietersz Uijttenhout
A     Maeght van Enchuijsen   34   Cornelis Tromp

120ft

A     Middelburg              30   Jeroen Adelaer
N     Kasteel van Medemblick  28   Gabriel Antheunissen
                                   Adriaen Houttuijn
A     Hollandia               32   Evert Anthoniszoon
R     Prinses Louise          36   Witte de With
                                   Abel Roelantsz Verboom
A     Prins Willem            28   Jan Jansz Boermans
A     Leeuwarden              34   Govert Reael
A     Amsterdam               30   Barent Dorrevelt
R     Dolphijn                32   Paulus van den Kerckhoff

116ft

A     Leiden                  28   Cornelis Hola
R     Gorinchem               30   Jan van Nes
R     Rotterdam               30   Jan Aertsz Verhaeff
R     Dordrecht               26   Sier de Lieffde

112ft

A     Gelderland              28   Cornelis van Velsen
A     Overijssel              28   Jan van Campen

109ft

R     Gelderland              24   Aert Jansz van Nes de Jonge Boer Jaep
R     Utrecht                 22   Leendert Haewant
R     Overijssel              22   Cornelis Engelen Silvergieter
                                   Dirck Vijgh

The Amsterdam ship Haarlem

From this list that I just received that is dated 15 November 1653, there is another list of Amsterdam ships. I was looking at the list again, and the list of guns for the 40-gun ship Haarlem is striking: 8-18pdr, 18-12pdr, 10-6pdr, and 4-4pdr guns. The weight of broadside is 218 lbs. Compare that with the broadside weight for the Vereenigde Provincien, another 128ft 40-gun ship, which fired a broadside of 232 lbs, as the ship carried 4-24pdr and 22-12pdr guns, along with 8pdr and 6pdr guns. The heavy battery on the Haarlem did not really provide a greater broadside, although the 18dpr guns would be harder-hitting than 12pdrs.

One of the ships lost on 22 July 1652: the Kalmar Sleutel

The Kalmar Sleutel (or Calmer Sleutel) was one of the ships hired by the Admiralty of Rotterdam in early 1652 as part of the 100 ships, the Extraordinary Equipage. Her captain was Dirck Vijgh. In the summer of 1652, the Kalmar Sleutel was assigned to the 15 ship fishery protection squadron. That squadron was devastate on 22 July 1652 when many ships were sunk or captured. At least some of the captains, such as the squadron commander, Dirck van Dongen, shamefully surrendered their ships without a fight. Dirck Vijgh fought, however, and his small ship was sunk. Ron van Maanen has the details, which match fairly well with those that I have seen elsewhere. The dimensions were 103ft x 25ft x 11ft x 6ft. The latter is the "height above the hold", or height between the decks. The armament consisted of something like 8-8pdr, 6-6pdr, and 6-3pdr guns, according to Ron. My information from June 1652 was that the armament included 4-8pdr, 6-6pdr, 6-4pdr, and 4-3pdr guns. There actually may have been as many as 24 guns. The crew consisted of 90 men. Ron says that the Kalmar Sleutel was twenty years old.

The Brederode lasts calculation

Tromp's flagship, the Brederode, is usually stated to be 300 lasts. I think that actually understates the size. If you do the calculation with Maas feet of 308mm, then the 300 lasts makes more sense than if you use the dimensions in Amsterdam feet of 283mm. The equation shows 300 lasts = (132ft x 32ft x 13-1/2ft)/K.Soliving for the constant K, we have K=190.08, which seems low. If we do it in Amsterdam feet, it makes less sense: 300 lasts = (144ft x 34.9ft x 14.73ft)/K. Solving for the constant K gives us K=246/76, which is high. In this case, the case for the calculation being done in Maas feet is not as strong, but it does seem plausible.

The small frigates Utrecht and Overijssel

The list that I just received, dating from 1642, is quite interesting. That list confirms what I had already seen. The small Rotterdam frigates Utrecht and Overijssel were built in 1636, not in 1638, as is stated in Vreugdenhil's list. The 1642 list also gives their size as 90 lasts. I suspect that figure is calculated from their size in Maas feet (308mm), not from the size in Amsterdam feet (283mm). The dimensions of the Utrecht and Overijssel, in Maas feet, are 100ft x 23ft x 8ft. If we look at the equation for lasts, we see 90 lasts = (100 x 23 x 8) / K. We solve for K = (100 x 23 x 8)/90. That gives a K=204.44, which is very plausible. I predict that if we converted the dimensions to Amsterdam feet, we would see a K that is too large. As for the 130 last ships (dimensions in Maas feet of 106ft x 25ft x 9.5 or 10ft), we see 130 lasts = (106ft x 25ft x 10ft)/K. We solve for K=(106 X 25 x 10)/130. That gives us a K=203.846, which is a very plausible figure.

Ships from 28 June 1653

Yesterday, I received a document that is similar to other lists from the same period (late June 1653). What it does is confirm information that might otherwise have been in doubt. This is an excerpt from that list:

College of the Admiralty of Amsterdam

Overijssel     kapitein Jan van Campen
Pellicaen      kapitein Overcamp
Engel Gabriel  kapitein van den Bosch
Gouden Reael   kapitein Adriaen van Loenen
Hollandia      kapitein Evert Anthonisz
Groningen      kapitein Gillis Tijsz
Bommel         kapitein Brakel
Winthont       kapitein Heertiens
Brack          kapitein Jan Admirael

College of the Admiralty of the Noorderkwartier

Eenhoorn       kapitein Jan Heck
Lastdrager     kapitein Gerrit Munt
Harder         kapitein Jan Backer

Colleges of the Admiralty of Friesland and Stad en Landen

Sevenwolden    Lt. Stellingwerff
Breda          kapitein Bruijnsvelt
Graef Hendrick kapitein Wagenaer
Waterhont      kapitein Oosteroon
Sara           Lt. Hessel Franssen 

A counterpart to the list from Thurloe from June 1653

The First Dutch War, Vol.V, has a list of Dutch ships taken from Thurloe's state papers, which was compiled from English spies operating in the Netherlands. The list in The list from Thurloe is somewhat different than what I have seen, but it is close enough to be either based on the document that I received yesterday, or from a slightly different copy. The interesting feature of what I received yesterday is that there is a date from the envelope: 19 June 1653. In case you are not familiar with the list, this is what is in the document that I received yesterday:

Ships lying in the Texel

Admiralty of Amsterdam

kapitein Jan van Campen       the ship Overijssel
kapitein Overcamp             the ship the Pellicaen
kapitein van den Bos          the ship the Engel Gabriel
kapitein Arij van Loenen      the ship the Goude Reael  73 men
kapitein Evert Anthonisz     (the Hollandia)
kapitein Gillis Tijsz Campen (the Groningen)

Noorderkwartier

kapitein Jan Heck             the ship the Eenhoorn     80 men
kapitein Gerrit Munt          the ship the Lastdrager   61 men
                              the Harder                80 men
kapitein Roetjes              the ship Radbout van Medemblick 90 men

Directors of Amsterdam

Keurforst van Keulen

Friesland

commandeur Stellingwerff      the ship the Seven Wolden
kapitein Bruijnsvelt          the ship Breda
kapitein Wagenaer             the ship Graef Hendrick

Fireships

commandeur Jan Claesz         the ship the Cleijn Hoop
commandeur Cornelis           the ship the Groot Hoop
commandeur Schoonvelt         the ship the Fortuijn
commandeur van de Crimp(?)    the ship the Son

Galliots

schipper Trommel
Reijer Cornelisz

The Amsterdam ship Bommel

Ron van Maanen has his own information about the Amsterdam ship Bommel that served in the First Anglo-Dutch War. The Bommel usually was listed at 120ft x 28-3/4ft x 11-3/4ft x 6-3/4ft. At least one source gave the beam as only 27-1/2ft. Ron only gives the armament as 20-12pdr, 2-6pdr, and 8-4pdr guns. We believe that in mid-1653, the Bommel carried as many as 34 guns. Her crew is listed as anywhere from 80 to 140 men. The Bommel was built about 1645 and was last mentioned on 20 May 1656.

Complete list of crews

I am not sure what to do with them, but I have more complete lists of the men the crew of Amsterdam Directors' ships. The lastest is the list of men in the crew of the Nassouw van den Burgh, the ship of Lambert Pieterszoon in 1652. Up until the fall, the ship was referred to as being leaky.

I have my copy of Iain Stanford's rules out and am studying them

I have a copy of Iain Standford's rules (thanks to Iain Stanford). Since my interest has increased, again, in doing some 17th Century naval wargaming, Iain's rules look the most promising for what I want to do: fight battles with fleets of up to 100 ships or so per side. I had forgottent that a "stand" could have more than two ships (up to four). I now have the luxury of knowing the dimensions and lists of guns for almost the entire Dutch navy in the First Anglo-Dutch War. I know enough about the English navy to at least make reasonable estimates. For hired ships, I have Frank Fox's articles from 1998 in the Mariner's Mirror, where he gives dimensions and guns for some ships that served in the First Anglo-Dutch War. I also have Rif Winfield's book about 50 gun ships. With that and R.C. Anderson's article about English fleet lists from the First Anglo-Dutch War, I should be able to do something reasonable.

The Groote Liefde and Bruijn van Seelst

Carl Stapel says that the letter that I have from Bruijn van Seelst written from an English prisoner of war camp. The date is a few days after he was taken prisoner, when his ship was captured. He complains that the Groote Liefde was a poor sailer. That explain, in part, why the ship, renamed Great Charity by the English, was the only English ship captured by the Dutch at the Battle of Lowestoft in June 1665. The Dutch dimensions for the Groote Liefde were 132ft x 29ft x 13-1/2ft x 6-1/2ft. the ship carried 38 guns: 2-bronze 24pdr, 18-12pdr, 14-6pdr, and 4-3pdr guns. The English dimensions were: 106ft (keel) x 28ft-4in x 11ft. The burden, calculated in the later English method was 453 tons. I estimate that the Dutch measurement was about 240 lasts.

Iain Stanford's General-at-Sea rules

Iain Stanford wrote a set of rules for naval wargaming for the period of 1660-1721 called General-at-Sea. General-at-Sea was published by The Pike & Shot Society. He has a revision to those rules that are intended to be published. I think that I am in a place to make another run at wargame pieces for the First Anglo-Dutch War using Iain's system, except calibrated to use individual ships. I had made a start on the drawings, already, although I may want to redo them. This weekend looks to be setup so that I would be able to put some time into this project.

What happened to Jan Christoffelsz Duijm?

Jan Christoffelsz Duijm commanded the Zeeland ship Salamander (26 guns) from before the beginning of the war in 1652. He was in the Caribbean Sea with Cornelis Mangelaer, commanding the Vlissingen (32 guns). They returned by early January 1653. Jan Duijm performed a critical function of towing Michiel De Ruijter's flagship, the Lam, through the last two days of the Three Days Battle, after the Lam was dismasted after desperate fighting on the first day. By the late summer of 1653, the Salamander was commanded by Pieter Marcuszoon. We later see Jan Duijm in 1658, when he commanded the Zeeland frigate Prins Willem (28 guns) in 1658, with Jacob van Wassenaer-Obdam's fleet in the Sound. So, why did we not see any mention of Jan Duijm until 1658? Is the mention there, and I have just not seen it?

My goals, all along

Most of my original rationale for studying 17th Century naval history was to be able to make wargame pieces for the English and Dutch navies and have a set of rules that I could use to game the battles in the First Anglo-Dutch War. An early complication was that I had little solid information on the Dutch. Once I found The First Dutch War, I was able to make a small start. I eventually got my bound volume that contains the various lists of English, Dutch, French ships from about 1648 to 1700, published by the Society for Nautical Research. Someone had the booklets bound into a hardback book, and that was what I had found. After reading Jan Glete's Navies and Nations, and I contacted him, I started to get more solid information about the Dutch beyond what had been published. Right now, I am collecting information faster than I can process it. I still would like to use the information for gaming, although there are many obstacles to doing so, such as concocting suitable rules. Because my focus was on gaming, that was why I had made my 1:1200 scale drawing for use as wargame pieces. One fairly major issue is that the information about the English ships is very limited. Anyway, I am moving as fast as I can, limited by time and money. Right now, Carl Stapel moving faster than anyone and knows more, as well. I would settle for buying his books, even though I would have liked to be in the position of writing them, as well.

Dutch warships on 9 June 1652

The plan in place on 9 June 1652 for the Dutch navy listed the various categories and numbers of ships (I do this again, perhaps more clearly, because it is what I am thinking about):

About 41 convoyers (authorized in 1648)
36 ships authorized in 1651:
  15 in the Mediterranean Sea
   5 on the coast of Spain near Cape St. Vincent
  16 operating in the North Sea
10 ships in Brazil
38 ships of the 100 ships authorized in 1652

125 ships total

In addition, there were 50 ships 
  hired by the Directors of the seaports

186 ships total

Rotterdam:
  5 convoyers
  2 in the Mediterranean Sea
  4 in the North Sea
  2 in Brazil
  8 of the 16-1/2 ships in the 100 ships of 1652

Amsterdam:
 18 convoyers
  7 in the Mediterranean Sea
  5 on the Spanish coast near Cape St. Vincent
  2 in the North Sea
  4 in Brazil
 11 of the 33 ships in the 100 ships of 1652

Zeeland:
  9 convoyers
  3 in the Mediterranean Sea
  4 in the North Sea
  1 in Brazil
  7 of the 16-1/2 ships in the 100 ships of 1652

Noorderkwartier:
  7 convoyers
  3 in the Mediterranean Sea
  4 in the North Sea
  1 in Brazil
  7 of the 16-1/2 in the 100 ships of 1652

Friesland:
  2 convoyers
  2 in the North Sea
  2 in Brazil
  5 of the 17-1/2 ships in the 100 ships of 1652

Six Dutch fireships on 22 June 1653

The list from 22 June 1653 that gives the status of the Dutch fleet lists six fireships (branders):

1. Coninck David, Jacob Arensen (a Rotterdam fireship)
2. Orangeboom, Dirck Janssen Stroo (a Rotterdam fireship)
3. Ostende, Jan Dieman (a Zeeland fireship)
4. Lieffde, Jan Vinckhart (a Zeeland fireship)
5. 't Vercken, Henric Boudewijns (a Zeeland fireship)
6. 't Hammetien (Hammetje), Abraham Boons (?) (a Hoorn fireship)

The Elias called the "Propheet Elias"

I received a photograph, today, of a document from late September 1652 that is about Amsterdam Directors' ships and captains. The page in question names a ship the "Propheet Elias". The more modern Dutch spelling is "Profeet", but this uses, much like the "Phesant", the "ph" spelling for the "f" sound. This makes sense, although the ship is usually listed simply as the "Elias", rather than "Propheet Elias". This is the ship that served from March or April 1652 up to June 1653, when the ship was captured by the English at the Battle of the Gabbard (the Zeeslag bij Nieuwpoort). This was such a good ship that she served with the English navy until being wrecked in 1664. Probably no one else wonders, but I wonder how well my formula for converting from English measurements to Dutch dimensions in Amsterdam feet works:

Elias
Dutch dimensions: 132-1/2ft x 30ft x 13ft x 6-1/2ft
English dimensions: 
ELK=101ft  EB=27ft-6in  ED=11ft-6in

DL = ELK x 1.33 = 101 x 1.33 =   134.33 ft (too long)
DB = EEB x 1.13 =  27.5 x 1.13 =  31ft (too wide)
DH = ED x 1.13  =  11.5 * 1.13 =  13ft (just right)

I would say that the Elias may have had thinner planking than usual, and that accounts for the beam. I also suspect that the Elias had less rake, between the keel and the length from stem to sternpost, and that accounts for the disparity in length.

I am still not sure about Abraham van der Hulst's ship in the April to August 1652 period

Yes, we learn from a letter from Johan Evertsen that Abraham van der Hulst commanded an Amsterdam ship named Overijssel. From Hendrick de Raedt's pamphlet, we conclude that this was 's-Landsschip, not hired. Hendrick de Raedt says that Abraham van der Hulst's ship carried 26 guns and had a crew of 100 men. There are two candidate ships, one of which may not even have been in service past early 1652, if not earlier. One possibility is the "old Overijssel", with 28 guns and perhaps of 120ft length. The other is the new ship built in 1651. The obvious conclusion is that the ship that Jan van Campen was fitting out in August 1652 was the ship built in 1651 that might never have been in service. The ship commanded by Abraham van der Hulst, then, would be the old Overijssel, which was discarded by September 1652. Abraham van der Hulst was given command of the 40-gun ship Groningen, which had been commanded by Joris van der Zaan. He moved to the newly built Campen in September. The one concern that I have is that we have dimensions and gun lists for all other Landsschepen and hired ships for Amsterdam in 1652. If the old Overijssel was in service, then there was one ship for which we do not have dimensions and guns lists. We even have dimensions and gun lists for two Landsschepen ships lost by August 1652. These are Jeroen Adelaer's ship, the Middelburg, taken by the English in June and Barent Pietersz Dorrevelt's ship Amsterdam, which foundered in the storm off the Shetlands in early August. If we know about these, why don't we know about some other Overijssel?

My English ship estimates

I have a spreadsheet that I last modified in 2003 for estimating characteristics of 17th Century English warships. Let us look at ships named Assistance, dating from 1650 to 1725:

Ship       Date Guns  LGD      LK       B       D       LK*B*D (LK*B*B/2)/94 Built
Assistance 1650 40-48 121.46ft 102ft    31ft    13ft    411.1 t 548.1 t    Deptford DY
Assistance 1687 40    121.46ft 102ft    32.33ft 13ft    428.7 t 571.6 t    Deptford DY
Assistance 1699 48    119.58ft 103.33ft 33.25ft 12ft    412.3 t 549.7 t    Deptford DY
Assistance 1712 50    132.13ft 108.92ft 35ft    14ft    535.5 t 713.7 t    Limehouse
Assistance 1725 50    134ft    109.75ft 36.06ft 15.17ft 600.6 t 760 t      Woolwich DY

The planned armaments for Zeeland ships building in 1653

The lists of guns for a 50 gun ship and a 40 gun ship planned for the Admiralty of Zeeland still are interesting. Given the gun types, these must have been for specific ships:

The 50 gun ship
4 bronze German half cartouwen shooting 24 lbs shot
4 bronze French half cartouwen shooting 18 lbs shot
18 iron half cartouwen shooting 18 lbs shot
10 bronze shot serpants shooting 12 lbs shot
8 bronze drakes shooting 6 lbs shot
6 iron half sakers shooting 6 lbs shot

The 40 gun ship
4 bronze short serpants shooting 24 lbs shot
6 iron short 12pdr sakers shooting 12 lbs shot
4 bronze half-serpants shooting 6 lbs shot
4 bronze drakes shooting 6 lbs shot

These are my translation of gun lists from a document that I received in April 2007.

Jan Glete's approximation is for displacement

For his book Navies and Nations, Jan Glete created an approximation so that he could estimate displacements for sailing ships of all nations in the period that he covered from the 16th to the 19th Century. He describes some of that in his book, as quantitative measures were critical to his analysis about the influence of seapower on nation building. He was not working the usual generalities. Instead, he consulted the published literature and used archival sources. In his book, he mentioned the regional archivist Ron van Maanen, who had found information in the Dutch archives beyond what was in the published literature. I have used that information in the past three or four years to make significant progress. At least one other researcher with more direct access to the archives is moving faster than I am.

Why calculate an estimated displacement?

Frank Fox had suggested to me that displacement would be a better comparison of size between sailing warships than burden, as burden is essentially just a "gross tonnage" measure, having to do with some artificial calculations about ship volume (which is what gross tonnage is all about). The English burden calculation is rather nasty, in that it does not even use a real depth in hold measurement, but uses half the beam. The keel length even was abstracted away from the real keel length in the latter 17th Century, when the English started using a fraction of the length on the gun deck.

The Rotterdam ship Dolphijn, calculated

The dimensions given for the Rotterdam ship in the classic 26 February 1652 list are different from those published in Vreugdenhil's list and from what is in the Staet van Oorlog te Water for the year 1654. A similar list from 7 March has the same dimensions, as they both must be based on records at the Admiralty of Rotterdam. I have based my calculations for early 1652 on those dimensions, of Maas feet of 12 inches to the foot:

Ship the Dolphijn
Commander in September 1652: Paulus van den Kerckhoff
Length (Maas feet): 110ft
Beam (Maas feet):    25-1/2ft
Hold (Maas feet):    12-1/2ft
Length (Amst feet): 120ft
Beam (Amst feet):    27ft-9in
Hold (Amst feet):    13ft-7in
Displacement:       555.6 tons
Broadside weight:   177 lbs
Armament:  4-24pdr, 16-12pdr, 8-6pdr, 2-4pdr, 2-3pdr
Length WL (English):  107ft-4in
Length WL (Amst ft):  115ft-7in
Beam outside planking (English): 27ft
Mean draft (English):  13ft-5in
Size in Lasten:       210 lasts
Jan Glete's approximation: 529.14 tons
English burden:            349.86 tons

The Rotterdam ship Overijssel (22 guns) calculated

I have a spreadsheet that I modified to convert from Maas feet to Amsterdam feet. The results from calculations for late 1652 are worth noting:

Overijssel

Commander: Leendert Haexwant

Length (Amsterdam feet):  109ft-1in
Beam (Amsterdam feet):     25ft-1in
Hold: (Amsterdam feet):     8ft-8in
Ht between decks (Amst ft): 6ft 
Displacement (est. tons): 293.4 tons
Broadside wt:             112 lbs
Armament: 4-chambered 24pdr, 2-12pdr, 4-8pdr, 12-6pdr
Length on waterline (English feet):   97ft-6.5in
Length on waterline (Amst feet):     105ft-1in
Beam outside planking (Engl ft):      24ft-6in
Beam outside planking (Amst ft):      26ft-5in
Mean draft (English feet):             8ft-7in
Size in Lasten (Dutch gross tonnage): 110 lasts
Keel length (English feet):            82ft
English burden:                       261.89 tons
Jan Glete's approximation:            277.68 tons

Arms on the Amsterdam Directors' ships

One document that I have gives a list of items to be carried by Amsterdam Directors' ships in 1652 (I can read much of the list, but not all):

25 muskets of the Directors
24 muskets of the shipowners
36 sabers
25 sabers of the Directors
24 long pikes
24 short pikes of the Directors
4000 lbs. of gunpowder
400 lbs. of musket balls
(looks like 500 lbs. "plat loot")
12 grapple axes
12 leather buckets
12 swabbers
4 heavy anchors
1 warp anchor
4 cables attached to each other 
1 (scratched out "warp anchor") "Tuij T?ull"
1 bread chamber for 4000 lbs. bread
12 straps

The Swarte Beer

The Monnikendam Directors' ship Swarte Beer served through the First Anglo-Dutch War. We know the armament on 21 June 1653, from an inventory. The ship had 2-18pdr guns, some 12pdr guns, with the main battery being 8pdr guns. The Swarte Beer also had some 4pdr guns and 2-3pdr guns. I have wondered about the widespread use of 2-3pdr guns by many ships and have not heard a good explanation of how they were used.

Letters from after the storm in the Shetlands

The most recent pages that I have received include letters from the captains of Amsterdam Directors' ships, such as Cornelis van Houten, captain of the Witte Lam (28 guns). Some letters are signed by Abraham Hendricksz van Campen and Hector Bardesius. Tromp's fleet consisted of 92 warships, along with one supply ship (the Blompot), seven fireships, and three galjoots.

I used to think that the lists of ships for 1648, 1651, and 1652 were static

Back when I started one of my writing projects, "Dutch Ships in Various Operations During the First Anglo-Dutch War", I had assumed that the lists of ships, the 40 convoyers funded in 1648, the 36 cruisers funded in 1651, the 50 Directors' ships funded in 1652, and the 100 ships funded in 1652 were static, so that I could have one table for each. I would fill them in once and that would be enough. I know now that the ships funded by each increment changed over time. The first indication of that was when more ships were hired by the Directors to replace losses. I could also see that more ships were hired by the admiralties, also to replace losses, but also to replace ships discarded for various reasons. Dr. Colenbrander had the numbers of ships for Rotterdam, Amsterdam, the Noorderkwartier, Zeeland, and Friesland in his book, Bescheiden uit vreemde Archieven omtrent de groote Nederlandsche Zeeoorlogen, 1652-76.

I have started work on a new family of wargame pieces: Dutch ships of various lengths that can be customized

The trick for putting together sheets of ship wargame pieces is to have a family of drawings scanned that can be customized to match individual ships. They are not intended, in my case, to represent actual appearances, although I may do that at times. Generally, there are not enough drawings of known ships for the First Anglo-Dutch War Dutch ships to be able to do that. I will be posting the results here as I finish them. The next ten days will be difficult, except today and the weekend, as I will be working ten hour days.

The Vrijheid was more lightly armed in 1652 and 1653, despite carrying 46 guns

The large Amsterdam ship Vrijheid, built in 1651, was lightly armed in the period of 1652 to 1653. Later, the Vrijheid had a lower tier of 18pdr guns, but during the First Anglo-Dutch War, the Vrijheid had 4-24pdr and the rest being 12pdr guns on the lower tier. The upper tier was 8pdr guns, probably with an unarmed waist, plus two 6pdr guns. I have a list with armaments dating from 1652 that has guns but no dimensions.

No surprises

Because we have basically complete information on Amsterdam and Friesland ships in the First Anglo-Dutch War, I am skeptical about a ship named Eendracht commanded by Albert Claesz de Graeff up to August 1652. While that is possible, given that we have dimensions and gun lists for all other ships built for and hired by the Admiralty of Amsterdam in the period of 1652 to 1653, it seems unlikely. We even have dimensions and gun lists for Jeroen Adelaer's ship Middelburg, captured by the English in June 1652 and Barent Pietersz Dorrevelt's ship that foundered in the storm off the Shetlands in early August. I doubt any possible "mystery ship".

Amsterdam ships armed with 10pdr guns in 1652 and 1653

Apparently, the gun shot weights 5, 10, 15, and 20pdr were non-standard for Dutch ships. I have thought that they were an older standard, as in the few lists that I have dating from prior to 1639, there are many ships carrying at least the 5, 10, and 15pdr guns. At least one ship carried 20pdr guns in 1652 and 1653, although very few. The 5pdr is equivalent to the English saker (5-1/4pdr). I know for sure that the Amsterdam ships Gelderland (ship of Cornelis van Velsen), Overijssel (ship of Jan van Campen), and the Zeelandia (ship of Jacob Huyrluyt and Nicolaes Marrevelt) all carried a large number of 10pdr guns. The Gelderland exploded in the Battle of the Gabbard (the Zeeslag bij Nieuwpoort), so those guns were lost.

The list of Zeeland ships funded by the resolution at the Peace in 1648

You should not assume that they list of Zeeland convoyers includes the actual ships in service in 1648. There is reason to believe that the actual ships funded by the act of the States Generaal changed over time. My list is the list from early December 1652. By the summer of 1653, the ships included in the 40 convoyers of 1648, the 36 cruisers of 1651, the 50 Directors' ships, and the 100 ships of 1652 had changed radically, due to war losses, ships discarded, ships moved between categories, and new ships hired. You only have to study the lists over time to see the changes.

The Zeeland contribution to the 40 convoyers

At the peace treaty with Spain in 1648, the Dutch navy was reduced to 40 convoyers. The actual ships in that category seem likely to have changed over time. As of December 1652, the Zeeland convoyers included the following ships:

Adm    Ship              Gun Commander
Z      Zeeuwsche Leeuw   27  kapitein Cornelis Evertsen de Oude
Z      Westcappel        28  kapitein Cornelis Evertsen de Jonge
Z      Amsterdam         32  kapitein Adriaen Kempen
Z      Middelburg        26  kapitein Claes Jansz Sanger
Z      Sandenburgh       24  kapitein Pieter Gorcum
Z      Wapen van Zeeland 34  kapitein Joris Willemsz Block
Z      Hasewint          28  kapitein Jacob Verhelle (lost)
Z      Jaeger            14  kapitein Adriaen Jansz den Oven

Ships under the command of Egbert Meeussen (Kortenaer)

He wasn't using the name Kortenaer in October 1653, but Egbert Meeussen was recognized as being an outstanding officer. From the Battle of Scheveningen and on the voyage to Norway in October 1653, he was a temporary squadron commander. I have a document that gives guns and crew for the ships in his squadron:

Adm    Ship                Guns Crew Commander
R      Brederode           54   263  kapitein Egbert Meeussen
R      Princesse Louijsse  36   131  kapitein Abel Roelantsz (Verboom)
R      Gelderlandt         24   114  kapitein jonge boer (Aert van Nes)
A      Oosterwijck         55   226  kapitein de Wilde (Gideon de Wildt)
A      Edam                30   122  kapitein Cramer (Barent Cramer)
A      Gouda               30   145  kapitein Jan Egbertsz Ooms
A      Ouden Prins         32   113  kapitein Boermans (Jan Boermans)
  (the Prins Willem)
A      Leijden             30   114  kapitein Croeger (Hendrick Croeger)
A      Groningen           40   198  kapitein Gillis Thijssen Campen
A      Zutphen             30   107  kapitein Ysbrandt de Vries
A      Overijssel          30   132  kapitein Jan van Campen
A      Hollantsen Tuijn    24    87  kapitein Joris Block
N      Tobias              30   122  kapitein Jan Ham
F      Breda               32   124  kapitein Adriaen Bruijnsvelt
Ho-VOC Sint Willeboort     27   123  kapitein Eddick Jacobsz

Dutch ships in August 1652

When we look at Vuce-Admiral Johan Evertsen's list from August 1652, we are immediately confronted by some questions. Is his list accurate and not to be questioned, or is it fairly accurate but with some errors. The latter assessment is easier to deal with than the alternative. Some examples that cause us concern are the name of Albert Claesz de Graeff's ship (the Eendracht) and the name of Jan le Sage's ship (the Middelburg). I have assumed that Albert Claesz de Graeff's ship was the large hired ship Hollandia that carried 30 guns. He commanded the Hollandia in September 1652. Other sources, such as Hendrick de Raedt's pamphlet, are of no help, as Albert Claesz de Graeff was in Witte de With's squadron and none of those ships have guns or crew listed. We believe that Jan le Sage commanded the Middelburg Directors' ship Gulden Haan (30 guns). The name Middelburg might be an error, but based on Jan le Sage's ship being a Middelburg Directors' ship. At this point, as the rate of research that I can afford is slow enough that I am unlikely to be able to find the answers before the information is published elsewhere.

Dutch lists from September 1653

The lists that I have seen for the Dutch fleet in September 1653, both from Witte de With's journal and from other documents, are the sort of material that should have been published as part of The First Dutch War volumes. Certainly, the 1914-1918 war intervened and caused the last volume to be published years later. That is the volume, Vol.VI, that would have naturally had that sort of material. There is very limited Dutch material in that volume and the one actual list is actually from August 1652 and was mistakenly thought to be from 1653. That is the list of De Ruyter's fleet that eventually fought Sir George Ayscue in the Battle of Plymouth, in 1652. Anyone with the least amount of knowledge of the subject should have recognized that fact. These latest pages that I have received have some really useful information about Dutch ships, albeit just captains, gun and crew figures, and just a few ship names in some. From this, however, we see that Frans Mangelaer's hired ship Wapen van Ceulen (Cologne) carried 30 guns and Rens Cornelisz Sevenhuijsen's ship, the Mars, carried between 34 and 38 guns. I imagine that towards the end of The First Dutch War project that it was easier to look at English sources rather than Dutch ones, so that is largely what we got.

More about Laurens Degelcamp's ship

I guess that I had not realized just how flimsy the basis for Laurens Degelcamp's ship being named the Gelderland was. The only place that I have where that name is used is on page 157 of The First Dutch War, Vol.VI. The entry says: "Captain Degelcamp, the ship Gelderlant", with 24 guns and 80 men. Carl Stapel says that he name of Captain Jongen Boer's ship, the Gelderland, commanded by Lieutenant Jan van Nes, was mistaken for Laurens Degelcamp's ship. All other sources call Laurens Degelcamp's ship the Groninger Sint Nicolaes.

One outstanding question is the issue about the Friesland ship Gelderland

The First Dutch War mentions a Friesland ship Gelderland, commanded by Laurens Degelcamp. The Gelderland was with Michiel De Ruyter's fleet in the Channel in August and September 1652, and then was probably with Witte de With's fleet at the Battle of the Kentish Knock. One problem is that the documents that I have with Friesland ship data only mention a ship named the Groeningen Nicolaes or Groeninger Sint Nicolaes commanded by Laurens Hermansz Degelcamp. I swear that I saw a page that gave the name Gelderland to a ship with the same specifications as the Groeningen Nicolaes, but I can't find the page to verify that fact. Based on my large but limited set of information, this is still an unresolved problem. Carl Stapel may know the answer, but I do not.

Some different gun figures for Dutch ships in September 1653

I have a page that I received yesterday that has some rather unusual gun numbers for Dutch ships in September 1653:

Adm   Ship      Stated guns Usual guns  Captain
A     Samson    24          26          Hendrick Adriaenszoon
A     Pelicaen  28          24          Jan Overcamp 
                  (the Pelicaen carried 24 guns on 14 July 1653)
A     Brack     20          18          Poppe Binckes
A     Hoop      24          28          Dirck Pater
A-Dir Samson    26          28          Cornelis de Groot

Friesland ships

There is some controversy over the exact owners or hirers of Friesland ships in 1652 and 1653. The Breda, Frisia, and Westergoo were definitely 's Landsschepen. I actually have two sources that say that the Graaf Hendrick (30 guns) was a Directors' ship, and the ship hired by the Groningen Directors. The two Harlingen Directors' ships were the Vergulde Pelicaen (28 guns) and Sint Vincent (28 guns). Hendrick Jansz Camp's ship, the Wapen van Nassau (36 guns), was a ship hired by the Admiralty of Friesland and was gone by mid-March 1653. Confusing the issue are the ships hired by Groningen, versus the ships hired by the Admiraliteit van Friesland. This is what I think to be true:

Friesland 's Landsschepen:

Adm    Ship                          Guns Commander
F      Westergoo                     28   Joris van den Broeck
                                          Tijmen Claeszoon
F      Frisia                        28   Schelte Wiglama
F      Breda                         28   Adriaan Bruijnsvelt
F      Sevenwolden                   38   Frederick Stellingwerff
F      Stad Groeningen en Ommelanden 38   Joost Bulter

Ships hired for the Admiraliteit van Friesland

Adm    Ship                          Guns Commander
F      Wapen van Nassau              36   Hendrick Jansz Camp
F      Schaapharder                  26   Aldert Pietersz Quaboer
F      Groninger Sint Nicolaes       24   Laurens Degelcamp
F      Sint Nicolaes                 24   Andries van den Bouckhorst
F      Postpaert                     30   Isaac Codde
F      Sara                          24   Hans Carelsen Becke
F      Graaf Willem                  24   Jan Coenders

Directors' ships
Ha-Dir Vergulde Pelicaen             28   Ariaan Heeres Kleijntje
Ha-Dir Sint Vincent                  28   Andries Douwesz Pascaert
                                          Ariaan Heeres Kleijntje
Gr-Dir Graaf Hendrick                30   Jan Reijndersz Wagenaer

Zeeland ships in September 1653

The list of ships and captains for Zeeland in September 1653 is rather interesting:

Adm    Ship             Guns Crew Commander
Z      Amsterdam        32   120  kapitein Adriaen Kempen
Z      Wapen van Ceulen 30   120  kapitein Frans Mangelaer
Z      Salamander       34   125  kapitein Pieter Marcuszoon
Z      Goes             25   110  kapitein Cornelis Kuijper
Mi-Dir Gouden Leeuw     34   126  kapitein Adriaen Pensen
Vl-Dir Haes             30   110  kapitein Bastiaen Centsen
Mi-Dir Luipaert         37   130  kapitein Cornelis Tiebij

I found that the Luipaert (or Luipaard) was a Middelburg Directors' ship from Ron van Maanen's comprehensive list.

Wargaming

At this point, I am in a position to do calculations for Privateers Bounty and other game systems for the Dutch fleet in the First Anglo-Dutch War. There are far fewer ships for which I would need to estimate specifications. My downloadable scenarios for Privateers Bounty have not been updated to use the new information. The information has come in a torrent since August 2006, and I have not digested all of it by any means. What is really lacking, right now, is comparable information for the English during 1652 to 1653, particularly. I spoke with Frank Fox, again, and thinks that there is likely comparable information for the English, during the Commonwealth and English Civil War (1642 to 1660), but no one has found it yet. Frank told me that there are more than a 1,000 volumes on information that is uncatalogued and which is yet to be investigated. Right now, there is no one interested to fund the effort, as those with an interest don't have the resources to do fund the work.

Yesterday, I received a photograph of the page that says that the Sint Maria was under repair after the Three Days Battle in 1653

One continuing issue for me is the Amsterdam Directors' ship Sint Maria, commanded by Sipke Fockes up to early 1653. The Hollandsche Mercurius and the Onstelde Zee both say that Sipke Fockes was killed and his ship, the "Grote Sint Lucas" was captured and taken into an English port after the Three Days Battle. I have seen no other reference to a ship "Grote Sint Lucas" that served as an Amsterdam Directors' ship. On the other hand, there is this (and other) pages that show that the Sint Maria remained in Dutch hands after the Three Days Battle and was under repair. The ship was apparently totally dismasted and had other damage, as well. I presume that the decision was made to discard the Sint Maria due to the extent of the damage. The other ships listed all returned to service (the Gidion, Elias, Burgh, and Faam).

The Amsterdam ship Oosterwijk

I had an inquiry about the Amsterdam ship Oosterwijk, built in 1653. I had forgotten that the Oosterwijk was in service by September 1653 and was commandeur Gideon de Wildt's flagship on the voyage to Norway from September to November 1653. Witte de With's journal says that the Oosterwijk carried 55 guns and had a crew of 226 men during that period. He was assigned to Egbert Meessen's (or Meeuwssen)squadron of 16 ships. The other large, new ships on the voyage, under the command of Witte de With, were the Amsterdam (50 guns and a crew of 210 men), commanded by Gideon Verburgh, the Huijs te Cruijningen (48 guns and a crew of 250 men), and Witte de With's flagship, the Huijs te Swieten (56 guns and a crew of 276 men).

The list of Dutch casualties after the Zeeslag bij Elba

One of the documents that I received last week was a damage report and list of casualties after the Zeeslag bij Elba (or Battle of Monte Cristo) in the Mediterranean Sea in August 1652. I just updated a Wikipedia page to add names. There are 11 Dutch ships listed:

Commander                   Dead Wounded
admiraal (Johan van Galen)  18   30
vice-admiraal 't Hoen        4   26 (Albert Cornelisz 't Hoen was killed)
Schout-bij-Nacht Blocq       5    8 (Joost Willemsz Blocq was killed)
kapitein Bont               21   30 (David Jansz Bondt was killed)
kapitein Swart               7   31 (Hendrik Claesz Swart was killed)
kapitein Verveen             4   10
kapitein Tromp               5   15 
kapitein Andries de Boer     3    5 or 6
kapitein Jacob de Boer       5    4

Total                       70  162

The East Indiaman Prins Willem

While I was in Amsterdam five weeks ago, Ab Hoving showed me "the famous model" of the East Indiaman Prins Willem. There is a page in English about the model. There are references, used by Herman Ketting in his book, that give the length as 181ft (Amsterdam feet). Ab Hoving's position is that it could not have been that long. That the ship was probably less than 170ft long. Herbert Tomesen's position some years ago was that the Prins Willem and the Oranje were both built to the 170ft charter for retourschepen, and that the Prins Willem must have had dimensions of about 170ft x 38ft x 14ft and had three decks.

Friesland ships with the Dutch fleet in December 1652

One of the documents that I received recently was a list of the captains with the Dutch fleet in early December 1652. This is the list of Friesland captains and ships, as far as possible, using the spelling from the page:

F=Admiralty of Friesland
Ha-Dir=Harlingen Directors
Gr-Dir=Groningen Directors

Adm      Ship                 Guns Crew Captain
F        Wapen van Nassau     36   127  Hendrick Jansz Camp
F        Postpaert            30   106  Isaack Codde
F        Breda                28   110  Adriaen Bruijnsvelt
F        Frisia               28   110  Scheltes Wiglama
Ha-Dir   Sint Vincent         28   110  Andries Douwesz Pascaert
Ha-Dir   Vergulde Pelicaen    28   100  Jacob Cleijntge
Gr-Dir   Graef Hendrick       32   110  Jan Reijndersz Waegenaer       

The list of ships, captains, lieutenants, and writers for Amsterdam Directors' ships in March 1652

Yesterday, I received a copy of the list of ship names, captains, lieutenants, and writers for the Amsterdam Directors' ship hired in March 1652. This is a different version of a the list than I have seen before. There are some unique features. One is that Frederick Bogaert's ship was listed a "de Mars" and then crossed out, with "de Engel Michiel" written in light letters below it. In this list, Ulrich de Jager, lieutenant of the Gidion van Sardam, (who has had his first name spelled in some rather odd ways) is called Ulrich Claesz de Jager, which is what I have been using. I am not sure that I have had his middle name, but I may have started to use it in my writing, already. Hendrick de Raedt's pamphlet uses the name Gerrit van Lummen for the captain of the ship Neptunis (34 guns), but this document calls him Gerrit van Limmen, which is apparently correct. The most unique thing in this list the name Mars, which was the name of a ship hired by the Admiralty of the Noorderkwartier in 1653.

December 1652

The situation with Noorderkwartier ships and captains in December 1652 is rather interesting. This is the list of men and what might be the ships:

Officer                             Ship                   Guns
Schout-bij-Nacht Pieter Florissen   Stad Monnikendam       36
kapitein Cornelis Pietersz Taenman  Prins Maurits          32
kapitein Arent Dirckszoon           Wapen van Monnikendam  24
kapitein Thijs Tijmensz Peereboom   Peereboom              24
commandeur Johannes Bourgougie      Tobias                 30
kapitein Jan Heck                   Eenhoorn               30
kapitein Volckert Schram            Lastdrager             28
kapitein Teunis Vechterszoon        Vergulde Schel         24
kapitein Harman Munnekes            Wapen van Enkhuijsen   32

Jacob Cornelisz Swart

Carl Stapel says that Jacob Cornelisz Swart was captain of the Amsterdam Directors' ship Faem from March 1652. I already knew from Witte de With's journal that Jacob Cornelisz Swart commanded the Faem on the voyage to Norway from September to November 1653. The Faem was a 116ft long ship that carried 28 guns and served through the entire First Anglo-Dutch War, or at least until late 1653. According to David de Wildt's list from 22 February 1652, Cornelis Jansz Poort owned the Faem.

The Gouden Leeuw was apparently back in service in June 1653

The ship that had been commanded by Gillis Thijssen Campen in 1652 was apparently back in service in June 1653 and had fought in the Battle of the Gabbard (the Zeeslag bij Nieuwpoort). You may recall that this was a 113ft ship that was very lightly armed. The largest guns were 6-8pdr and the rest were smaller. This must be the ship listed as number 22 in the list of ships following the Battle of the Gabbard. The ship is shown to have 24 guns and a crew of 75 men. The name is somewhat different, the Vergulde Leeuken.

The Amsterdam ship Westfriesland in June 1653

From a photograph that I took a month ago, I can see that in the list from about 23 June 1653, the ship Westfriesland, of the Admiralty of Amsterdam, is listed as having a length of 122ft. I would take the dimensions in this list very tentatively, as they tend to vary from the usual dimensions. Still, the information is very good for understanding how ships were armed and manned after the Battle of the Gabbard (the Zeeslag bij Nieuwpoort). The Westfriesland was another ship with a main battery of 8pdr guns, supplemented by a few 12pdrs and some smaller. The crew size was mandated as 110 men, but only 103 were on board when this list was compiled. One bit of trivia is that the ship had 1200 lbs of gunpowder on board and had six weeks of victuals.

The crew of the Sint Pieter, Gerrit Schuijt's ship in November 1653

Gerrit Schuijt's inventory for the Amsterdam Directors' ship Sint Pieter, dating from early November 1653, gives the breakdown of the crew:

Officers and seamen:  68 men
Ship's soldiers:      29 men
Land soldiers:         5 men
Boys:                  6 boys

Total:               108 men and boys

I was surprised at the large numbers of "ship's soldiers" (Marines). I had expected that they all would be land soldiers.

The ship Faam on 3 November 1653

I can definitively say that the Amsterdam Directors' ship Faam was commanded by commandeur (probably luitenant-commandeur) Jacob Cornelisz Swart on 3 November 1653. The ships in Witte de With's fleet apparently prepared documents documenting their supply position, prior to arriving back off the Texel in early November. We know from The First Dutch War that the ships in the fleet were extremely short of food and had to cut back on how much they fed their men.

Some Dutch guns

I took some photographs of documents, when I visited the Nationaal Archief The Hague. One page has some gun weights and also numbers of shot on hand for a particular Dutch warship, the hired ship for the Admiralty of Amsterdam, the Jonas. These are some representative weights:

Gun        Weight of piece
12pdr      3015 lbs
12pdr      2930 lbs
8pdr       2320 lbs
8pdr       2210 lbs
6pdr       2560 lbs
6pdr       2400 lbs
5pdr       1420 lbs
5pdr       1410 lbs
5pdr       1395 lbs
5pdr       1365 lbs
3pdr        730 lbs
3pdr        720 lbs

I would really like to know more about the Nooderkwartier ship, the Mars

Right now, the main thing that I know about the Noorderkwartier ship Mars was that Rens Cornelisz Sevenhuijsen was the captain. He took his crew from the Profeet Samuel and moved to the hired ship Mars, I believe, in July 1653. I do know that in late October, the Mars had a crew of 130 men. The Mars was on the voyage to Norway with Witte de With's fleet. I think that information exists. I just don't have the original documents. Carl Stapel had indicated that the Mars carried 38 guns, but I have not been able to confirm that, myself.

Musketeers

One document that I received several days ago lists musketeers assigned to ships in Witte de With's fleet that had sailed to Norway and would return to the Texel by early November 1653. Here are some representative numbers:

Adm   Ship            Musketeers
M     Brederode       73
M     Prinses Louise  61
M     Gelderland      23
A     Oosterwijk      71
A     Edam            42
A     Gouda           25
A     Prins Willem    18

I keep hoping that I will find information about the ship Mars in later 1653

Reijnst Cornelisz Sevenhuijsen commanded three ships that I know of during the First Anglo-Dutch War. They all were employed by the Admiralty of the Noorderkwartier. His first ship was the Roode Leeuw (24 guns), a hired ship. The second was also a hired ship, the Profeet Samuel (30 guns). The third was the Mars, also a hired ship. I do not even have the number of guns or the crew size for the Mars in any document that I possess. I have what I believe to be the dimensions for the Roode Leeuw, although that is uncertain. I do have the gun list for the Profeet Samuel, a ship paid off after the Zeeslag bij Nieuwpoort (the Battle of the Gabbard). I have nothing about the Mars. I know that the Mars was with Witte de With's fleet on the voyage to Norway in later 1653, but that is all. I suspect that the Mars fought in the Battle of Scheveningen, but can't prove that.

The Westergoo

The Friesland ship Westergoo was captured by the English at the Battle of the Gabbard on 12 June 1653. This was a 114ft ship with a main battery of 8pdr guns. The Westergoo also had some 12pdr, 6pdr, 4pdr, and 3pdr guns, totalling 28 guns. The crew was nominally 110 men. Her luitenant, Tijmen Claeszoon, commanded the ship after the original captain died in 1652. The Westergoo had fought in the Battle of Plymouth in August 1652.

More Dutch gun weights from 1653

One of the best things about the last month has been the discovery of quite a few Dutch gun inventories, showing gun weights. I believe that all these date from 1653. Here are some more representative examples:

Material  shot weight    weight of piece  Special
Bronze    24 lbs         4806 lbs
Iron      18 lbs         3500 lbs
                         3590 lbs
Bronze    12 lbs         1556 lbs         klokwijs
                         1592 lbs         klokwijs
Iron      12 lbs         3225 lbs
                         3150 lbs
                         3300 lbs
                         3015 lbs
                         2930 lbs
Iron       8 lbs         2320 lbs
                         2210 lbs
                         2150 lbs
                         2075 lbs
Iron       6 lbs         2560 lbs
                         2520 lbs
                         2400 lbs
                         2240 lbs
                         2000 lbs
                         1900 lbs
                         1825 lbs
Iron       5 lbs         1420 lbs
                         1365 lbs
Iron       3 lbs          980 lbs
                          730 lbs

Allert Jansz Tamessen

I do not know too much about Allert Jansz Tamessen. I just learned more about him from Carl Stapel, as the Hoorn that he commanded was the ship built in 1625, also called the Eenhoorn or Witte Eenhoorn. Apparently, Allert Jansz Tamessen commanded the Eenhoorn from 1650 to 1652, and had been in Brazil until arriving back in later July 1652. I have seen a note that he was present at a council of war on the Brederode on "26 July 1652" (presumably an "Old Style" date, since this was from The First Dutch War). The Eenhoorn was a 125ft ship of 220 lasts. Jan Heck was appointed captain of the Eenhoorn from September 1652 and commanded the ship through the rest of the war.

The loss of the Jaarsveld off of Livorno in January 1653

Yesterday, I received a photograph of details of the Amsterdam ship Jaarsveld, which was wrecked on an uncharted rock off of Livorno (Leghorn) in January 1653. The Jaarsveld was the flagship of the Dutch Mediterranean fleet up to this time. The Jaarsveld had been built in 1651 and was larger than the normal 40 gun ships. The Jaarsveld was not huge, but was 130ft long. The Jaarsveld had a lower tier of 12pdr guns and an upper tier of 8pdr guns, with a few smaller, probably on the quarterdeck or poop. Also, in the archaic style, the Jaarsveld carried a few larger guns, as well. The style, in the latter 16th Century, would have ships armed with 4 to 6 larger guns, a lower tier of the current heavy gun (the English used 18pdr culverins) and an upper tier of the current ligher gun (for the English, this was the 9pdr demi-culverin). The Dutch still mostly armed their ships this way during the First Anglo-Dutch War, although they already had many Amsterdam ships that had armaments that were more uniform.