Wargaming 1648-1720

Wargaming in the 1648-1720 period is a great challenge, due to the large fleets that were employed during this period. If you insist on fighting fleet actions without the help of a compupter, then you must follow some strategy like that employed by Iain Stanford in "General-at-Sea", where the game mechanisms are simplified and the ships are grouped. There is a slight possibility that if you had large teams of gamers, you might be able to use more detailed rules, but I am doubtful.

One alternative is to fight small actions, either small, independent squadrons or else small parts of larger fleets. If what you really want is to be able to fight the Battle of Portland or the Battle of the Gabbard, you would end up being pretty dissatisfied.

The ultimate would be a simulation game with 3D models that was paced to allow large numbers of ships on each side. Barring that, at least a simulation game that used a plan view map as the display would be adequate. You would want to have some degree of artificial intelligence employed, probably at the ship level, as well as for the squadron commander. I can see such a game written in Smalltalk being possible. The main difficulty is the level of effort involved and the cost to pay developer's time. I suspect that such a game would not be commercially viable, as everyone wants a flashy 3D graphics interface.

Nine Amsterdam 40 gun Landsschepen in March 1653?

I am back to trying to fill in the details that match J. C. De Jonge's appendix XXII to Vol.I of Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Zeewezen. This is the table entitled "Staat der Nederlandsche Zeemagt, in Maart des Jaars 1653". One nagging problem involves finding nine Amsterdam 40-gun Landsschepen. Finding eight is easy:

Campen
Groningen
Graaf Willem
Zon
Maan
Vereenigde Provinciën
Haarlem
Goes

The question is, what is the ninth ship? The natural ship to list as the one 40-gun hired ship would be the Aartsengel Michiel. Interestingly, that is listed as being funded by the 40-ships of 1648 appropriation in a list from 28 November 1652. I thought it would be possible, then, to include the Aartsengel Michiel as the ninth 40-gun ship. That leaves us with having to find the 40-gun hired ship somewhere else. The only possibility that I could think of would be to use the Vogelstruis as the hired ship. That is more satisfying then using it as a Landsschip. The Vogelstruis was the ship hired from the Amsterdam Chamber of the East India Company (the VOC). I am doubtful that any of this is a reasonable thing to do, but then, what else can you do? We would have to be able to go back in our time machine and ask Johan Cornelisz de Jonge what he meant to resolve the problem, otherwise.

The Rotterdam ship Prinses Louise, built in 1646

The Rotterdam ship Prinses Louise was vice-admiraal Witte de With's flagship in 1652. I as looking at the van de Velde drawing of the Prinses Louise and was counting gun ports. There are ten ports on a side on the lower tier. The upper tier is incomplete, with an unarmed waist. There are two guns on a side forward and four on a side aft. There are also four guns at the level above this. The lower tier almost certainly consisted of the 4-bronze 24pdr guns and 16-12pdr guns. The upper tier would have been 12-12pdr guns. At the next level (the poop), there were the 4-bronze chambered 5pdr guns. Of the lower tier, the bronze 24pdr guns were not chambered, apparently. By November, the 24pdr guns were reduced to two and two more 12pdr guns replaced them. Presumably, that was to lighten the ship.

Ships in the Three Days Battle (the Battle of Portland)

The question I have is whether there is any documentary support for these ships being at the Three Days Battle (what the English called the Battle of Portland) from 28 February 1653 until 2 March 1653 (new style dates):

Adm    Ship                      Guns Crew Commander
A      Graef Willem              40   140  kapitein Jan Gideonsz Verburgh
A      Zeelandia                 34   120  luitenant-commandeur 
                                             Nicolaes Marrevelt
A      Zutphen                   26   100  kapitein Ewout Jeroensz de Moij
A      Amsterdam                 30   100  kapitein Sijmon van der Aeck
A-Dir  Sint Matheeus             34   125  kapitein Cornelis Naeuoogh
Z      Eendracht                 24    80  kapitein Andries Fortuijn
N      Wapen van Enkhuizen       32   120  kapitein Herman Munneckes
N      Lastdrager                32   110  kapitein Volckert Schram
N      Monnick                   28    95  kapitein Arent Dirckszoon
N      Prins Maurits             32    97  kapitein Cornelis Pietersz Taenman
Mo-Dir Swarte Beer               30   115  kapitein Jacob Claesz Boot
Ed-Dir Vergulde Halve Maen       30   110  kapitein Jan Fredericksz Hoeckboot
Ho-Dir Samson                    30   110  kapitein Jacob Hoeck
F      Breda                     28   110  kapitein Adriaen Bruijnsvelt
F      Graef Hendrick            30   110  kapitein Jan Reijndersz Wagenaer
F      Hector van Troijen        24    70  kapitein Laurens Hermansz Degelencamp
F      Princesse Albertijna      26    90  kapitein Rombout van der Parre
F      Sara                      24    80  luitenant Hessel Franszoon
F      Sevenwolden               36   140  kapitein Frederick Stellingwerff
F      Wapen van Nassau          36   130  kapitein Hendrick Jansz Camp
Ha-Dir Sint Vincent              28   105  kapitein Andries Douwesz Pascaert

I want better support than appearing on De Sneuper website or being listed in Dr. Ballhausen's book. Preferably, I would like two have at least two sources per ship to prove that the ship and captain fought in the battle. The admiralties follow my usual abbreviation system.

Job Forant

I have a copy of the letter of marque from Charles II for Job Forant on the ship Fortune. The letter is dated 1652, so Anderson's date is wrong. We knew that Job Forant was in Brazil until mid-1649, so the 1649 date listed by Anderson was questionable.

Job Forant in 1649 or there abouts

I see the listing in R.C. Anderson's book about English captains in the period of 162 to 1660 where Job Forant (or Foran) is named as a Royalist captain in about 1649. He is listed as the captain of the Fortune.

Captain Belevelt

In his journal, Witte de With mentions a captain Belvelt who commanded a Friesland ship with the fleet in September 1652. The ship has neither guns nor crew mentioned. Carl Stapel had seen a reference from March 1653 that said that Captain Belvelt commanded a ship named Omlandia. There seems to have been an available ship named Omlandia, that built in 1628 and mentioned in July 1654 and then again in 1655.

One problem with this is that we know of the Omlandia from 1652 to 1653. We have many lists of Friesland ships and the ship built in 1628 is totally absent. All other Friesland ships are listed. So that is a concern, but given the list from July 1654, we might conclude that the Omlandia was simply employed outside of home waters and would be omitted from a list of ships based in the Netherlands. There was a Noorderkwartier ship Enkhuizen, which is a similar case.

I am skeptical that the Omlandia mentioned in March 1653 was the Stad Groningen en Ommelanden and that Captain Belvelt was actually Joost Bulter. I would have to see hard evidence before I would believe that. Otherwise, we are just guessing.

"Knuttel"

I was interested to see that Google Book Search, at least what is available in the United States, has the volume Catalogus van de Pamfletten-Verzameling Berustende in de Koninklijke Bibliotheek, by Dr. Knuttel. They have the volume that covers 1649 to 1667, or at least the Second Volume, First Part.

Having 1671 and 1672 ship information sure is nice

I hadn't guessed how nice it would be to actually have some ship data from 1671 and 1672. I received some yesterday, all about ships of the Admiralty of the Noorderkwartier. The 1671 information has length and beam, while the 1672 only has ship name, captain, number of guns, sailors and soldiers.

Corstiaen Eldertszoon (more name information)

The captain of the Rotterdam hired ship Roscam is usually called Corstiaen Eldertszoon. I found a little bit of information while searching online: "kapitein Cristiaen Eldersz Groendal" of the ship "de Vergulde Roscam". Corstiaen and Christiaen seem interchangable. This makes it appear that Groendal is the captain's real last name, while he is just the "son of Elder".

Writing Projects

I have three related writing projects about Dutch ships from 1600 to 1780's and the First Anglo-Dutch War. While there is still much information to find and learn, I presently know more and have more information. The challenge is to find time to write and complete what I have in work. I keep looking for a way to be able to go full time doing research and writing, but there is no obvious way to achieve that situation. In the mid-1990's, I would have said that this sort of information did not exist. However it does, and I would like to be one of the authors who publish some of it. There should be more, I would hope, as there are several researchers who know and either are or could write about it.

Dimension conversion

I thought of making an Excel spreadsheet to convert from Maas feet and inches to Amsterdam feet and inches. At lunchtime today, I implemented it. It makes the process of converting from Maas feet (308mm divided into 12 inches) into Amsterdam feet (283mm of 11 inches) a simple task.

The hired ships Pelicaen and Gouden Reael

I had forgotten that I had dimensions for the Amsterdam hired ships Pelicaen and Gouden Reael. Those two ships were hired in mid-1653 and served up through the voyage to Norway from September to November 1653. Both ships survived the storm off the Texel, as I recall. Many of the hired ships were long and narrow. Despite what David K. Brown wrote in his article about the speed and form of sailing ships. His thesis was that the form of sailing ships was irrelevant, due to the low speed-length ratio (speed in knots/sqrt(length in feet)). That is a valid assertion, but the length-to-beam ratio is still important for speed. Short wide ships have more resistance than long narrow ships. This is really intuitive and based on our experience. All you have to do is experiment with a short, wide, piece of wood. Push it in the water and see how fast it moves. Then try the same experiment with a long, narrow piece of wood. Even though both have flat ends, the long, narrow one will move faster and with less effort. Both the Pelicaen (24 guns) and the Gouden Reael (28 guns) had length-to-beam ratios above 4.0.

Wargame pieces

I finally made a tiny bit of progress towards having a new style of Dutch ship wargame piece. I started with a pencil drawing that I inked. I scanned it and put it into a Dutch ship sheet. I tried digitally adding color, but with the tools that I have, the time cost is prohibitive. I just copied it, pasted it, and printed. I will use colored pencils and rescan. Then I will have do some digital editing to put back what I will lose in the printing and scanning process. I started with a 120ft ship, as there were so many.

The right base and chase diameters for guns?

So I got my Smalltalk code for computing the weights of Dutch guns written and working, to a limited extent. One immediate issue that is really critical is how to choose appropriate chase and base diameters for a gun of a particular weight and shot weight. I am probably not using the correct terminology. My program needs the diameter of the gun at the muzzle end and the breech end. Both have rings that are of specific diameter. Naval guns generally flare to the muzzle, while army guns have a ring around the muzzle. The sizes determine how much metal is in the gun and there must have been design rules used by gun manufacturers that they had developed over time through experience and knowledge of what was common practice.

My current short project: program to calculate Dutch gun weight

My current short project is to write Smalltalk code to calculate Dutch gun weights, based on the volume of metal and density. I hope to be able to estimate the actual metal density used, once I get this working.

Nico Brinck's bronze 24pdr gun drawing

Nico Brinck gave me his bronze 24pdr gun drawing that shows a Dutch gun from 1632. This gun is 10.7 Amsterdam feet long, so that would mean that the guns are more lightly constructed than I have thought. Now, I go back to the spreadsheet and do some more adjusting.

Dutch gun analysis

I thought that after having some idea about Dutch gun weights, that I could apply my analysis tool to what I learned. The idea is to look at some basic relationships:

D^3 x L x K = gun weight in pounds

I had time this morning to try my hand at Dutch bronze 36pdr and 24pdr guns:

Material Shot wt Length (Ft)  Length (Cal.)  Gun Wt   K
bronze   36pdr   10ft         18.2           6635 lbs 1.2658
bronze   36pdr    9.5ft       17.3           6282 lbs 1.2608
bronze   24pdr    9.5ft       19.8           4879 lbs 1.2835
bronze   24pdr    8.75ft      18.2           4414 lbs 1.2634
bronze   24pdr    8.25ft      17.2           4171 lbs 1.2633

Heavily armed, relatively small Dutch ships

One phenomenon that has my interest is that of the numerous 120ft to 123ft long ship armed with 36 or 38 guns in 1652 and 1653. A prominent early example was the Zeeland ship Hollandia that served as Johan Evertsen's flagship for the first part of the war. Other examples include the Wapen van der Veere (38 guns), the Zevenwolden (38 guns), the Stad Groningen en Ommelanden (38 guns), the Leewarden (36 guns), the Monnikendam (36 or 38 guns), probably the Rotterdam Directors' ship Prins or Prins te Paard (38 guns), and the other Rotterdam Directors' ship Jonas, commanded by Jan Evertsz de Liefde up until August 1652.

I trying my hand, again, at wargame pieces

I decided that I should make another attempt at digitally drawn ships for use as war game pieces. I started with one of my hybrid sheets that was based on hand-drawn ships and then was digitally edited. I will post some of the results if and when I have something suitable.

Cornelis Tiebij's ship in July 1653

I just read a page that said that Cornelis Tiebij's English ship lay at Ter Veere. The date of the list that contains this entry is 23 July 1653. Most people are probably not so deep into this that they would see the interesting point. Another page says that the Bonaventura was lying at Veere. This was the captured English ship Anthony Bonaventure, which was taken at the Battle of Dungeness. A different page says that the ship of Cornelis Tiebij carried 37 guns and had a crew of 130 men. Of course, this page is dated 19 September 1653, more than a month after the Battle of Scheveningen. A list compiled on 11 August 1653, just one day after the battle includes the name of Cornelis Tiebij under the category of the Directors of Zeeland. A list dated 14/16 August 1653 gives his ship as having 37 guns and a crew of 134 men. A list from a few days before the battle omits Cornelis Tiebij's ship name and details, but his name is still under the category of ships of the Directors of Zeeland. One list from Witte de With's journal from the October timeframe calls the ship the "Luijpert". His ship is elsewhere called the "Luijpaert". Was this the same ship as the English ship? It would have been a ship hired by the Directors of Middelburg and was not the English 3rd Rate Leopard.

Dutch ships at the Battle of Portland

I have my working list of Dutch ships at the Battle of Portland (the Three Days Battle), but I already see a potential problem. On page 69, a Captain "Willem Aryens" is mentioned in the battle, and I think that this would be a reference to Willem Ariensz Warmont, who was captain of the Rotterdam ship Gorcum (30 guns). I do not have that ship in my list.

The hired ship Hollandsche Tuin

Any doubt that the hired 24-gun ship that was commanded by Joris Block in 1653 was the same ship as that which had served in 1652 were removed with I looked at the gun list. The list from September 1652 and the list from 23 June 1653 are indentical. The dimensions are similar, which is good, as the list from 23 June 1653 has dimensions that often vary from what we believe to be accurate.

The Dutch after the Battle of Portland

While the Battle of Portland, or as the Dutch called, the Three Days Battle, was hard fought, it was not as intense as the Four Days' Battle in June 1666. In the Battle of Portland, the hard fighting took place on the first day. Already, after the first day, the Dutch were running short of gun powder and shot. The Dutch acquired a new interest in the status of ships and how much gun powder, in particular, that they carried. They always had been interested in the status of victuals and water carried.

One consequence of the Battle of Portland was that the Dutch largely rearmed their ships. The fleet flagship Brederode had, by the time of the Battle of the Gabbard, a complete lower tier of 24pdr and 36pdr guns. Prior to that, there were still some 18pdr guns on the lower tier. The overall effect was to increase the broadside weight of many ships. After the Battle of the Gabbard, they often included inventories of shot carried for the guns, as they gathered more status information after the battle.

The Dutch did their best to learn from "the last battle", at least what they saw the problems to be. One consequence of the Battle of the Kentish Knock on 8 October 1652 was to start building new and larger ships for the fleet. The first had joined the fleet for the Battle of Scheveningen, but they did not join the fleet in larger numbers until after that battle. At this time, the Dutch had difficulty in providing guns for the new ships.

The Amsterdam ship Overijssel in 1655

By May of 1655, the 112ft Amsterdam ship Overijssel carried a much lighter armament than it had previously. Initially, the Overijssel carried a lower tier of 10pdr guns. By 1655, the armament was now mixed, with six 12pdr and the rest 8pdr guns. The 6pdr guns seem to have been retained and there were two "drakes", which could have been the original 3pdr drakes. The new broadside was about 111 pounds while the original broadside weight was 147 pounds. We could imagine that the 10pdr gun was now non-standard and there could have been a desire to move to the standard shot weights. The ship would probably have carried a lighter armament, although we would have to know the weights of the guns to be sure. Of course, we don't have those figures.

A bothersome fact about 17th Century Dutch ship data

I just received the photographs for pages showing Amsterdam ship specifications, dating from 1655. The bothersome feature is that while they are consistent with what was published by Vreugdenhil in 1938, they differ considerably from lists dating from 1652 and 1653. I knew that this was the case, but the dimensions for many Amsterdam ships are what is different. In one case, the length is shown as five feet shorter (for the Maeght van Enkhuizen).

A Friesland ship in 1655 named Omlandia

I am now receiving photographs of documents from 1655. There is one page that shows a ship of the Admiralty of Friesland that is named Omlandia. This is a ship of approximately the dimensions of the Zevenwolden that was sunk at the Battle of Scheveningen. The Omlandia was also 122ft long. The Omlandia only carried 30 guns, unlike the Zevenwolden, which carried between 34 and 38 guns at different dates. The ship in this document doesn't match other listing that I have seen for a Friesland Omlandia in service in 1655.

La armada invencible by Cesáreo Fernández Duro

I suddenly thought of looking to see if La armada invencible By Cesáreo Fernández Duro might be available through Google Books, and it was. I just downloaded the PDF file. I had despaired of ever finding the book and now I (sort of) have it. This is an important source book, from the Spanish perspective, about the Spanish Armada. The book is reportedly based on a cache of documents discovered in an old Spanish castle, back in the latter 19th Century.

Fort Rammekens in Google Earth

In Google Earth, I can see Fort Rammekens and the sandy beaches nearby where ships could be beached and careened. The picture is copyrighted by the Aerodata International Surveys, so you probably just need to get Google Earth and go the area east of Vlissingen.

"Aitzema" in Google Books

It is amazing, but Google Books has Lieuwe van Aitzema's work Historie of Verhael van Saken van Staet en Oorlogh In / ende omtrent de VEREENIGHDE NEDERLANDEN. I am not sure if they have the entire work or just part, but they may have the entire thing. It is heavy going, but if you have references that point into the work, you can find interesting passages.

More Vlissingen

I would like to show the Google Maps satellite view of Vlissingen, but I probably should let you go and look, yourself, due to "rights" issues. One nice thing is that Wikipedia has a picture of Fort Rammekens, near Vlissingen. There was a sandy area near there where ships could be beached, repaired, and have their bottoms cleaned. That was how the Rammekens was used after the Battle of the Gabbard, when about two-thirds of the Dutch fleet anchored off of Vlissingen. The Wikipedia page is in Dutch.

My concept of a compact Dutch ship of the line

In a picture book of ships that I had, there was a picture of a Dutch warship from the early 1600's. The ship had fewer than 20 guns, but the lower tier might have been 18pdr guns. When I later saw that Michiel De Ruyter's flagship during the summer of 1652 had only 28 guns, I imagined that the Neptunus was armed in a similar fashion. I was wrong, of course. His ship was just very weak. The only ship that I have seen described has having an armament like what I had seen was the Rotterdam ship named Rotterdam, which was said to have a lower tier of 18pdr guns, with a gun total of 30 guns. In June 1653, the Rotterdam had a more conventional armament, but the Staet van Oorlog te Water for the year 1654 had the 18pdr lower tier, as did lists from 1652.

Deployment of Amsterdam ships in June 1652 (Revised)

While reading documents that I received a year ago, I found some answers to how to fill in the outline of how Amsterdam ships were deployed in June 1652, but the letter with the list dates from December 1652. The list only has the names of captains, but I think that I can fill in ship names:

In the Mediterranean Sea

Commandeur Joris van Cats        Jaarsveld              44 guns
kapitein Anthonis van Salingen   Zon                    40 guns
kapitein David Jansz Bont        Maan                   40 guns
kapitein Hendrick Claesz Swart   Vereenigde Provincien  40 guns
kapitein Dirck Quirijnen Verveen Haarlem                40 guns
kapitein Jan Uijttenhout         Zutphen                34 guns
kapitein Cornelis Tromp          Maeght van Enkhuizen   34 guns

Cruising off Cape St. Vincent

Commandeur Gideon de Wildt          Vrede               42 guns
kapitein Cornelis van Velsen        Gelderland          28 guns
kapitein Jan Jansz Boermans         Prins Willem        28 guns
kapitein Govert Reael               Leeuwarden          34 guns
luitenant-commandeur Jan van Campen Windhond            18 guns

I had thought that there was a problem with the Overijssel and Jan van Campen and Abraham van der Hulst, but I saw the notes derived from Isaac Sweers' journal, and that explained these five ships. I revised this as soon as I saw it in my book draft this morning.

Adrian Caruana said: "One casualty of the First Dutch War was the brass drake"

In his book about English naval guns from 1523 to 1715, Adrian Caruana made the statement that "One casualty of the First Dutch War was the brass drake". Since the 1st Rate Sovereign was armed with Brass drakes, he says that the guns were largely "shot out". Iron drakes apparently fared better and continued in use. What the English called "brass" (which Nico Brinck says is bronze) was too soft and the gun walls were too thin for the heavy use given in the first war with the Dutch. The English captured many Dutch guns in the war and there was widespread confusion caused by the lack of specificity of Dutch versus English weight. Adrian Caruana says that in 1586, the Dutch pound weighed 1.14 times the English pound.

My "expanded" Dutch ship list

I am slightly more than half way through reformatting my "expanded" Dutch ship list. The majority of the information is from archival sources, although there is a modest amount from published sources. I have hopes of actually getting the sources from after 1655 so that I will have archival sources for that 1660-1678 period, as well. Frank Fox thinks that there is a need for even something that is little more than a Dutch ship list. The prime published source, right now, Vreugdenhil's list from 1938, needs to be superceded. Perhaps there will be something in Dutch much sooner than I can be ready with a work in English.

A question: Joris van Cats' five ships off the coast of Spain

The plan had been to send Maarten Tromp to command a fleet of 15 Dutch warships in the Mediterranean Sea to protect Dutch commerce. When Tromp became ill, Joris van Cats was sent without Tromp. Before entering the Mediterranean Sea, he cruised off the coast of Spain. In his article about the First Anglo-Dutch War in the Mediterranean Sea, R. C. Anderson said that Joris van Cats, with five ships under his command, cruised near Cadiz before entering the Mediterranean Sea. This sounded a lot like what one list says, except the list says that the five ships cruised off Cape St. Vincent, which is on the coast of Portugal, a long ways from Cadiz. Anderson does not say what ships were under Joris van Cats' command. My question is: which five ships were they? I assume that they were all from the Admiralty of Amsterdam.

R. C. Anderson, "English Fleet-Lists in the First Dutch War," The Mariner's Mirror, Vol.XXIV No.4, October 1938.

The Wikipedia "Battle of the Downs", in English

The English version of the Wikipedia entry for the Battle of the Downs (1639) is well done and very interesting. While it is necessarily incomplete, there is a great deal of information there for study. Can anyone say how accurate it is? I don't have enough information to know, but I can recognize some correct details.

Amsterdam ships convoying the fishing busses in July 1652

I have a document showing the employment of Amsterdam ships in home waters on 29 July 1652. The list shows that the following ships were convoying the fishing busses in July 1652 prior to the English attack on 22 July:

the ship Engel          kapitein Maerten Schaeff     28 guns and a crew of 80 men
the ship Marcus Curtius kapitein Hendrick Kroeger    24 guns and a crew of 70 men
the ship Patientia      kapitein Adriaen van Loenen  24 guns and a crew of 70 men
the ship Catharina      kapitein Dirck Bogaert       24 guns and a crew of 70 men

Rotterdam ships in "The Plan" of 9 June 1652

I have photographs of a document from 9 June 1652 that gives the plan for how ships were deployed and funded. One part of the list says that there were two ships of the 36 ships from Rotterdam "in the Mediterranean Sea". I believe that the second ship was the Brederode, which was planned to be sent but did not actually go. The ship that actually was in the Mediterranean Sea was the Gelderland (40 guns), commanded by Michiel Fransz van den Bergh.

Another look at the 10 Dutch ships in Brazil in early 1652

I was looking at a document dated 9 June 1652, today, that showed ten ships in Brazil. By 9 June, they were actually returning home. So what were the ten ships listed in the document?

Rotterdam       Nijmegen, 26 guns          Paulus van den Kerckhoff  lost 10 June
Rotterdam       Dolphijn, 32 guns          Marinus de Clercq
Amsterdam       Gewapende Ruiter, 36 guns  Boetius Schaeff           lost 18 June
Amsterdam       Prinses Aemilia, 28 guns   Floris van Oyen
Amsterdam       Westfriesland, 28 guns     kapitein Boonacker
Amsterdam       Graef Willem, 38 guns      kapitein Tas
Zeeland         ?                          Cornelis Loncke
Zeeland         ?                          Cornelis Mangelaer
Friesland       Frisia, 28 guns            Tjaart de Groot
Friesland       ?                          Hendrick Jansz Camp
Noorderkwartier Eenhoorn, 28 guns          Allert Tamessen
Noorderkwartier Hollandsche Tuin, 36 guns  ?

I know a bit more than this, but I don't know that I am authorized to say what it is.

J. C. De Jonge's list from March 1653

When I have tried, in the past, to fill in the names of ships into the list from J. C. De Jonge's outline of ships in the Dutch navy in March 1653, I always have had trouble. The main trouble has been with the Amsterdam ships. I now think that the problems there are caused by some odd ships being considered hired and at least one ship not considered hired that seems to have been hired. You also have to include the VOC ship Vogelstruis, which is reasonable, as the Amsterdam hired 40 gun ship, not the Aartsengel Michiel. I don't like having to defend that, but there is at least one list that includes the Aartsengel Michiel under the landsschip list for the 40 convoyers funded in 1648.

The list of ships in De Ruyter's fleet probably from late July 1652

Today, I received a photograph of two pages from De Ruyter's journal from the summer of 1652 (probably late July) that shows that Laurens Degelcamp was captain of a ship named Gelderland (24 guns and a crew of 80 men). I think that it is telling that the Sint Nicolaes and the Gelderland both have a plus and an X to the left of the entry. I am more convinced than ever that I lost some photographs back in February to March 2007 when I ran out of storage space in Gmail, before they were selling increased storage. I am certain that I saw a photograph that showed Laurens Degelcamp as captain of a ship named Gelderland.

Dutch guns

What I would like to be able to do is to look at a Dutch gun's shot weight and the weight of the piece, in Amsterdam pounds, and be able to estimate the gun weight. I have an idea that might not be too easy. I imagine that guns were probably not cast to the ideal thickness of metal, but were both lighter and heavier than that. We would also need to take into account that a gun was a drake or klokwijs (with a bell-shaped chamber). You also have guns that were "metael" or "ijser" (bronze or iron).

Some Friesland ship questions

I have seen a summary document that ascribes two convoyers of 1648 and two cruisers of 1651 to the Admiralty of Friesland in 1652. I had forgotten that the second "convoyer" was probably the jacht Graaf Willem (12 guns) built in 1644 (according to Vreugdenhil's list). I am not surprised that the two Frisian smacks, the Frisia (8 guns) and the Koning David (2 guns), are not included in the counts, as they were small vessels. One other remaining question is ship number 48 from Vreugdenhil's list: the Omlandia, said to be built in 1628 with dimensions 122ft x 26-1/2ft x 13ft, carrying 30 guns. I have not seen that ship obviously mentioned in any document that I have seen. The only possible candidate would be the mysterious ship commanded by Captain Belevelt, in Vice-Admiraal Witte de With's journal in September 1652. There is also the mention, by December 1652, of the ship Stad Groningen en Ommelanden with only 28 guns, with Joost Bulter as captain. By early 1653, the Stad Groningen en Ommelanden is mentioned with either 34 or 38 guns.

I am back to working on my book project

I am back to working on my book project, although there is a great deal to do. I am going with my original outline for a book about the Dutch navy, ships, and naval officers in the First Anglo-Dutch War. At least, I am now using information almost exclusively from archival sources, rather than rehashing previously published information. I have my usual handicaps. I have limited time. I am not a native Dutch speaker. I do not have easy access to the archives. I expect that we will see related publications in Dutch quite a while before you will see mine in English. I would like to think that I have a different focus and perspective. I have been studying the subject for about fifteen years.

The Salamander

In August to November 1653 Pieter Marcuszoon commanded the Zeeland ship Salamander, including in the Battle of Scheveningen. The question that I have is if this was the same ship that Jacob Christoffelsz Duijm commanded through 1652 up to after the Three Days Battle? That Salamander towed Michiel De Ruyter's ship Lam from later in the first day up until they arrived in the Netherlands.

So, just how large was the Vogelstruis?

The Dutch East Indiaman Vogelstruis was captured by the English at the Battle of Portland on 28 February 1653. I have not seen Dutch dimensions in Amsterdam feet but we do have the dimensions measured by the English in their style. The English length is that of the keel. The beam is the beam measured outside the hull planking. The depth is the height between the keel and the underside of the main deck, measured on the centerline, approximately at the middle of the ship. Here are my "back of the envelope calculations":

          English      Calc. Dutch   My est. of the Dutch
Length    116ft        151ft         155ft
Beam       36ft-3in     40ft          38ft
Hold       17ft         19ft          18ft

My usual system does not work well for this ship. My factor for length is 1.33. The factor for the depth of hold and beam is 1.13. It totally breaks down in this case.

My approximate "lasts" formula

I have a spreadsheet that I use for generating proportions for drawing Dutch ships from the period of 1628 to 1678. One of the figures that I calculate is just for information: the size of the ship in lasts. There is a VOC-related page that gives the formula: length x beam x depth / 200. My Excel formula is somewhat different: =ROUND(BN6*BN8*BN9/210,-1). I am using 218 for the divisor and round the result. For the approximate dimensions, in Amsterdam feet, for the Dutch flagship Brederode, the size is calculated to be 350 lasten (lasts).

The Dutch navy and ships in the First Anglo-Dutch War

I find the fact that there is so much information available about the Dutch ships in the First Anglo-Dutch War, with dimensions and lists of guns, to be quite amazing. I would venture a guess that the amount of ship data does not exist for the second and third wars. The third war is a special case, with the combination of the French invasion and the coup d'etat that put Willem III into power. Both greatly disrupted the sort of record keeping that had happened previously. I am less sure about the second war, but there seems to be less ship data available than in the first war. I look forward to getting what exists, eventually, but I am currently focused on the first war, because there is so much data available. There is also a considerable amount of information about the composition of the main fleet. Sadly, almost all of what I have seen does not show the organization into squadrons. I hope that eventually, I might see the fleet organizations for all of the battles in the first war. They do exist for the second war and have been published by Frank Fox. Less complete information has been published about the Dutch fleet in the third war. All this research takes time and is costly when you have to pay to have it done, rather than be able to do it yourself.

An answer to a question that no one but me wants to ask

The question is: "so, how many round shot and how much gunpowder did the Amsterdam Directors' ship Moor have on board after the Battle of the Gabbard?" The Moor carried 6-18pdr, 14-10pdr, 12-6pdr, and 2-3pdr guns. The answer is that the ship had 150 18pdr shot, 350 10pdr shot, 240 6pdr shot, and 4 3pdr shot. The ship also had on board 4500 lbs of gunpowder. There may be numbers of expanding bar shot, but I can't be sure that is correct, because I can't find the word in a dictionary. It looks like "kemepels". By the way, the captain signed his name as "Adrijaen Cornelissen". I otherwise know him as Adriaen Cornelisz van Ackersloot.

The ships that sailed to Danzig in 1656

I have the listing published in the Hollandsche Mercurius for 1656 and I have a page from Witte de With's journal from July 1656 (Riksarkivet E8812). I had also seen this list published in Dr. Ballhausen's book. I was comforted to see that the lists matched, despite the fact that the ships commanded by captains often did not match the ships that they commanded when they were not part of this operation in the Baltic.

I looked at my copy of the recent book by Doeke Roos about the Evertsen family: Twee eeuwen varen en vechten 1550-1750. Het admiralengeslacht Evertsen. I had hoped that he might have had information about Johan Evertsen and Cornelis Evertsen de Jonge in the Battle of Scheveningen, but he did not. I also think that he may have several mistakes in the book, as well. The book indicates that Cornelis Evertsen de Jonge was captain of the hired ship Vlissingen in May 1652, but all indications are that he was captain of the Vlissingen Directors' ship Haes (30 guns) from May to July 1652. He also calls Cornelis Evertsen de Oude's ship, that was lost at the Battle of Scheveningen, the Wapen van Zeeland. All the original documentary evidence that I have indicates that the ship was commonly called the Zeeuwsche Leeuw (28 guns). In Vol.V of Schetsen uit de Geschiedenis van ons Zeewezen, Dr. Elias calls the ship the Zeeusche Leeuw, which is the name that I would expect to see.

Another good Google Book Search full view book

This is very hard to find in Google Book Search. To my mind, it is too hard. With a considerable effort, I was able to confirm that the booklet by Julian S. Corbett can be downloaded as a PDF file. This is the small work about the drawings in the possession of the Earl of Dartmouth: NOTE ON THE DRAWINGS IN THE POSSESSION OF THE EARL OF DARTMOUTH ILLUSTRATING Battle of Solebay MAY 28, 1672 AND Battle of the Texel AUGUST 11, 1673 BY JULIAN S. CORBETT. This was publshed by the Navy Records Society in 1908.

The hired ship Hoop

I have a page that I saw today that dates from early August 1653. The page lists a few ships and gives their gun lists. One is for the Amsterdam hired ship Hoop, commanded by Captain Dirck Pater. I have not seen the gun list for this ship before, so it was a good find. The Hoop had four 10pdr guns as the largest guns. The rest were a few 8pdr, many 6pdr, and a number of 3pdr guns, with a pair of 2pdr guns bringing the total to 28 guns. This does seem to be the same ship that was commanded by Joris Collerij in the summer of 1652, based on the gun list.

Ron van Maanen's translation of Cornelis Adriaensz Cruijck's statement

Ron van Maanen kindly provided me his translation of the statement made by the captain of the captured ship Vogelstruis that he made in 1655. This clearly shows that he was not killed in the the Battle of Portland, as was reported by some sources. I have attempted to do a bit of editing on Ron's text. Ron has also provided a correction to my editing:

Statement for notary Dirck van der Mast at Schiedam dated 13 november 1655 by captain Cornelis Aedriaensz Cruijck former captain of the Vogelstruis of the E.I.C. in naval service. Stated for his lieutenant Frerijck Frerijck, born in Amsterdam, what happened when Frerijck was on board of the ship when Cruijck commanded it. Frerijck served as a brave, pious or true, wise sailor and a good soldier in the battle against the British. He especially showed that he was a good officer and soldier in the last battle when the ship fought under the flag of the dead admiral Maerten Harpertsz Tromp on 28 February 1653. Cruijck stated that he had been fighting until his ship was shot powerless, and until a lot of his crew were killed, and they had to surrender. The rumors that Frerijck had torn a white table-cloth in two pieces and during the fight had put out it at the stern where not true. On the contrary Cruijck stated that his lieutenant fought as a true, vigilant man.

The Amsterdam ships Jaarsveld and Vrede

The information from 1652 to 1654 about the two large Amsterdam ships built in 1650 and 1651 seem to indicate that they were built to the same Charter. These were the Vrede, built in 1650, and the Jaarsveld, built in 1651. The Jaarsveld wrecked on an uncharted rock near Livorno in late January 1653. The published dimensions for the Vrede seem to be incorrect. Both ships apparently were 130ft long and carried 44 guns in 1653. Vrijheid, also built in 1651, was a considerably larger ship, being 134ft long. By May of 1653, the Vrijheid had its armament increased to 50 guns. All three of these ships still had a main battery of 12pdr guns with a few larger.

The ship Alkmaar

Dutch ships often had multiple versions of their names. The Alkmaar, commanded by Jan Warnaertsz Capelman, was apparently also called the Wapen van Alkmaar. That ship, commanded by that captain, apparently took part in the operation in 1645 to force a large fleet of merchant ships into the Sound without paying the toll to the Danes. That same ship was captured by the English in June 1652. I suspect that this was the ship built to the 116ft dimensions: 116ft x 26-1/2ft x 10ft x 6-1/4ft. The 26 guns might have included something like this: 4-12pdr, 14-8pdr, 4-6pdr, and 4-4pdr guns. I base that estimate on what was carried by a similar ship.

Wild speculation

Given that I don't have access to all the information that might be available, I think that until proven otherwise, information that might be correct can be useful. If you require proof that meets legal standards, with multiple sources as corroboration, then I will have nothing, as for much of what I have, I would never have that many sources or the concrete proof of all the facts. One case in point is where I seem to have dimensions for hired ships in the First Anglo-Dutch War. I am going back and printing ship data and lists that I have received since early in the year. I am doing that because I am not sure when I will be able to acquire new information and having hard copy is much more convenient than needing a computer to view image files. An example of dimensions for a hired ship is the Profeet Samuel. I have a list of ships from early 1653 that gives dimensions for a ship named Profeet Samuel. Is that the ship that Reijnst Cornelisz Sevenhuijsen commanded at the Battle of the Gabbard? I don't know, but it might be. Another ship names that are familiar and on the same page are the Jonas and the Engel Gabriel. I just happen to know that the dimensions given for those ships on the page match the dimensions for the ships that were hired by the Admiralty of Amsterdam and served with the fleet in 1653. My working hypothesis is that the Profeet Samuel was the ship hired, as well, until I learn otherwise.

Campbell's Lives of the British Admirals

If you have not checked Google Books lately, you need to, as there is much more available, including some rare books. I just downloaded John Campbell's Lives of the British Admirals:: Containing a New and Accurate Naval History, from 1785. This is a classic work that Frank Fox had recommended to me.

The Three Days Battle

One thing that I really would like to have is a list of the Dutch ships and the fleet organization for the Three Days Battle (the Battle of Portland), from 28 February to 2 March 1653. I have an idea that there were quite a few different ships involved. I know for a fact that Jan Duijm's ship, the Salamander, was there, because the Salamander towed Michiel De Ruijter's ship, the Lam, for the last two days of the battle and until they returned to port. Right now, about all I can do is go through the published literature and write down captains' names and then supply the information that I know. You would think that some sort of list must have supplied, somewhere at the Nationaal Archief in The Hague.

The Grote Sint Lucas

I have wanted to dismiss the mention of the Grote Sint Lucas, in the Hollandsche Mercurius and the Onstelde-Zee, as a mistake. The problem is, everything else that I have been able to check, from the Onstelde-Zee, has been correct. That makes me want to take the Grote Sint Lucas seriously. Supposedly, the Grote Sint Lucas (28 guns), was the ship commanded by Sipke Fockes, in the Battle of Portland (or the Three Days Battle). The Grote Sint Lucas was supposed to have been an Amsterdam Directors' ship, presumably. The ship was taken by the English and taken into Portsmouth on 12 March 1653. Other ships taken into Portsmouth were the Swarte Reiger, commanded by Christoffel Juriaenszoon, the Vogelstruijs, and the Liefde. The Gulden Haan (36 guns) was taken into Dover.

Dutch warships in the mid-17th Century

Probably the most troubling feature of doing research about Dutch warships and the navy in the 1651 to 1654 period is that informaation is likely to be inexact and often wrong. What Tromp, other senior officers, such as Witte de With and Johan Evertsen, wrote is more likely to reflect commonly held beliefs, rather than accurate information. The problem is complicated by there being so many ships with the same names. Another issue is that some ships were referred to by alternate names, often nicknames or shorted versions of the name. In the 1654 book Onstelde-Zee, Abraham van Campen's Amsterdam Directors' ship is referred to as the Poort van Troijen. A letter from Johan Evertsen, in August 1652, also calls the ship Poort van Trojen, although every other source called the ship Arke Troijane (or some variation of that spelling, with a "c" and an "h"). I vary on how much evidence that I have before I reach a conclusion. At times, when I have something that is just an indication, I am strongly motivated to go with it, as it answers some open question. I suspect that even if we had a time machine and could go back and collect information, we would still have trouble sorting out truth, as the people back then operated differently than we do now, where we demand exact answers.

My book project

I just spoke with Frank Fox (author of Great Ships: the Battlefleet of King Charles II and A Distant Storm: the Four Days' Battle of 1666) about my book project. I have been doing research and some writing for a book about the Dutch fleet and warships in the First Anglo-Dutch Wars. Since I am a native English speaker, the book will be in English. Frank Fox has long been encouraging me to get an early publication of a book, not waiting until I and all the information that can be had. This would be independent of anything published in Dutch, which I hope will not be too long in the future. Everything in Dutch that covers the period of 1648 to 1654 seems to be high-level and does not include fleet lists and ship information. I like to think that I have more to offer than just publishing information, but have some insights to offer, as well.

The Staet van Oorlog te Water for the year 1654

Vreugdenhil, when he compiled his list published in 1938, had clearly seen the Staet van Oorlog te Water for the year 1654. The curious thing about the list is just how poor and incomplete it is, compared to the information that we have seen in documents dating from 1652 to 1654. Some of the best information that we have is for Zeeland ships up to June 1653. Yet, the information for Zeeland ships in the Staet is sparse and incomplete at best. It was also the case that there were multiple versions of the Staet. I have copies of several versions, one of which is quite incomplete, up to the one which seems to have been most widely distributed, which seems to be the one which Vreugdenhil saw.

The ship hired by the Groningen Directors in 1652

I concede that the Friesland lists of ships with dimensions and gun lists would lead you to believe that the ship Graaf Hendrick, commanded by Jan Reijndersz Wagenaer in late 1652 and all of 1653 was a ship hired by the Admiralty of Friesland. However, there are some other, independent lists, that label that ship as a ship hired by the Groningen Directors.

In a list from 18 May 1652, Joost Bulter was listed as commanding a Groningen Directors' ship. My working theory, which seems more plausible now, is that Joost Bulter commanded the Graaf Hendrick up until July 1652 or so, when Jan Reijndersz Wagenaer was appointed in his place. Joost Bulter was nominated as the captain of a new ship purchased for the Admiralty of Friesland which was eventually named the Stad Groningen en Ommelanden.

I now have seen three unrelated lists that show that the Graaf Hendrick was employed by the Groningen Directors in November and December 1652. It remains to be seen if in fact Joost Bulter commanded the ship or if he was just listed as potentially commanding a ship. As for the Graaf Hendrick, the lists of dimensions and guns usually say that it was a ship of Groningen and leaves ambiguous whether it was employed by the Groningen Directors or by the Admiralty of Friesland. I expanded upon what I originally wrote after receiving some comments.

The Lastdrager

The Lastdrager seems to have been hired by the Admiralty of the Noorderkwartier in late 1652. I have a gun list for the ship from mid-July 1653. I have an idea that this ship was rather large, such as 126ft x 32ft x 12ft x 7-1/4ft or even 130ft x 32ft x 12ft x 7-1/4ft. I could be wrong, but I had that impression. I am not sure what the initial armament was. It might have been something like 10-8pdr, 10-6pdr, 6-4pdr, and 2-3pdr guns. The crew was supposed to be 110 men, at least by July 1653. The Lastdrager was originally commanded by Volckert Schram, but was later commanded by Gerrit Munt.

The ship Campen, from 23 June 1653

The list dated 23 June 1653 has some rather extraordinary dimensions for the 40 gun ship Campen. The Campen was employed by the Admiralty of Amsterdam. At this date, Willem van der Zaan had replaced his late brother Joris as captain. The dimensions listed are 133ft x 32ft x ? x 7ft. What I believe to be the "real dimensions" are somewhat different: 128ft x 32ft x 13ft x 7ft. The ship had a lower tier armed with 12pdr guns and an upper tier armed with 6pdr guns. The lower tier also had 4-bronze 18pdr guns.

Laurens Degelcamp

One thing that I learned was that Laurens Degelcamp's full name was Laurens Hermanszoon Degelcamp. The First Dutch War, Vol.VI, page 157, lists his ship as the Gelderland, but we think that he actually commanded the Groninger Nicolaes (also called the Groningen Sint Nicolaes, or some variation of that name). One cause for concern is that Brandt's biography, on page 26, mentions Captain Degelcamp and a ship named Gelderland. If that is in fact an independent source, we have two sources for Laurens Degelcamp commanding a ship named Gelderland (spelled Gelderlandt in 17th Century Dutch).

The Stad Groningen en Ommelanden

I started looking again at what references that I had for the Stad Groningen en Ommelanden, the ship commanded by Joost Bulter that was sunk by gunfire at the Battle of the Gabbard. The list of 23 June 1653 just says that the captain was Joost Bulter and was a ship of the Stad en Lande. A list dated 20 May 1653 includes the ship and says that the Stad Groningen en Ommelanden carried 38 guns and had a crew of 110 men. A list of 26 May says that the captain was Joost Bulter and that the ship was a private ship of Groningen.

An alternative theory about Joost Bulter

Let us suppose that both the list dated 16 May 1652 and 28 November 1652 are correct. The 16 May list says that Joost Bulter commanded a ship hired by the Groningen Directors (Directors of Stad en Lande). The 28 November list says that the ship Prins Hendrick was a Directors ship from Friesland or Groningen. The other two ships listed were definitely hired by the Directors at Harlingen in Friesland, so that would mean that the Prins Hendrick was hired by the Groningen Directors. By August 1652, Jan Reijndersz Wagenaer commanded the Prins Hendrick. Suppose that in July, the Prins Hendrick was one of the ships which were assigned new captains. That could allow Joost Bulter to have commanded the ship in May. By December 1652, he was listed as captain the ship Stad Groningen en Ommelanden. To go even further in theorizing, suppose that the Stad Groningen en Ommelanden was originally named Kameel as a merchant ship and was renamed on being purchased by the Admiralty of Friesland. That could mean that the picture on the tafferel was still a camel. My theory about the origin of the name in the published literature is that there is a drawing by Willem van de Velde de Oude that mentions the Kameel as the name of Joost Bulter's ship and that the origin was the picture on the tafferel. I just wanted a plausible story that might explain the evidence that we have. I don't particularly think that my explanation is the answer, but I thought that I would add it to the discussion.

The ship of the Directors of the Stad en Lande

The lists that define the fifty Directors' ships show that there were two ships to be hired by the Harlingen Directors in Friesland. The lists also say that the Directors of Groningen or the Stad en Lande should hire one ship in 1652. The list of captains from 16 May 1652 gives Joost Bulter as the captain of the ship hired by the Stad en Lande. A list from late 1652 gives the three ships of the Friesland and Groningen Directors as the Vergulde Pelicaen, the Sint Vincent, and the Prins Hendrick. The accuracy of these lists is in dispute, so you would have to form your own opinion on the subject. If Witte de With's mention of a kapitein Belevelt in September 1652 actually refers to Joost Bulter, then that is a further complication. Witte de With's journal dated 17 September 1652 lists kapitein Belevelt with the ships of the Admiralty of Friesland. We also know that kapitein Wagenaer commanded the Prins Hendrick with De Ruyter's fleet in the Channel in August and September 1652. Sadly, we just need to find more information or the right source to unravel the mystery.

A mystery to me that I just realized that I had

I was reading a document today from May 1652 that said that Joost Bulter commanded a Directors' ship of the Stad en Lande (Groningen). All the lists say that there was one ship hired by them among the fifty Directors's ships hired in 1652. The question is which ship that was as far back as May 1652. Was it the Stad Groningen en Ommelanden with what seems to have been the original 28 guns or was it a different ship?

Amsterdam small ships in September 1652

I have one list, dating from 21 September 1652, of Amsterdam ships that includes small ships, including those that the English call "Watt Convoyers". The name actually refers to the small ships that were convoyers in the Wadden Zee, the protected Dutch coastal waters. These are the ships listed (for some reason, I am having trouble reading the men's names, so I am likely to have them wrong):

Ship               Commander         Guns Crew
Orangeboom         Bomven Goet        8   34
Princes            Adriaen van Veede 12   24
Adelaer            Arent Warnaerdtsz 12   24

Ylst               Willem de Veer    10   26
Valck              Roelof de Veer    10   18
Huijs te Raephorst Bitter van Reede  10   18
Prins Willem       Roelof Schut      10   13

Odd 12pdr guns

Two of the guns carried by the 38-gun Zeeland ship Hollandia in late March 1653 were abnormally light bronze 12pdr guns. There is no indication that they were chambered, but perhaps they were, as they weighed only 634 and 651 pounds.

The Three Days Battle references

I was looking in Vol.IV of Schetsen uit de Geschiedenis van ons Zeewezen for references to the Three Days Battle. I had hoped to see references to the Lias Admiraliteiten or something else that would be recognizable. Almost all the references are to The First Dutch War, Vol.IV, or to the Hollandsche Mercurius for 1653. There were no references prefixed by "L.A.", which is Dr. Elias's notation for references to the Lias Admiraliteiten. There are a few references to "Brandt" and to the "Hare Hoog Mogenden", with dates. I also know that the Onstelde-Zee has a description of the battle with some accurate names of ships that are not otherwise published. For example, the names of Johannes Regermorter's ship (Leeuwinne) and to Jacob Cleijdijck's ship (Meerman).

Slangers and halve slangers

In one Dutch document from 1665, the 12pdr guns are referred to as "slangers" and the 6pdrs are "halve slangers". I had thought that they might be slings, but I am not sure that is correct. Iron guns are often described as "gotelingen" and large bronze guns as cartouwen (24pdr) and halve cartouwen (18pdr). Often, they are just called "pieces" (stukken).

No. 40 in the list of ships at Vlissingen on 23 June 1653

I have consulted with Carl Stapel on the subject of ship number 40 in the list of ships at Vlissingen on 23 June 1653. The ship is described as being hired by the Amsterdam Directors and having 30 guns and a crew of 120 men. The captain is listed as "Bartold Simonssen" and the ship is described as being missing. Ship number 41 in the list is the Gulden Pelicaen, commanded by Captain "Baert Timons Soudaen" and is missing. We think that the ship listed as 40 is a mistake and a duplicate for number 41. The only ships hired by the Amsterdam Directors that are not listed here were lying in the Texel. Perhaps there should be some other ship listed at 40, but I don't believe that the listing is correct.

The Amsterdam ship Zutphen

I have this very elegantly written document from 1653 that is another list of Amsterdam ships during the First Anglo-Dutch War. The ship Zutphen (also called the Groot Zutphen ) is in the list with some rather different data:

The ship named Zutphen, commanded by Captain Jan Pietersz Uijttenhout
Length:     125ft
Beam:        30ft
Hold:        13ft
Deck Height:  7ft

Guns: 20-12pdr, 12-6pdr, and 4-4pdr
Crew: 130 men
In service from July 1651

The list of Amsterdam ships in service in the year1642

One page that I have shows the first part of a list of Amsterdam ships in service in the year 1642. Many ships and captains are familiar names:

Ship              Captain                        Guns Crew
Gelderlandt       Liedekercken                   30   90
Der Goes          Cornelis van Braeckel          30   90
Graeff Willem     Magnus Marcus                  30   90
Groeningen        Aucke Balck                    30   90
Edam              Jan Jansz De Lapper            30   90
Gouda             Hendrick Schrevels             30   90
Bommel            Sijbrant Barents Waterdrincker 28   80
Omlandia          Jan Gerbrants Eijdijck         28   80
Hollandia         Cornelis Gerrits Hasevelt      28   80
Utrecht           Willem van Niehoff             28   80
Westvrieslandt    Ewout Jeroensz de Moije        24   80
Overijssel        Jacob Troncquoij               26   85
Vrieslandt        Evert Anthonisz                24   85
Amsterdam         Pieter Luijte Koppelsack       28   85
Aemilia           Sijmon Thijsz Caddeus          24   85
Prins Willem      Jan van Galen                  28   85
Zutphen           Anthonis van Salingen          24   85
Zeelandt          Jacob Huijrluijt               26   85
Middelburch       Jan Pietersz Uijttenhouwt      24   85
't Waeckende Hert Elias van de Base              16   85
 ('t Wakende Hart)
Leijden           Jacob Anthonisen               24   70
Swol              Davidt Jansen Bondt            20   70

The Maecht van Dordrecht from the Staet van Oorlog te Water for the year 1633

One of the most interesting pages in the Staet van Oorlog te Water for the year 1633 is for the ship Maecht van Dordrecht. The page says that the ship was built in 1632 was 300 lasts in size. 300 lasts sounds a bit like an approximate number, rounded off, rather than exact. A lot depends on what your constant is, but the dimensions could be 136ft x 34ft x 14ft, with a constant of 217 (300 lasts = 136 x 34 x 14 / 217). The page gives the crew as only being 90 men, which seems small for such a large ship. The armament is listed, as well: 2-chambered bronze 36pdr, 2-bronze 24pdr half-cartouwen, 2-bronze chambered 24pdr, 2-bronze 18pdr half-cartouwen, 4-bronze 12pdr slings, 10-bronze chambered 12pdr, and 2-copper (composite) 5pdr steenstukken, 13-iron 18pdr, and 6-iron 12pdr guns. As I understand Nico Brinck, he says that the so-called copper guns were not cast but were beaten metal, a composite of copper, lead, and iron.

The Zeeland ship Milde Maarten

I really would like to know the dimensions for the Zeeland hired ship Milde Maarten. Captain Claes Jansz Sanger commanded the Milde Maarten at the Battle of the Gabbard (the Zeeslag bij Nieuwpoort) on 12 and 13 June 1653. He was moved to the Westcappel, which was sunk at the Battle of Scheveningen (or Terheide) on 10 August 1653. Jan Matthijszoon commanded the Milde Maarten at Scheveningen and on the voyage to Norway and back from September to November 1653. We know the armament of the Milde Maarten on 23 June 1653. Like the Liefde, the armament was almost all 6pdr guns. There were 4-12pdr bronze guns, 2-6pdr bronze, and 20-iron 6pdr guns. The crew was nominally 100 men. In late May 1653, Vice-Admiral Johan Evertsen had been on board the Milde Maarten.

The Sint Jan and Sint Joris

The Zeeland hired ships Sint Jan and Sint Joris were both armed to a similar plan. The Sint Jan was the ship commanded by kapitein Laurens Lispensier and the Sint Joris was a Scots frigate commanded by Jacob Wolphertszoon. They both had 2-9pdr guns and a main battery of 6pdr guns. They both also had 4-4pdr and 2 or 4-3pdr guns. By my standards, they were both lightly armed. The Sint Jan was assigned to Michiel De Ruyter's fleet in the summer of 1652 and fought in the Battle of Plymouth. The Sint Joris operated with Tromp's fleet and made the voyage to the Shetlands in July and August. I was amazed to see just how many Dutch ships in 1652 and 1653 relied primarily on a lower tier of 6pdr guns. From the published literature, I would have thought that they all had a lower tier of 12pdr guns, which was still lighter than the typical English ship, which was said to have at least some 18pdr culverins on the lower tier.

Some information about Zeeland ships and captains in 1652 from Ron van Maanen

Ron van Maanen sent me some information from the Generaliteitsrekenkamer 1586-1799 nr.957 rekening 1652 admiralty Zeeland that he said that I could use on the blogs. This is my interpretation of what Ron wrote, and if need be, I can correct it as needed:

The fishing boat den Otter was hired from Adriaen Laurenssen, a merchant at Zierikzee. One month hire cost: 66 pond Vlaams 13 schellingen 4 grote Vlaams. Vlaams = Flemish, pond=pound.

The Rode hart was hired from Rochus Jobssen, a merchant at Zierikzee for 125 pond Vlaams for one month.

Jacob van Hoorn, "bookholder" of the St. Johan (or St. Jan), commanding officer Laurens Lispensier, was paid 85 pond Vlaams, 16 schelling for damage in the the fight. The St. Jan had been hired from Jacob van Hoorn for a monthly rent of 220 pond Vlaams 16 schellingen 8 grote Vlaams. The St. Jan had been with Michiel De Ruyter's fleet at the Battle of Plymouth.

The squadron arrangements in Tromp's fleet on 31 May 1652

Dr. Ballhausen had made a gallant attempt at the composition and organization of Tromp's fleet in the opening battle of the First Anglo-Dutch War on 29 May 1652. He made some mistakes, but they were understandable. You might well assume that all the Zeeland ships were in Jan Thijssen's van squadron and all the Noorderkwartier ships were in Pieter Florissen's rear squadron, but you would be mistaken. In fact, on 31 May 1652, the van had four Zeeland ships, five Amsterdam Directors' ships, and two Noorderkwartier Directors' ships. The rear had nine Noorderkwartier and Noorderkwartier Directors' ships, but also had two Amsterdam Directors' ships. Tromp's center squadron had the fleet flagship Brederode and the Rotterdam Directors' ship commanded by Ruth Jacobsz Buijs, four Noorderkwartier and Noorderkwartier Directors' ships, and the rest were Amsterdam Directors' ships. The primary reason that the fleet was as strong as it was, was because the Directors had promptly hired their ships and had them ready for sea.

The 2007 Weblog Awards

Kevin Alyward has opened nominations for the 2007 Weblog Awards.

Kevin is proprietor and founder of the Wizbang! blog.

One Noorderkwartier armament plan for 116ft ships in 1654

Many of the Noorderkwartier ships that served in the First Anglo-Dutch War carried an odd assortment of guns. They seemed to have whatever was available at the time that they were armed. At least two 116ft long ships, the Hoorn and the Enkhuizen, had main batteries of 8pdr guns, supplemented by a smaller number of 12pdr guns. They also had some guns of lesser calibers, from 6pdr down to 3pdr guns. Many of the Rotterdam hired ships were armed on a similar pattern.

Allert Jansz Tamessen and his two sons

Carl Stapel has been telling me more about a Noorderkwartier captain Allert Jansz Tamessen and his two sons, Pieter Allertszoon and Claes Allertszoon. I can't give away details, but I already know a good bit about the men. The First Dutch War confuses Allert Jansz Tamessen, of the Admiralty of the Noorderkwartier and Allert Janszoon, captain of the Vlissingen Directors' ship Arend. Pieter Allertszoon, son of Allert Jansz Tamessen, commanded the ship Hoorn at the Battle of Dover on 29 May 1652 up to the Three Days Battle in early 1653, when he was killed. Claes Allertszoon, his brother, had commanded the Nieuw Casteel (14 guns) in 1652. He was appointed to command the Hoorn, after his brother's death. He appears in Witte de With's journal as captain of the Hoorn from May 1653 up to the voyage to Norway from September to November 1653. An oddity is that the old spelling of Hoorn was Hooren. The journal and a document from February 1653 spell the name that way.

The Noorderkwartier convoyers funded in 1648

This list may be disputed, but according to this list from 28 November 1652, the convoyers funded in 1648 for the Admiralty of the Noorderkwartier were:

Hoorn, 32 guns                 kapitein Pieter Allertszoon
Prins Maurits, 28 guns         kapitein Cornelis Taenman
Wapen van Monnikendam  24 guns kapitein Arent Dirckszoon
Kasteel van Medemblick 26 guns kapitein Gabriel Theuniszoon
Wapen van Alkmaar      24 guns kapitein Gerrit Nobel
Sampson                26 guns kapitein Willem Ham

The 42nd ship in the Dutch fleet on 29 May 1652

I assume that the entire list of 40 captains, with their ships, with Tromp's fleet on 31 May 1652 were present at the battle on 29 May. As I have mentioned, they were in three squadrons, with the van commanded by Jan Thijssen, the center by Lt-Admiraal Tromp, and the rear by Schout-bij-Nacht Pieter Florissen. I have a photograph of the 31 May list, which I took at the Nationaal Archief on 8 May 2007. The 41st ship would have been the Middelburg Directors' ship Sint Laurens (30 guns), commanded by Bastiaan Tuynemans. The Sint Laurens was taken by the English on 29 May. Since Joris van der Zaan, who commanded the ship Groningen (38 guns), is included in the 40 names, I would imagine that the 42nd captain was Jacob Huyrluyt, who commanded the Zeelandia (36 guns), which was one of the two convoyers who were escorting seven Straatsvaarders, when the encountered Anthony Young's small squadron off the Start on 12 May. Since Joris van der Zaan joined the fleet, I would imagine that Jacob Huyrluyt had, as well. That is only my estimate, however.

The ship Stad Groningen en Ommelanden

I have an older page showing information about the Friesland ship Stad Groningen en Ommelanden that gives the armament as only 28 guns and the crew as 110 men. The ship was still commanded by Joost Bulter and has the same dimensions as later. Later in 1653, the ship carried 38 guns and was sunk by gunfire at the Battle of the Gabbard (the Zeeslag bij Nieuwpoort). Perhaps the ship in its earlier guise was with the fleet at the Battle of the Kentish Knock, where one list gives the captain as being named "Belevelt" in Witte de With's journal.

The Noorderkwartier ships that were convoyers funded in 1648

The list of ships that were funded at the peace in 1648 for the Admiralty of the Noorderkwartier surprised me. I had always assumed that Cornelis Pietersz Taenman's ship, the Prins Maurits, was one of the 100 ships hired in 1652. According to this one list, the accuracy of which could be disputed, says that the Prins Maurits was one of the convoyers funded at the peace with Spain in 1648. The Dutch rebellion against Spain ended concurrently with the end of the Thirty Years War. The list of Noorderkwartier ships that were in this category might be of interest:

Adm   Ship                   Guns  Commander
N     Hoorn                  32    Pieter Allertszoon
N     Prins Maurits          28    Cornelis Pietersz Taenman
N     Wapen van Monnikendam  24    Arent Dirckszoon
N     Casteel van Medemblick 26    Gabriel Theuniszoon
N     Wapen van Alkmaar      28    Gerrit Nobel
N     Sampson                26    Willem Ham

Familiar ship names

The list of ships employed by the Admiralty of Rotterdam, dated 7 March 1652, still interests me. The portion of the list that includes fluits and pinnaces is particularly fascinating. I am not sure if the ships named are those of which I have heard, but maybe some are:

The fluit ship, the Coninck Davidt
Dimensions in Maas feet:       90ft x     21ft x      9-1/2ft x  4ft  18 guns
Dimensions in Amsterdam feet:  98ft-2in x 22ft-10in x 10ft-4in x 4ft-4in

The fluit ship St. Jacob
Dimensions in Maas feet:       92ft x     20ft x      8ft x      3-1/2ft  16 guns
Dimensions in Amsterdam feet: 100ft-4in x 21ft-9in x  8ft-8in x  3ft-9in

The fluit ship Graaf Sonderlandt
Dimensions in Maas feet:       96-1/2ft x 20-1/2ft x  10-1/4ft x 4ft      20 guns
Dimensions in Amsterdam feet: 105ft-3in x 22ft-4in x  11ft-2in x 4ft-4in

Captain "Belevelt" revisited

The only place that I have seen the name of a Friesland captain named "Belevelt" is in Witte de With's lists from September 1652. In this one list, from 25 September, which has the section labeled "Admiralty Ships of Friesland", there are the following entries:

                          Crew   Guns Weeks of Victuals
Capn. Belevelt
Capn. Wickelma             108   29   13
Capn. Degelcam              77   28   11
Capn. Adriaen Bruijnsvelt  103   28   13

Our working hypothesis is that "Belevelt" is a corruption of Bulter, Joost Bulter's last name. I find that explanation pretty unsatisfying, however.

The Jonas

The ship Jonas, hired by the Admiralty of Amsterdam in 1653 was quite unusual, in may ways. The ship had length and width of about 136ft x 27ft. The crew on board in late June 1653 was 106 men. The Jonas carried just 26 guns: 3-12pdr, 4-8pdr, 11-6pdr, 6-5pdr, and 2-3pdr guns. There was 4000 lbs of gunpowder. On the list of 22 June 1653, the captain's name was spelled "Joris Coleri" (Joris de Caullerij).

The listing for Johannes Michielszoon's ship always seemed strange to me

In the list of ships, which just has captains' names, guns and crew figures, published in The First Dutch War, Vol.I, the listing for Johannes Michielszoon shows a Zeeland ship with 20 guns and a crew of 100 men. There are no names for ships except for some fireships. The list is almost identical to the list published in Hendrick de Raedt's pamphlet that listed the fleet that went to the Shetlands in July and August 1652. I had long wondered at the name of the ship, described in one place as "a fast-sailing storeship". I know now that his ship was the fluit Haes, hired by the Admiralty of Zeeland, but I had wondered if this was the ship captured by the English and which served as a storeship for a while under the name St. Augustine. I had not read The First Dutch War, Vol.IV carefully enough, since the ship survived the Three Days Battle, despite Johannes Michielszoon being killed. His ship continued in service with Jan van Hoessen as captain, with 20 guns and a crew of 90 men.

Jonas en de Walvisch

Dr. Ballhausen had parroted the ship name "Jonas en de Walvisch" (Jonas and the Whale) from the Oud-Holland Vol.17 article about Willem van de Velde de Oude in the First Anglo-Dutch War. There is apparently a notation to that effect on a van de Velde drawing. The note has to refer to two ships: the Jonas (26 guns and a crew of 110 men), a ship hired by the Admiralty of Amsterdam, and the Walvisch (30 guns and a crew of 104 men), a ship hired by the Amsterdam Directors. These figures are from Witte de With's journal from late May 1653.

Noorderkwartier ships in the Mediterranean Sea in 1652

The Admiralty of the Noorderkwartier contributed three ships to the fleet sent to the Mediterranean Sea in 1652. The original purpose was to protect Dutch shipping against the North African pirates. Very quickly, at the outbreak of the First Anglo-Dutch War, the primary purpose became fleet action against the English squadron. The Dutch very much believe in Mahan's principles: that defeating the enemy's fleet was the primary goal naval operations. Once you did that, you simplified the process of protecting your merchant shipping. The three Noorderkwartier ships are well known: the Prinses Roijaal (36 guns), the Eendracht (41 guns), and the Jong Prins (28 guns). The Battle of Monte Christo was fought on 27/08/1652. Captain Albert Cornelisz 't Hoen, captain of the Prinses Roijaal, was killed in the fight. Cornelis Barentsz Slordt, captain of the Jonge Prins, survived both the Battle of Monte Christo and the Battle of Livorno, on 14 March 1653. This a large van de Velde drawing of the Battle of Livorno from the Rijksmuseum.

Cornelis Loncke's ship the Faam

Cornelis Loncke commanded a ship hired by the Admiralty of Zeeland in 1652 and up to the Three Days Battle in 1653. The Faam was a 115ft-long ship that seems to have been extremely lightly armed. While the Faam carried 30 guns, only four were 12pdr. The rest were 6pdr, 4pdr, and a pair of 3pdr guns. The Faam was with Michiel De Ruyter's fleet from July 1652 up to September. They were assigned to convoy ships up and down the Channel. In August, they fought a battle with Sir George Ayscue's fleet which was intended for both commerce protection and to attack Dutch shipping. The Faam is one of a group of Zeeland ships that had a main battery of 6pdr guns. While many published sources credit Dutch ships with a lower tier, or main battery, of 12pdr guns, that was not uniformly the case with hired ships. The 12pdr guns were mentioned as not comparing well with the widespread use of culverins (18pdr) by the English.

Witte de With's squadron in 1652

I really wish that I could fill in more detail about Witte de With's squadron in 1652. Admittedly, I have a good bit of information, but I have very little about the Rotterdam ship Hollandia and the Noorderkwartier ship Vergulde Schel, in particular. I do not have much about their operations prior to August 1652:

The Squadron of Vice-Admiral de With 

of Rotterdam

Rank               Name                             Adm/Dir  guns crew Ship                Sources
Vice-Admiral       Witte Cornelisz de With          R        36   150  Prinses Louise      raedt, 1DW2
kapitein           Jan de Haes                      R        24    91  Gulden Beer         raedt, vloot

of Amsterdam

Rank               Name                             Adm/Dir  guns crew Ship                Sources
commandeur         Auke Balck                       A        46   150  Vrijheid            raedt, 1DW2, 1DW4
kapitein           Jan Jansz Boermans               A        28   100  Prins Willem        raedt, 1DW1, 1DW4
kapitein           Albert de Graeff                 A        32   110  Hollandia           raedt, 1DW1, 1DW2, 1DW4
kapitein           Gillis Matthijsz Campen          A        24    80  Goude Leeuw         raedt, 1DW1, 1DW4
kapitein           Barent Cramer                    A        28   100  Edam                raedt, 1DW1, 1DW2, 1DW4

of Zeeland

Rank               Name                             Adm/Dir  guns crew Ship                Sources
kapitein           Pieter Gorcum                    Z        24    85  Sandenburgh         raedt, cs, jonge1, staet54

others

Rank               Name                             Adm/Dir  guns crew Ship                Sources
kapitein           Teunis Vechterszoon              NQ       24    80  Vergulde Schel      raedt, 1DW4. ball
kapitein           Hendrik Ernestus de Bertrij      R        24    97  Hollandia           raedt, vloot, schet2, schet4

This is the key to my notes:

Key:

Sources:

1DW1 = The First Dutch War, Vol.I
1DW2 = The First Dutch War, Vol.II
1DW3 = The First Dutch War, Vol.III
1DW4 = The First Dutch War, Vol.IV
1DW5 = The First Dutch War, Vol.V
1DW6 = The First Dutch War, Vol.VI
ball    = Dr. Ballhausen’s book
rdhb  = Rotterdamsche Historiebladen
schet2 = Schetsen uit de Geschiedens van ons Zeewezen, Vol.II
schet3 = Schetsen uit de Geschiedens van ons Zeewezen, Vol.III
schet4 = Schetsen uit de Geschiedens van ons Zeewezen, Vol.IV
schet5 = Schetsen uit de Geschiedens van ons Zeewezen, Vol.V
schet6 = Schetsen uit de Geschiedens van ons Zeewezen, Vol.VI
vloot = De Vlootbouw in Nederland
vreug = A. Vreugdenhil, Ships of the United Netherlands 1648-1702
glete = Jan Glete’s notes on Directors’ ships 
dir    = Director’s ship documents from the Nationaal Archief from 1652 and 1653
     1-undated but from March 1652 or later with a table
     2-12 March 1652
     3-27 March 1652
     4-30 March 1652
     5-8 November 1652
     6-10 January 1653
     7-27 January 1653
     8-28 January 1653
     9-30 January 1653
     10-8 February 1653
     11-18 March 1653
     12-undated but from early 1653
     13-4 April 1653
 
Sources (Continued):

ont = Onstelde-Zee
raedt = Pamphlet of Hendrik de Raedt (about the voyage to the Shetlands)
26Feb52 = Admiralty of Rotterdam, 26 February 1652
zdir = Zeeland Directors ships pages from the Zeeuws Archief
fleet1 = list of the fleet 15/24 July 1652 from the Nationaal Archief
fleet2 = list of the fleet 19/20 September 1652 from the Nationaal Archief
staet54 = Staet van Oorlog te Water for 1654
paintings = Michael Robinson, Van de Velde Paintings
cs = communication from Carl Stapel
salt = Francis Vere, Salt in their Blood: The Lives of the Famous Dutch Admirals, 1955.
jonge1 = J. C. De Jonge, Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Zeewezen, Vol.I

Admiralty/Directors:

A         = Admiralty of Amsterdam
A-Dir   =  Amsterdam Directors
Ed-Dir =  Edam Directors
En-Dir  = Enkhuizen Directors
F          = Admiralty of Friesland
HA-Dir = Harlingen Directors
Ho-Dir  = Hoorn Directors
Mi-Dir  = Middelburg Directors
Mo-Dir = Monnikendam Directors
NQ   = Noorderkwartier (Noorder-Quartier)
R      = Admiralty of the Maze (or Rotterdam)
R-Dir = Rotterdam Directors (includes Delfshaven)
Ve-Dir  = Veere Directors
Vli-Dir  = Vlissingen Directors
Z          = Admiralty of Zeeland
Zi-Dir  = Zierikzee Directors

Hendrick Jansz Camp's ship

At De Sneuper, the author listed Hendrick Jansz Camp's ship, in 1652 and into 1653 as the Groningen. That seemed very plausible to me. Sadly, as we collected more information from the Nationaal Archief in The Hague, we found out that Hendrick Jansz Camp commanded a 36 gun hired ship named Wapen van Nassau. The Wapen van Nassau was 130ft long. The Wapen van Nassau seems to have been discarded sometime after the Three Days Battle in 1653, where Hendrick Jansz Camp was apparently killed. The Wapen van Nassau seems to have had a lower tier of 12pdr guns and an upper tier of 8pdr guns. The quarterdeck was probably armed with 6pdr guns and there were also 2-3pdr guns for sniping.