FRONTISPIECE: Dutch ships of the seventeenth century are visually recorded in greater numbers and to higher standards of accuracy than any maritime subject before the advent of photography. This reflects the importance of the sea and shipping to the Netherlands, which produced a market for paintings, drawings and engravings that was buoyant enough to support some of the finest artists of the day – indeed, some of the finest marine artists of all time. The more famous ships were depicted often and by different artists, which provides a crosscheck on the accuracy of the appearance details represented. As an example, this painting by Jeronimus van Diest takes as its main subject the Eendracht, the Dutch fleet flagship blown up at the Battle of Lowestoft in 1665. The careful depiction of her stern decoration closely matches detail known from a number of drawings by the Van de Veldes, the father and son team who did more to record the appearance of the ships of this era than any other artists. Thanks to their huge and meticulous output, the precise visual features of many ships are known, and can be used to identify otherwise anonymous vessels in other works. Given the richness of the pictorial record, the paucity of surviving documentation about the ships themselves is a surprising contrast. Bureaucratic complexities and the destruction of archives have conspired to make even compiling a complete navy list for the golden age of the Netherlands an impossible task, but the book which follows is the first concerted attempt to summarise all that is currently known about the Dutch warships of the 1600–1714 period. © National Maritime Museum BHC3307 Copyright © James Bender 2014 Introduction © J D Davies 2014 First published in Great Britain in 2014 by Seaforth Publishing An imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd 47 Church Street, Barnsley, S Yorkshire S70 2AS www.seaforthpublishing.com Email: [email protected] British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP data record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 84832 157 1 eISBN 9781473852877 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing of both the copyright owner and the above publisher. retrieval system, without prior permission in writing of both the copyright owner and the above publisher. The right of James Bender to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 Typeset and designed by Ian Hughes, Mousemat Design Limited Printed and bound in China CONTENTS Preface Acknowledgements Structure of the book Key to abbreviations Glossary Sources and bibliography INTRODUCTION by J D Davies DUTCH FLEET LISTS SHIPS LISTED BY PERIOD AND ADMIRALTY Ships acquired prior to 1600 Admiralty of Rotterdam or the Maze Admiralty of Amsterdam Admiralty of Zeeland Admiralty of Friesland Ships acquired 1600–1625 Admiralty of Rotterdam or the Maze Rotterdam Chamber of the East India Company Admiralty of Amsterdam Amsterdam Chamber of the East India Company Admiralty of Noorderkwartier Admiralty of Zeeland Middelburg Chamber of the East India Company Ships acquired 1626–1648 Admiralty of Rotterdam or the Maze Admiralty of Amsterdam Old Directors of Amsterdam New Directors of Amsterdam Admiralty of Noorderkwartier Directors of Enkhuizen Directors of Hoorn Directors of Medemblik Admiralty of Zeeland West Indies Company Admiralty of Friesland Directors of Harlingen Ships hired by Louis de Geer 1644–1645 Ships acquired 1649–1660 Admiralty of Rotterdam or the Maze Directors of Rotterdam Admiralty of Amsterdam Directors of Amsterdam Admiralty of Noorderkwartier Directors of Edam Directors of Enkhuizen Directors of Hoorn Directors of Medemblik Directors of Monnikendam Amsterdam Chamber of the East India Company Hoorn Chamber of the East India Company Admiralty of Zeeland Directors of Middelburg Directors of Veere Directors of Vlissingen Directors of Zierikzee Admiralty of Friesland Directors of Harlingen Ships acquired 1661–1678 Admiralty of Rotterdam or the Maze Admiralty of Amsterdam Delft Chamber of the East India Company Rotterdam Chamber of the East India Company Amsterdam Chamber of the East India Company Enkhuizen Chamber of the East India Company Hoorn Chamber of the East India Company Middelburgh Chamber of the East India Company Admiralty of Noorderkwartier Admiralty of Zeeland Admiralty of Friesland Ships acquired 1679–1714 Admiralty of the Maze Admiralty of Amsterdam Admiralty of Noorderkwartier Admiralty of Zeeland Admiralty of Friesland Unknown Provenance APPENDIX: Gun Inventories with Weights PREFACE This book reflects the results of studying since 1990 the navies and warships involved in the Anglo-Dutch Wars, with a focus on the Dutch navy and warships in the First Anglo-Dutch war. As my study progressed, I gradually realized that there were no books about the Dutch navy and warships in the First Anglo- Dutch War that included the details that I wanted to see. The primary published source for Dutch ship data is Ships of the United Netherlands 1648-1702 by A Vreugdenhil, dating from 1938 (see Sources and Bibliography, below). Vreugdenhil’s list has long been the primary source for the names and dimensions of Dutch warships in the latter half of the seventeenth century. There are many errors in this pioneering work, although it is still the best published source. His information about Zeeland ships that were discarded in 1648 to 1649 is accurate, although he did not have the details that are available from the Zeeuws Archief. As we learned more, the inaccuracies in Vreugdenhil’s list about ships that served in the First Anglo-Dutch War became obvious. For that period, Vreugdenhil had quite obviously depended heavily on the ‘Staat van Oorlog te Water’ (a regular report on the state of naval forces) for the year 1654, and on published sources, such as the work of Dr Elias in Schetsen uit de Geschiedenis van Ons Zeewezen, the monthly Hollandsche Mercurius for 1652 and 1653, and the book Onstelde-Zee, published in 1654. He also relied overmuch on Dr Ballhausen’s book for information. While Dr Ballhausen had made an extensive review of the published literature at the time he researched his book, his ship lists are so inaccurate that they should be ignored. Fortunately, Vreudenhil’s notes survive and have been corrected and annotated over time. They are preserved for study, and are useful despite their shortcomings. The best sources of information about details of the equipping of the Dutch navy in the First Anglo-Dutch War are two books by Dr Johan E Elias: Schetsen uit de Geschiedenis van ons Zeewezen and De Vlootbouw in Nederland. The old classic, Volume I of J C De Jonge’s Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Zeewezen is too general and lacks specifics. The best part of