I am grateful that Teemu Koivumaki still has his Sailing Warships website

I have been a past contributor to Teemu Koivumaki's Sailing Warships website. I had lost touch with the correct URL, but now have it again.

The frigate Middelburg, with 28 guns, in 1665

Has anyone know anything about a small frigate Middelburg that was mentioned along with the frigate Leiderdorp in 1665? The Middelburg and Leiderdorp seem to have been similar ships, both carrying 28 guns and having crews of 120 men. They both were used by the Admiralty of Amsterdam. There was another, larger ship named Middelburg that was also used by the Admiralty of Amsterdam. This was a ship probably built in 1659 and was the ship commanded by Willem van der Zaan in 1661 when he captured a Turkish pirate ship. The ship Middelburg, built in about 1659, was the ship burnt at Tobago in 1677.

The Noorderkwartier ship Westfriesland

I was surprised to find that I had good information that I didn't realized that I had about the Noorderkwartier ship Westfriesland. The Westfriesland was 8 years old on 26 February 1674, so the ship was built in 1666. The dimensions were: 160ft x 40ft x 14-1/2ft x 7-3/4ft. I also have the gun list dating from 16 May 1673: 6-bronze 36pdr, 2-bronze 18pdr, 18-iron 18pdr, 28-iron 12pdr, 6-bronze 6pdr, and 22-iron 6pdr. The crew on 16 May 1673 was 324 men. The captain was Jan Heck, who had commanded the old Eenhoorn during the First Anglo-Dutch War. My sources were a photograph of a document from the Nationaal Archief and a list of ship from Carl Stapel that he had sent me in 2007. By the way, I have a new Kindle book available: "Arming the Dutch Navy in the First Anglo-Dutch War". This is the link to download the book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B0Q72I6.

The hired ship Prins

One of the ships hired for service with the fleet sent to aid the Portuguese in 1641 was named the Prins. The Prins was armed with 38 guns and had a crew of 120 men. My question is if this was the same ship hired by the Rotterdam Directors in 1652 for service in the First Anglo-Dutch War? Both ships carried the same number of guns and had the same crew size. The Prins in 1653 later had a larger crew. We happen to know the dimensions of the Prins hired in 1641: 142ft x 29-1/2ft x 13-1/2ft x ?. We don't know the deck height.

The ship Prinses Albertina van Orangien

In 1652 into 1653, Rombout van der Parre commanded a small ship hired by the Admiralty of Friesland: the Prinses Albertina van Orangien (the document from 1652 says Princesse Albartina van Orangien). In July 1652, he was assigned to Michiel De Ruyter's fleet that was to convoy merchant ships up and down the Channel. The specifications for the ship were as follows:

Length:     107-1/2ft
Beam:        26ft
Hold:        11-1/2ft
Deck height:  6-1/4ft

26 iron guns: 6-8pdr, 14-6pdr, 4-4pdr, 2-3pdr

Crew: 90 men: (the document has numbers which do not sum: 68 sailors and 12 soldiers)

The Prinses Albertina (as it was usually called) was probably one of a group of ships  stranded at Scheveningen in a storm in early 1653.

The Friesland ship Graaf Hendrik

The ship Graaf Hendrik was hired by Groningen and served with the Admiralty of Friesland in the First Angl0-Dutch War. There are some pages from late 1652 that say that the Graaf Hendrik was a Groningen Directors' ship, but in 1653, the ship is always said to have served the Admiralty of Friesland. From the beginning of the war up until sometime in the spring of 1653, the Graaf Hendrik carried 30 guns. The ship was up-gunned to 36 guns and carried that number until her loss in the storm off the Texel in early November 1653. The Graaf Hendrik had a crew of 110 men, even after being up-gunned. The dimensions were:

Length: 129ft

Beam: 27-1/2ft

Hold: 13ft

The 36 gun armament was:

2-bronze 24pdr klokwijs guns

2-bronze 12pdr guns

2-bronze 12pdr klokwijs guns

4-bronze 3pdr klokwijs guns

2-iron 12pdr guns

2-iron 10pdr guns

8-iron 8pdr guns

10-iron 5pdr guns

4-iron 3pdr guns

Note that Jan Reyndersz Wagenaar commanded the Graaf Hendrik from the time that the ship was hired in 1652 until the Graaf Hendrik foundered in the storm off the Texel in November 1653.

Some interesting tidbits from Carl Stapel from early 2007

I have been the beneficiary in the past of receiving documents from Carl Stapel with the fruits of his research. What has interested me lately has been a list of Noorderkwartier ships from 1642 with sizes in lasts and dates when the ships were built. These were ships that served in 1652-1653, some with the same captain. In some cases, the nominal lasts do not match the dimensions (such as the Eendracht and Prinses Roijaal).

Adm Ship                  Built Lasts Guns Sailors Captain                 
N   Alkmaar               1639  150   22   95      Jan Warnaertsz Capelman 
N   Samson                1627  250   23   95      Floris Cornelisz Schellingkhout
N   Monnikendam           1640  150   24   95      Arent Dirckszoon
N   Kasteel van Medemblik 1640        24   95      Pieter Jacobz Schellinger
N   Stad Medemblik        1625  175   27   95      Gabriel Teuniszoon
N   Prinses Roijaal       1641  250   34  100      Cornelis Albertsz 't Hoen
N   Wapen van Holland     1639  200   28   90      Cornelis Lievensz de Zeeuw
N   Witte Eenhoorn        1626  200   34   90      Jan Tijssen
N   Hollandse Tuin        1632  250   32   97      Jan Heindrijchsz Backer
N   Eendracht             1639  300   36  101      Pauwels Vincentsz Coolen

Estimate dimensions:
150 lasts: 116ft x 25-1/2ft x 10-1/2ft
175 lasts: 120ft x 27ft x 11ft
200 lasts: 125ft x 29ft x 11-1/2ft
250 lasts: 129ft x 31ft x 12ft (estimated)
300 lasts: 130ft x 32ft x 12ft

The Battle of Dunkirk in early 1639

Our faithful reader and fellow researcher found this page that seems to give the names of the five Dutch warships in the foreground in the Van de Velde drawing of the Battle of Dunkirk on 18 February 1639: the Rotterdam, the Nassau, the Prins Hendrik, the ‘Deventer’ and the Aemilia.