This is a list of Dutch (the United Provinces of the Netherlands) ships of the line, or sailing warships which formed the Dutch battlefleet. It covers ships built from about 1623 (there are few reliable records of individual earlier warships) until the creation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in March 1815, including the period of the French-controlled Batavian Republic, nominal Kingdom of Holland and direct French annexation between 1795 and 1813. It excludes frigates and lesser warships.
The Dutch were often handicapped by the smaller size of their ships relative to the vessels of other nations, particularly those of England and France. This was partly due to the shallow home waters of the Netherlands, which limited the maximum draft that ships could operate. Consequently, the Dutch did not build large three-deckers such as were found in the navies of England and France, except for a brief period from 1682 to 1695 (and a very few much later on during the Napoleonic era). However, during the period up to 1650 the Dutch made up in sheer quantity of ships for what they lacked in terms of the size of vessels; the list below is incomplete and does not include some of the many hundreds of Dutch warships belonging to the United Provinces between 1579 (when the Netherlands effectively became independent from Spanish control) and 1795 (in which latter year the French invaded and established the puppet state of the Batavian Republic).
The Five Admiralties Administratively and politically, until 1795 there was not a single Dutch Navy but five distinct Admiralties. In the south was the Admiralty of Zeeland covering the Province of Zeeland (indicated by "(Z)" preceding a ship's name in the list below). Next were three covering the Province of Holland - the Admiralty of the Maas (or "Maze") in the south of Holland, centred on Rotterdam (indicated by "(M)"), the Admiralty of Amsterdam in the centre of the Province (indicated by "(A)"), and the Admiralty of the Noorderkwartier in the north of Holland (indicated by "(N)"). The fifth was the Admiralty of Friesland covering the Province of Friesland (indicated by "(F)"), albeit with fewer ships than the other four Admiralties.
Each Dutch warship belonged exclusively to one or other of the five Admiralties, although in the 17th century the Dutch fleet included many ships of mercantile ownership, particularly those belonging to the Dutch East India Company or Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) and sometimes the Dutch West Indies Company or Geoctroyeerde Westindische Compagnie (WIC), which were hired by the Admiralties to supplement their own vessels. The names of Dutch warships were often common to several Admiralties, so that there were vessels bearing the same name in different Admiralties at the same time.
Armament was often changed, so the number of guns mounted in any ship frequently varied from year to year. During the 1650 - 1680 period, many Dutch ships of the line were "up-gunned", ending with significantly more guns (or guns of larger calibres) than when they first came into service.
The Dutch Rating System Prior to 1632, the Dutch did not have a system of categorising vessels beyond a simple functional division into "ships" (i.e. ships of the line, as they became), "frigates" and lesser ship-rigged "three-mast yachts".Frank Fox, The Four Days' Battle of 1666. On 11 March 1632, the Dutch government approved three standard designs (which they termed "charters") to which all new warships should be built. These set the requirement for low-built ships without castles, an uninterrupted deck, slim hulls and light construction; the three designs were of 100 (Amsterdam) feet, 120 feet and 128 feet length (measured on the uppermost continuous deck) respectively, and future charter divisions retained this classification by length rather than by tonnage or number of guns (as used by England and France). However, later in the 17th century, the Dutch moved towards using a Rating system similar (but not identical) to the English or French system, while retaining the terminology of "Charters" well into the 18th century. To provide flagships for the battlefleet, two two-decked ships were built in this period, both at Rotterdam for the Admiralty of the Maas - the Aemilia of 1632 and the Brederode of 1644; each was 144 (Amsterdam) feet in length and 35 feet in breadth.
The system coincided with the English categories of 1st to 4th Rates, i.e. they comprised the battlefleet units. In 1652 the Dutch - under pressure from their naval commander Maarten Tromp to build larger ships to combat the English - revised this rating system which was still based on a series of Charters, initially grading the battlefleet units by length of ship with classes of 130 (Amsterdam) feet, 136 feet and 140 feet; this was at a time when the largest ship in the Dutch navies measured 134 feet in length. Subsequently, having won the Battle of Dungeness in November 1652, Tromp persuaded the Staten-Generaal to add a further class of 150 feet ships as the "1st Charter", although only two of this length were built initially - the Eendracht and Groot Hollandia, both launched at Rotterdam for the Admiralty of the Maas in 1653 and 1654 respectively with 58 guns each.
Between 1652 and 1680 the "Charters" underwent drastic revision, but it was still more appropriate to classify ships of the line during this era by their (gundeck) length than by the number of guns carried. The lengths remained the basis of the Charters. By 1680, following the end of the later Anglo-Dutch Wars, the Staten-Generaal divided the warships of the five Admiralties into eight charters. The first four charters comprised the battlefleet, while the next three (5th to 7th Charters) covered frigates down to 20 guns, and the 8th Charter included smaller cruising warships. This article therefore refers only to ships of the first four Charters.
The 1st Charter comprised the largest two-deckers before 1680, together with 'partial' three-deckers (i.e. ships with only a partial battery on the third deck, without any guns in the waist), then subsequently covered the full three-deckers (for which see note below). These were ships carrying more than 70 guns, although this had risen to about 80 guns by 1670 and by 1680 to encompass ships of 90 guns or more. They generally (but not always) carried a mix of 36-pounder and 24-pounder guns on their primary (lower) gun deck, with lighter cannon (18-pounders and 12-pounders) on the upper deck and 6-pounders on their quarterdecks.
The other battlefleet Charters were all two-decked warships. By the 1670s the 2nd Charter were all two-decker warships with a number of guns initially around 60 to 74, although by 1680 the 60-gun and 64-gun ships had been relegated to the 3rd Charter. They usually carried 18-pounders (or a mixture of 24-pounders and 18-pounders) on the lower deck. The 3rd and 4th Charter ships usually carried 18-pounders or 12-pounders as their main battery. The 4th Charter ships by 1680 carried between 44 and 56 guns; by 1714 a minimum of 50 guns applied.
Dimensions All lengths quoted in this article are measured in Amsterdam feet, taken as the length of the uppermost continuous deck from stem to stern. The Amsterdam foot (Amsterdamse voet) was equivalent to 28.3133 cm, and thus equated to 0.9289 of an English foot, a factor to bear in mind in any comparisons. It was divided into eleven inches (Amsterdamse duim) equal to 2.57393 cm, compared with 2.54 cm for an English inch. Thus 150 Amsterdam feet equated to 139 ft 4 inches in English measurement. The Rotterdam foot was considerably longer - 31.39 cm (equal to almost 1.03 English feet) - and was divided into twelve inches, each of 2.615 cm. However in 1653 all the Admiralties adopted the Amsterdam foot, and this has been employed throughout this article except where otherwise stated.
Tons The system of weights was similarly united in the Netherlands, with the Amsterdam pound (pond) equal to 494.1 grams, compared with the English pound of 453.6 grams. Thus the Amsterdam pound (that all ordnance calibres are quoted below) was 8.93% greater than the English pound (e.g the Dutch "24-pounder" was equivalent to 26 lb 2.3 oz.
Three-deckers Most of the Dutch ships of the line, for reasons given above, were built with two decks of guns. However, in the 1660s four ships of the Amsterdam Admiralty were built which were structurally three-deckers (the Spiegel of 1663, followed by the Gouden Leeuw, Witte Olifant and Dolphijn of 1666), but these had only partially armed upper decks, with guns mounted forwards and aft (under the quarterdeck) but not in the waist at this level. From 1682 twenty complete three-deckers were built, the last in 1721; these comprised the 1st Charter issued on 15 February 1680, and provided for these to have dimensions of 170 (Amsterdam) feet on the gundeck (146 ft 3 in on the keel) x 43 feet x 16 ft. After these twenty, no further 1st Charter ships were built by the Netherlands.
Ships of the "Old Navy" (1579 to 1648) This is the period when the Dutch provinces consolidated their independence from Spanish rule, forming the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and took part in the Eighty Years' War. Almost all of these ships were relatively small, with only a single gun deck, and were owned by the five Admiralties. The majority were between 120 and 130 feet in length as measured on the upper deck, the exceptions being the fleet flagships built in 1632 and 1644, which are separately listed below; the warships built for the Admiralties were supplemented frequently by ships hired from the VOC (East India Company, established 1602), WIC (West India Company, established 1621) or other mercantile source (this was particularly true in 1652, at the outbreak of the 1st Anglo-Dutch War), but only a few of these are mentioned.
Fleet flagships The Aemilia and Brederode, although entering service 12 years apart, had identical dimensions of 144 ft x 35 ft 3 in x 14 ft 2 in, in Amsterdam feet (equating to 132 ft x 32 ft x 13 ft 6 in in Rotterdam feet). Both were built for the Maas Admiralty in the naval shipyard at Rotterdam by Jan Salomonszoon van den Tempel. Each was a two-decked ship, with 13 pairs of gunports on the lower tier in Aemilia and 12 pairs in Brederode. Although no dimensions are known for the Maagd van Dordrecht, she was quoted as being 300 lasts (the same as Aemilia) so was probably of similar size. (M) Aemilia. 46 guns (built 1632, 300 lasts). Carried (in 1642) 4 × 36-pdrs; 11 × 24-pdrs; 33 × 12-pdrs; 9 × 6-pdrs; crewed (1635) by 160 sailors and 30 soldiers. She served as Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp's flagship at the Battle of the Downs in 1639 (by then with 57 guns); sold to France 1643 as a privateer, captured by Spain and broken up 1647. (M) Maagd van Dordrecht. 42 guns (built 1632, 300 lasts). Carried (in 1642) 10 × 24-pdrs; 14 × 18-pdrs; 16 × 12-pdrs; 6 × 6-pdrs; crewed by 140 sailors and 30 soldiers. She was flagship of Vice-Adm Witte Corneliszoon de With from 1639 to 1643, but not subsequently mentioned. (M) Brederode. 49 guns (built 1644). Carried (in 1652) 4 × 36-pdrs; 12 × 24-pdrs; 8 × 18-pdrs; 20 × 12-pdrs; 10 × 6-pdrs; crewed by 175 sailors and 75 soldiers. Up-gunned to 54 guns, she served as the fleet flagship for most of the First Anglo-Dutch War (under Maarten Tromp from 1652 to 1653, and Witte de With to end of career in 1658); captured and sunk in the Battle of the Sound on 8 November 1658.
Ships of between 120 and 130 feet (N) Eenhoorn (or Witte Eenhoorn). 34 guns (built 1623, measuring 125 × 29 × 11ft, 200 lasts) - 1655 (N) Stad Medemblik. 26 guns (built 1625, 120 × 27 × 11 ft) – sunk at the Battle of the Gabbard in June 1653. (Z) Middelburg. 30 guns (1632, 125 ft) (A) Utrecht. 32 guns (1633) – Blew up on 28 September 1648 (M) Gelderland. 40 guns (1634, 128 ft) – 1659 (A) Frederik Hendrik. 36 guns (1636)