Google Book Search: now has snippet view of Schetsen uit de Geschiedenis van ons Zeewezen

I was surprised to see that Google Book Search now has Dr. Elias' book, Schetsen uit de Geschiedenis van Ons Zeewezen in Snippet View. I would like to see the book be part of the coming "Google Editions", so I could have portable access to the book.

The documentary "Broadside"

When I got home from work yesterday, a package had arrived for me. In the package was a copy of a new version of Frank Fox's book about the Second Anglo-Dutch War and a DVD with the documentary that Bruce Twickler had produced through his company Docema. They had a deal where for about $29.95 and shipping, you got the book and the DVD, a huge bargain. I saw in the DVD box that they have also reprinted the original version of Frank's book A Distant Storm: the Four Days' Battle of 1666. One of the family of website is www.broadsidethefilm.com.

A small Dutch warship Neptunus in 1629

In the first half of the 17th Century, the Dutch used many small warships, mostly on the rivers. One of these in 1629 was the Rotterdam ship Neptunus, built in 1623. Captain Cornelis Arentsz de Jonge commanded the Neptunus. The Neptunus was 30 Rotterdam lasts, or by my theory, 40 lasts when measured in Amsterdam feet. The crew consisted of 31 sailors and the ship was armed with 6-iron 4pdr, 2-iron 2-1/2pdr, and 10 steenstukken. There were 20 chambers, two for each of the steenstukken (literally "stone guns", which are usually said to be swivel guns). Two chambers for a "stone gun" allowed one to be in the gun and one to be loaded, providing a higher rate of fire. The steenstukken were iron breech loading guns. The Neptunus was at Batenborgh.

Breechloaders and chambers

One issue that I see writers frequently misunderstand is to count the chambers associated with breechloading guns as some sort of gun. For example, Dutch ships in the 17th Century, specially prior to 1648, carried "steenstukken" (literally, stone guns). The Roode Leeuw, in 1629, carried 8 steenstukken and had 16 chambers for them. That allowed the breech loading guns to have a higher rate of fire, so that while one chamber was being loaded, the other could be in the gun, ready to fire. The English ships in the 16th and early 17th Century carried port pieces and fowlers, which originally fired stone shot. They were breech loaders, as were the early steenstukken. Often, lists in the late 16th Century would show that a ship carried so many fowlers and twice that number of chambers for them. Some of the summary lists of English ships would add the chambers to the overall numbers of guns carried, which is obviously a mistake. Archibald's book about wooden English warships had some of these lists from the period of 1590 to 1620. These are generally pulled from Charles Derrick's classic book from the early 19th Century.

Rotterdam and Amsterdam last measurements

I am going back over the Staat van Orlog te Water for the year 1629. The Rotterdam ships (it calls the admiralty the Admiraliteit tot Rotterdam, not the Admiraliteit van de Maze). This list does not give dimensions, only the size in lasts. My theory is that the last measurements of Rotterdam ships is based on the dimensions in Maas feet (about 308mm), not Amsterdam feet (283mm). The basis for my theory is a list of Rotterdam ships from 1642. I have dimensions for most of those ships and can tell how the last figures were calculated. The small frigates Utrecht, Overijssel, and Gelderland are all listed as being of 90 lasts. Their dimensions in Maas feet are

100ft x 23ft x 8ft

. The calculation then is

90 = 100 x 23 x 8 / 207

. The usual way is round to the closest ten lasts. Of course, we are used to dimensions written in Amsterdam feet. The dimensions in Amsterdam feet are

109ft x 25ft x 8ft-8in

. The size in lasts, calculated from Amsterdam feet is

120 lasts = 109ft x 25ft x 8.727273/207

. You can see that the size in what I call "Amsterdam lasts" is about 1.3 times greater than the size in "Rotterdam lasts".

I was doing a literature search in Google Books

I had decided to look in Google Books to see what was currently available for 17th Century naval history and naval history generally. What had gotten my attention is that several books are available that I had not expected to find, such as the biography of Richard Badiley, among others. After I had downloaded 33 volumes, Google Books freaked out and blocked any further searches, as they were concerned that this was an automated search and download. I suppose that was because I was so consistently on topic.

A 30-gun Dutch warship in 1616

The second ship in the list of guns on Dutch warships in the year 1616, on page 750 of Vol.I of Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Zeewezen is one that I cannot name. This is a ship armed with 2-24pdr, 16-18pdr, 2-12pdr, 2-6pdr, and 8-5pdr guns. I thought that I had pretty complete information for Dutch warships in service in 1616, but this one is not a ship that I can name. I have no ship for this period armed with 16-18pdr guns.

Vol.I of Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Zeewezen is finally available in Google Books

Google Books has finally made Volume One of the classic Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Zeewezen available. For a long time, it was the only volume that could not be downloaded.