Dutch ship

“ The Dutch government do not compel the owners of merchant vessels to take any fixed number of seamen, as was required in British ships under the Navigation Act, but the Dutch Commercial Society, a very large trading company, appears to have made a regulation in the year 1843, that every Dutch ship which went out to Batavia should take on board one ass for every hundred tons! ”

“ Then all New Amsterdam gathered at the Battery and watched for wide sails over a wide ship—a ship almost as wide as long, but in all dimensions so small that we of today would think it no small adventure to make a mere coasting voyage on her. Out of the ship would come arrivals from Holland in wide breeches and noble Dutch hats, solid as the Dutch nation itself. ”

“ It was now dark, and the Dutch ship anchored within a mile of us. I ordered to look out sharp in the morning; that so soon as the Dutchman began to move we might be ready to follow him; for I intended to make him my pilot. In the morning at half an hour after 5 we weighed, the Dutchman being under sail before; and we stood directly after him. At 8, having but little wind, I sent my boat aboard of him to see what news he had brought from Europe. Soon after we spied a ship coming from the east, plying on a wind to speak with us, and showing English colours. ”

“ The great and good Germany cannot be troubled to distinguish between Dutch and other boats, and if occasionally a Dutch ship is captured or sent to the bottom, it is a useful reminder of what she might do to her "poor relation" if she really let herself go. ”

“ The Dutch not only built ships for themselves, but orders were sent to their ship-yards from all parts of the world, inasmuch as in these yards all sorts of vessels, whether for war, commerce, or pleasure, could be built better and cheaper than in any other place. ”

“ A week of rest and decent food was enough to cure all the men, and then they sailed for home. But so great was the hurry of this rich squadron to reach the markets of Amsterdam that Van Neck's ship was almost destroyed when it hoisted too many sails and when the wind broke two of the masts. It was not easy to repair this damage in the open sea. After several days some sort of jury rig was equipped. The big ship, with its short stubby mast, then looked so queer that several Dutch vessels which saw it appear upon the horizon off the Gulf of Biscay beat a hasty retreat. ”

“ In these early times the Dutch were not unworthy rivals of the English. After they had succeeded in throwing off the Spanish yoke and achieved their independence, they became one of the most formidable of maritime powers. In the course of another century Holland possessed more colonies, and had a larger share of the carrying trade of the world than Britain. It was natural therefore that the Dutch republic should take an interest in the North-west passage; and the Dutch sailors, by their enterprise and bravery, were among the first to point the way to Arctic discovery. ”

“ The Dutch had only one flag left flying,—Van Tromp killed,—all going against them! Again they sought refuge behind the sandbanks on the coasts of their country, whither the victors followed, as closely as their knowledge of the navigation would permit. In the pursuit of the flying foe, the lightest of the English ships took the most prominent part. The Dutch admiral, perceiving that they were only frigates that pursued him, turned upon them, but heavier ships coming up, he was not permitted to sink his tenacious tormentors, but had his own ship captured before he reached the Texel. ”

“ I am too sensible of your kindness not to desire that you will enable me to merit it by serving you in the navigation [195] of this ship in any capacity you choose to name, until we meet with a vessel that shall rid you of my presence."
"You appear to have but a poor opinion of us Dutch," said he, still speaking with courtesy; "be pleased to know that a Hollander is never happier than in relieving distress. But come, sir, the shelter of the cabin will be grateful to you after this stormy deck." ”

“ During the Commonwealth and Restoration there were continuous improvements in ship design, due, no doubt, in some measure, to the constant fighting with the Dutch. Our naval constructors naturally wanted to build better ships; they had the Dutch prizes to study, and our sea officers saw a good deal of the French men-of-war, which during the latter part of the war assisted them against the Dutch. The Royal Charles of 1673 may be taken as the link between the Sovereign and the eighteenth-century ships of our navy. ”

“ And so it was but natural that the zealous French went to Holland, lived there for some time in order to learn shipbuilding, translated the best Dutch authorities on this subject into French, and returned home to build on even more scientific lines. Therefore in the eighteenth century the French could build vessels as no one else in the world. It was from the latter, in turn, that the English at last acquired so much skill that the old rule-of-thumb methods of ship construction were for ever banished and the era of scientific shipbuilding entered upon. ”

“ Statistics, while not very trustworthy and not enlightening unless compared with those for other nations, may give some idea of the preponderance of Dutch shipping. At the time of the truce she is said to have had 16,300 ships, about 10,000 of which were small vessels in the coasting trade. Of the larger, 3000 were in the Baltic trade, 2000 in the Spanish, 600 sailed to Italy, and the remainder to the Mediterranean, South America, the Far East, and Archangel. ”

“ Highly ruinous as this war was to Dutch shipping and commerce, it meant the rise of our own Navy and merchant service. True, our vessels were slower under sail than the Dutchmen, yet we were more solidly built and armed more heavily. One result of the war in 1654, not a little gratifying to our pride, remained in the acceptation by the enemy that henceforth all Dutch ships, whether men-of-war or of the merchant service, on meeting any English men-of-war in British seas should strike their flags and lower topsails. ”

“ The Dutch navy at this time, though amounting nominally to 119 vessels, from a 74-gun ship to the smallest armed cutter, was of little use to England, a large number of the ships lying rotting in the different harbours, and those able to put to sea being of comparatively small size, and carrying but light guns. ”

“ Among the ships before-mentioned, one was a vice-admiral and two were rear-admirals. The Dutch historians, indeed, confess the loss of but eight men-of-war. On our side, Admiral Deane and one captain were all the persons of note killed; of private men there were but few, and not a ship was missing; so that a more signal victory could scarcely have been obtained, or, indeed, desired. After this victory the Dutch sent ambassadors to England to negotiate a peace almost on any terms. ”

“ And it was not till then that he began to have real ships built of large size. And now, when he was going to Holland, he of course remembered the old Dutch yacht which he had on his pleasure grounds, and the small frigates which they had built him, and the large ones too, which they had built for the boyars, and he felt a great interest in going to see the ship yards. He determined that while he [Pg 213] was in Holland he would spend as much time as he could in learning all about ship building.
"It is very curious about the emperor and his company's entering Amsterdam," continued Rollo. ”

“ In this vessel, together with Admiral Opdam, perished five hundred men, only five of the whole crew escaping; many of those lost being volunteers, of the best families of Holland, and not a few Frenchmen, who had taken this opportunity of being present in a sea-fight.
A little after this unlucky blow, the Dutch received a greater. Four fine ships, the largest of sixty, the least of forty guns, ran foul of each other, and were burnt by one fire-ship, and soon after, three larger vessels, by the same accident, shared the same fate. ”

“ It was in truth a most gallant vessel, of the most approved Dutch construction, and made by the ablest ship [228] carpenters of Amsterdam, who it is well known always model their ships after the fair forms of their countrywomen. Accordingly, it had one hundred feet in the beam, one hundred feet in the keel, and one hundred feet from the bottom of the sternpost to the tafferel. ”

“ The whale fishery was revived, as above stated, about the beginning of the seventeenth century; and, with the Dutch, it was in the most flourishing condition in 1680, when it employed about two hundred and sixty ships, and fourteen thousand men. The wars about the beginning of the nineteenth century, extending their baleful influence to almost every part of the ocean, annihilated this branch of business among the Dutch; and, in 1828, only a single whale-ship sailed from Holland. ”

“ The reason which impels the Dutch to bear all these sufferings so patiently is simply the love of gain.”
In return for these humiliations the Dutch East India Company was permitted to send one or two ships a year from Batavia to Japan and to export a cargo of copper, silk, gold, camphor, porcelain and bronze which returned immense profits.
This curious system of commerce was in operation when the ship Franklin cleared from Boston for Batavia in 1798. His owner’s letter of instructions ordered Captain Devereux to load Java coffee in bulk and to return with all possible expedition. ”

“ When the Dutch war broke out the want of men was greater than the want of ships, and it was decided to press all seamen [311] between fifteen and fifty years of age, a ticket being given to each man with his three halfpence a mile conduct money, specifying his physical appearance, and which he was called upon to present at the port where he joined his ship. [1288] Attempts were made to keep crews in the service by carrying forward thirty shillings of each man’s wages when he was paid off ”

“ We have already said that the Dutch ships were very numerous, and that they often had very valuable freight on board; as one may imagine, it was a splendid opportunity for the pious and morally pure English pirates to satisfy their greed under the pretext of the “right of search.” Innumerable neutral vessels were captured, brought to English harbors, there to await the decisions of the English Prize Courts. ”

“ It is the custom for the Dutch ships, as soon as their lading is nearly completed, to leave Batavia, on account of its extreme unwholesomeness, and proceed to some of the more healthy islands in the Straits, where they wait for the remainder of their cargo, and their dispatches. ”

“ Dutch ships and those of other nations were seen daily in her stately harbor; two great Dutch trading companies, the Dutch East India and the Dutch West India, had been lately chartered. Both were desirous to enlist young men in their ranks to settle in the new colonial domains. ”

“ The chief difference between the British and foreign builds of warship of the latter half of the seventeenth century was that the English vessels were always constructed with the rounded117 tuck before mentioned, as introduced by Pett, while the Continental ships all had the old-fashioned square tuck, which is well illustrated in Fig. 51. The Dutch ships in one respect excelled all others, in that they were the first in which the absurd practice of an exaggerated "tumble home," or contraction of the upper deck, was abandoned. ”

“ We had a Dutch Squadron with us, who expected Convoy Rates, and all manner of Civilities from us, though there was now Peace, and we wanted nothing from 'em; but 'tis always the way with this Grasping and Avaricious People. Soon too we observed that the Dutch ships began to scrape and clean their sides, painting and polishing and beeswaxing 'em inside and out, bending new sails, and the very Mariners putting on half a dozen pair of new breeches apiece. This it is their cus [109] tom to do as they draw near home; so that they look as if newly come out of Holland. ”

“ According to some accounts the Dutch navy had been allowed to fall to so low a number as fifty men-of-war, and, although merchantmen were taken into the service, their crews, hurriedly got together and new to their surroundings, were no match, so far as skill went, for their opponents. Throughout the war the Dutch, although they possessed many more ships, never succeeded in sending to sea any materially larger fleets than ours. Fifteen hundred prizes are said to have been taken from them during the war, a number at least double the whole ocean-going merchant marine of England. ”

“ Little is known among English-speaking people concerning the lives and achievements of these and other renowned Dutch seamen of the seventeenth century. It is therefore to be hoped that at a day not far distant, some author, duly equipped for the task, will present to the world a naval history embracing this era of Holland's glory upon the sea. No two nations in Europe were more unlike in the essential qualities that form the character of a people than were Holland and Spain ”

“ The maritime enterprises of Holland, forced by the imprudent policy of Spain to seek a wider career than in the narrow seas of Europe, were day by day extended in the Indies. To ruin if possible their increasing trade, Philip III. sent out the admiral Hurtado, with a fleet of eight galleons and thirty-two galleys. The Dutch squadron of five vessels, commanded by Wolfert Hermanszoon, attacked them off the coast of Malabar, and his temerity was crowned with great success. ”