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Dutch Warships in the Age of Sail, 1600-1714: design, construction, careers and fates JAMES BENDER, with an introduction by J. D. D. DAVIES 328 pp., large format, 200 b&w figures, line drawings, 3 maps, tables, glossary of Dutch sea terms, appendices, bib

2016; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 45; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/1095-9270.12159

1095-9270

Andrew Lambert,

Maritime and Coastal Archaeology

In the 17th century the Dutch Republic, properly the United Provinces of the Netherlands, was a Great Power, despite its modest size, limited manpower and lack of critical natural resources, including minerals, timber and grain. Unlike the other Great Powers of the era Dutch power was built on shipping, trade and the sea. Dutch fishing fleets and dominance of the North/Sea Baltic carrying trade and important routes in the Mediterranean provided a powerful economic base, while the great colonial empires of the East and West India Companies cornered the European markets for spices, Asian manufactures and sugar. Dutch wealth depended on the ability to use the seas—in peace and war—and the Republic's unique federal democratic political system facilitated the creation of a commanding naval force. In a political system privileging wealth and commerce over land and titles, power belonged to merchants and investors, who shaped the Republic, the Navy, and the cultural life of the nation. As David Davies demonstrates in an excellent 25-page introduction the long war of independence from Habsburg Spain, from 1568 to 1648, with a 12-year truce between 1609 and 1621, defined the Republic, generating a powerful warfare state that fought for trade with the same ruthless determination as it had for independence, and did so at the same time. Four years after the Spanish war ended the Dutch were fighting the English Commonwealth for control of the Channel and sea trade. Defeated they rebuilt their fleet on a larger scale and fought the restored English Monarchy to a standstill in two more titanic naval conflicts, 1665–1667, and 1672–1674, breaking the fragile English economy. These conflicts were rapidly overtaken by the existential threat of Louis XIV's France, which invaded the Republic in 1672. In desperation the Dutch restored the political power of the Orange dynasty, as Stadtholder, or first citizen. William of Orange saved the country, and obtained a joint share of the English throne in 1688. While English resources helped defeat Louis XIV's ambitions in major European conflicts, 1688–1697 and 1702–1714, the Dutch quietly abandoned their Great Power status after 1714, and spent much of the next century at peace. Attempts to understand the Dutch Navy and its ships are complicated by the curious organization of the navy: the five coastal provinces each maintained their own Admiralty, built their own ships, and ran their own fleets. Tensions between the provinces over command and authority frequently caused chaos, while the lack of standardization complicated the handling of fleets. In addition a major fire at the Ministry of the Marine in January 1844 destroyed much of the archival record. The certainties that arise from a well-preserved bureaucratic archive have been replaced by fragmentary insights. It is the lack of evidence that makes this book so important, for almost 200 years it has been well-nigh impossible to discover the details of the ships that fought in the apparently endless sequence of wars that made the Republic great. After many years of research James Bender's catalogue enables archaeologists and historians to make sense of the physical and literary remains they uncover. The presence of the late Jan Glete's name in the acknowledgments will register with anyone studying navies, nation building and sea power. The main body of the book is divided into two sections, a 70-page sequence of fleet lists for the major battles and campaigns of the period, and the fleet lists, divided into six sections by date. The fleet lists are sub-divided into the ships of the separate Admiralties, with the supporting efforts of local Directors, and East and West India Company Chambers. The complex ownership of warships makes this text rather more demanding than Rif Winfield's excellent British lists for the same period. The scale of the national effort can be obscured by the endless subsections. Furthermore the Dutch warships addressed in this book were not built to a standard designs, the failure of the Dutch to produce building draughts on paper prompted Peter the Great to transfer his shipbuilding interests to London. Consequently each ship has a separate listing, arranged alphabetically, leaving sloops and three-deckers commingled. In the interests of homogeneity with previously published British list it might have been more useful to arrange the ships by English rate. Hampered by shallow sea approaches, shoals and small harbours Dutch warships were invariably built with less draught than English equivalents, sacrificing gun power to achieve this object. The illustration on p. 289 of the ‘camels’—large, shaped air-tight floats, invented to lift larger ships over the Pampus Shoal off Amsterdam—emphasizes Dutch ingenuity, and the disadvantages they had to overcome. This design would be taken up by Venice, which faced similar problems getting big warships to sea. Dutch warships were also more lightly built, which had serious consequences for the crews in close order linear battle with much more heavily armed English ships. Nor were the Dutch overly blessed with naval artillery, depending on imports for cannon, as well as iron, timber, masts, hemp and flax. Throughout the book the text is greatly improved by outstanding black-and-white illustrations, many by the Van de Veldes, father and son, among the many marine artists who invented the genre to illuminate the pride and power of the Republic. The Dutch turned the ship into an emblem of the state, and the great Admirals Maerten Tromp and Michiel de Ruyter into national heroes, because sea power made the Republic great. The publishers have maintained their usual impressive standards of design and production, the book is superbly illustrated throughout, generously set and a pleasure to use. Regrettably the bibliography contains nothing on the archaeology of Dutch warships, an oversight that needs to be rectified. This book will be of great service to students of 17th-century naval warfare, the Dutch state and the iconography of sea power, providing an excellent context, a wealth of evidence and a striking link between the sea power and culture. Yet the ultimate product of 17th-century Dutch sea power was the British Empire, which borrowed, bought or stole all the best ideas, the best artists, and not a few of the best locations, notably Cape Town and Trincomalee.