Aemilia (ship)
 The Aemilia , painting by Reinier Zeeman from 1639
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The Aemilia (also spelled Æmilia or Amilia in some sources ) was a 57-gun ship of the line that sailed under the Dutch flag and served as the flagship of the famous Admiral Maarten Tromp during the Eighty Years' War .
construction
The ship was built by Jan Salomonszoon van den Tempel during the Eighty Years' War in 1632 for the Rotterdam Admiralty and was the largest warship in the Dutch Navy for a long period of time . The three masts were equipped with a total of seven square sails - there was also a latin sail on the rear mast . The bowsprit led the blind and bouven- blind .
The armament was on the two battery decks , as well as on the half deck, the forecastle and the hut. The transom was decorated with two wooden human figures holding the crowned coat of arms of the Amalia of Orange. In the early modern times it was common to encode the name of the ship in symbols. The figurehead was, as is usual with many Dutch warships, a gold-colored lion - the heraldic animal of the Dutch.
history
The Dutch were the first to make their fleets seaworthy and to design their ships so that they could operate at great distances. The reason for this change was the following objective: It was about securing our own merchant fleet at sea in order to continue to obtain important merchandise and to be able to move them ourselves. Furthermore, certain foreign ports had to be subjected to a blockade , from which enemy raids by privateers on their own ships were regularly undertaken. In addition, it was necessary to prevent possible invasion plans by the warring Spaniards, who attempted at irregular intervals to steer invasion troops across the North Sea towards the Dutch provinces. Thus the first larger ships were built in order to be able to pursue the set goals. One of these new ships was the Aemilia , which was the largest warship of the Admiralty for a longer period of time.
It is said that Aemilia took part in the sea battle at the Downs on October 31, 1639 off the English coast. She acted as the flagship for Admiral Maarten Tromp and, together with a squadron from Witte de With , undertook the first traditional, closed attack of a fleet in battle order , which from then on was the benchmark for naval battles and skirmishes on the water. Since the Dutch concentrated their attacks on the strongest ships of the Spaniards, these withdrew to the Downs in the English Channel . The Dutch spiked then by requisitioning their own fleet of merchant vessels and fire-ships on and started after: employ the repair work is still at the Downs at anchor lying Spaniards were surprised and let your ships run aground or undertook attempts to break through in the direction of Dunkerque , as it again came to first fighting. The Spaniards, who had in the meantime transferred parts of their troops to English ships, lost 40 of their 57 ships in this battle, while the Dutch only lost ten. The Aemilia emerged successfully from this battle, which represented an important weakening of the Spaniards in their plans for invasion.
The ship was sold by the Admiralty in 1647.