Brederode (ship, 1646)
 The flagship in the naval battle of Scheveningen, painting by Jan Abrahamsz. Beerstaten
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The Brederode was the flagship of the Dutch fleet and served the Admirals Witte de With and Maarten Tromp as the flagship during the First Sea War against England from 1652 to 1654. Although it was the largest ship in the state fleet, it was hired by East Indiamans and many enemy ships in Exceeded size and armament.
Prehistory and construction
After the construction of the Aemilia in 1632, the fleet lacked suitable ships for the admirals. For Vice-Admiral Witte de With, the State of Holland of the Admiralty Rotterdam was entitled to 42,000 fl for a new building in 1643 . However, all coffers were empty and so the approved funds were first taken over by the States General together with other planned new buildings and then raised hesitantly. As a result, it took three years to build the ship, from 1643 to 1646.
The ship named after Johann Wolfart van Brederode , the chairman of the knighthood of Holland, should have the same highly valued sailing characteristics as the Aemilia , therefore the same dimensions were assumed. In February Admiral de With was able to board his new flagship. However, at the end of the year the Spanish threat to the shipping lanes that came out of the port of Dunkirk was removed with their conquest. Therefore, to save costs, they not only sold the old Aemilia , but also launched the new Brederode straight away. But she was lucky enough to be sent to Brazil with eleven other warships under the orders of de With the next year . There she should be used to support the WIC against the Portuguese .
The first naval war
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With the unauthorized return of Admiral de With to Europe in the spring of 1650, the Brederode could be used as a flagship in the war against England . The Dutch fleet had a difficult time with this enemy, because 14 English ships alone were larger than the Brederode . Even smaller vehicles had greater firepower than this ship. Also within the Dutch fleet, two ships were slightly larger than the flagship. These two vehicles, the Vrede and the Vrijheyt , built in 1650 and 1651 for the Amsterdam Admiralty , were designed according to the same concept as the Brederode . Due to the material superiority of the English fleet, right at the beginning of the war, the Dutch admirals, supported by the admiralty, demanded new buildings with the lower limit of size and armament for the Brederode . But skepticism about costs and benefits led to long discussions and so these newbuildings were only added to the fleet after the end of the war. As a result, the Brederode remained the ship with the largest number of guns in the service of the admiralty throughout the war.
From the first to the last naval battle with the exception of the sea battle at Kentish Knock , the Brederode served as the flagship and took part in all sea battles in the Canal and in the North Sea. Luitnant-Admiraal Maarten Tromp fell out of favor at the end of 1652 before the States General and had to stay ashore. Vice-Admiral de With took over command of the fleet. Before the Battle of Kentish Knock, Vice Admiral de With wanted to exchange his intended flagship, the rented East Indiaman Prins Willem , for the Brederode . But their crew refused to take him on board and even threatened with cannon shots at his boat. Therefore, he had to be brought back to the converted merchant sailor, which was larger and equipped with a larger number of guns, but was also considered the worst sailor in the fleet. After this battle, Tromp was rehabilitated and took back command of the fleet and the Brederode . In the sea battle at Scheveningen, Tromp fell soon after the start of a musket ball from the rigging of an English ship. The English Rainbow under Rear Admiral Goodson was followed by two other ships of the squadron and a gunner from the last ship killed Tromp. The captain of the Brederode , Egbert Kortenaer , gave the signal that all flag officers should come on board for advice, but only Michiel de Ruyter could follow that. This gave the instruction to leave the flag of the commander in chief. Kortenaer led the squadron so skillfully that the English had no advantage from Tromp's death and the Dutch did not notice the change in command. Egbert Kortenaer had been on the Brederode for years , first as helmsman and later as captain. He rose to Luitnant Admiraal of the Admiralty Maze.
After this naval battle, de With took over the supreme command again until the Colonel Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam was chosen by the States General . The Dutch fleet was still out to sea, but storms and other events prevented a meeting with the English fleet. In April 1654 the Peace of Westminster was made.
The downfall
The Brederode was next used in the Baltic Sea. During the Second Northern War , Swedes invaded Polish territory and began to besiege Gdansk . This ran counter to Dutch interests. In order to keep this port free and not to leave it to the Swedes who dominate the Baltic Sea, a fleet under Wassenaer van Obdam was sent to the new Eendracht to rescue Danzig in 1656 . The Brederode served as the flagship of Vice Admiral Witte de With. There were no armed conflicts during this fleet expedition.
Since Denmark wanted to use the Swedish engagement in Poland for its own conquests in Sweden, the Baltic Sea accesses became a war zone again. This and the surprising Swedish successes against Denmark, including the threatened conquest of Copenhagen , prompted the Netherlands to again stand alongside Denmark for free access to the Baltic Sea against Sweden. Again a fleet was sent to Copenhagen under Wassenaer van Obdam, with the order to keep the entrances free and to relieve Copenhagen. The Brederode served Vice Admiral de With again as the flagship of the vanguard. Immediately after entering the Oresund and passing the Swedish-occupied fortresses Kronborg Castle and Helsingborg at the narrowest point of the sound, the two fleets sighted each other and started the attack. The two Dutch flagships got too much under enemy ships. While the Eendrecht quickly came to the aid of other Dutch people, the Brederode was left to fend for a long time. One of the enemy ships, the Leopard , was so damaged that it later exploded. For a long time the Swedish Draken fought each other under Admiral Bjelkenstjerna and the Brederode alone. Both vehicles drifted off and the Brederode ran aground. After mutual attempts at boarding, the Swedish Wismar joined them. As the Brederode threatened to capsize, it was abandoned and, including the seriously injured Admiral, they were transferred to the Swedish Draken . Then the ship went down as the only loss of the Dutch in this battle. Admiral de With died on the way to the Draken .
The wreck
Immediately after its sinking, the Swedish Colonel Hans Albrecht von Treileben managed to recover cannons from the wreck. As a partner in a syndicate, he was authorized to dive from wrecks on the Swedish side. Through this successful recovery and the one on the wreck of the Sancta Sophia , he also received permission for the Stockholm port area. There he managed to salvage 53 cannons from the wreck of the Vasa . Other salvage companies are only known from around 1900. These had a historical rather than a material direction. The Amsterdam Maritime Museum received a large number of archaeological artifacts from the wreck of the Brederode from an estate in 1927 . These include carriage axles, blocks, jugs, cannon balls and other ship parts.
literature
- Gerard Brandt: Het leven en het bedrijf van den Heere Michiel de Ruyter. Een zeer uitgebreide biography who met medewerking van de Ruyters weduwe en children are screaming. Amsterdam 1687.
- Jaap R. Bruijn: Varend Verleden . De Nederlandse Oorlogsvloot in de 17e en 18e Eeuw. Balans, Amsterdam 1998, ISBN 90-5018-407-3 (Dutch).
- Charles Ralph Boxer: The Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th Century . Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London 1974.
- Prud´homme van Reine, Ronald: Rechterhand van Nederland, biography of Michiel Adriaanszoon de Ruyter , Open Domein nr.32, Amsterdam 1996
- Johann Engelbert Elias: De vlootbouw in Nederland in de eerste helft der 17e eeuw, 1596–1655 . Amsterdam 1933
- Jaap R. Bruijn: The Dutch navy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries . (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1993)
- W. Voorbeijtel Cannenburg: "De Zeeslag in de Sont, 8 November 1658.", in: Vereeniging Nederlandsch Historisch Scheepvaart Museum te Amsterdam; Jaarverslag 1943-1945, pp. 42-48
Footnotes
Coordinates: 56 ° 0 ′ 59 ″ N , 12 ° 36 ′ 34 ″ E