Gouden Leeuw (1666)
 United Netherlands
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 The Gouden Leeuw , flagship of Cornelis Tromp, painting detail by Willem van de Velde
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| Ship data | ||
| Surname: | Gouden Leeuw | |
| Completion: | 1666 | |
| Subordination: | Admiralty Amsterdam | |
| Crew: | 490 men officers and men (1671) | |
| Fate: | Retired and scrapped in 1686 | |
| Technical specifications | ||
| Type: | Battery ship (wood construction); Three-master, "capital ship" | |
| Length over all: | 50.29 m | |
| Width: | 12 m | |
| Drive: | sail | |
| Draft: | 4.6 m | |
| Armor system: | without | |
| Armament | ||
| Lower battery deck: | 28 cannons | |
| Upper battery deck: | 28 cannons | |
| Quarter deck, bow fort and poop : | 26 cannons | |
The Gouden Leeuw (in German: Goldener Löwe) was a Dutch 80-gun ship of the line that served Admiral Cornelis Tromp as the flagship during the Anglo-Dutch naval wars.
construction
(Ludolf_Backhuysen,_1671).jpg)
The ship was built for the Amsterdam Admiralty during the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1666 and was the largest warship in the Netherlands for a long period of time. She was equipped with three masts, which were mostly equipped with square sails. Only the mizzen mast was covered with a latin sail . At the bowsprit about another Bugsprietsegel was also settable. The armaments carried along were installed on the cannon decks , as well as the quarter deck , bow fort and poop . The transom, in which two additional cannons were integrated, was decorated with a gold-colored lion; the figurehead was also a gold-colored lion.
history
The Dutch fleet was qualitatively inferior to the English fleet. However, Johan de Witt , the influential board member of Holland - responsible for foreign policy issues, was able to induce the States General to build numerous new buildings in November 1664, including 24 new "capital ships" (Capitale schepen van Oorloge); In March 1665, another 24 new buildings were ordered, in July 1666 another twelve - including the Gouden Leeuw . Already in the attack on the Medway in 1667 she was part of the fleet, but was not involved in any combat operations. After acts of war between the Dutch and the Kingdom of England and its ally France had already occurred in previous years and the Third Anglo-Dutch War had broken out in 1672, the ship finally took the first from May 28th to June 4th, 1673 Battle of Schooneveld . The Dutch succeeded here in breaking the Anglo-French order of battle in such a way that the enemy ships had to withdraw in disorder.
As early as the following week, on June 7, 1673 took Gouden Leeuw at the Second Battle of Schooneveld part in which the Dutch ships in coastal waters advantage could play their low draft: After a short time succeeded in Gouden Leeuw , together with other Dutch ships to upset the battle order of the Anglo-French warships again, so that they had to retreat into the Thames . The danger of an enemy invasion was thus averted for the time being.
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The plans of an invasion by the French and English were then taken up again on August 11, 1673: Both Allies pulled together 20,000 soldiers in England to land them in the Dutch provinces. The opponents met at Texel , including the Gouden Leeuw under the command of Lieutenant-Admiral Cornelis Tromp and Captain Thomas Tobiazoon - the sea battle broke out off Texel . The Dutch commander Michiel de Ruyter was able to attack squadrons from the more favorable windward position and finally move the enemy ships to flee the battle.
In the time after that, like other ships, it was disarmed and provided with a protective roof near the port. After the third naval war against England, the ship is no longer mentioned in official documents. In 1686 the ship was appraised for reactivation, but was so rotten that it was finally decommissioned and scrapped. As a reminiscence of this ship, the city of Amsterdam had the ship portrayed against the backdrop of the port of Amsterdam by the marine painter Willem van de Velde the Younger .
literature
- Margarita Russell: Willem van de Velde de Jonge. Het Ij voor Amsterdam met de Gouden Leeuw . Bloemendaal 1992. ISBN 90-230-0768-9