1682 - Huge 36-warship Programme in the United Provinces

The Staten-Generaal, that is the assembly of senate and house of representatives, has decided to build thirty-six ships to replace the core of the fleet built in the 1660s.

This decision results, first, from the French threat, on land as at sea, and, second, from the decay of the ships hastily built in the 1660s, many having already been broken up.

¤ As everybody knows, Duquesne defeated Ruyter in the Mediterranean sea in 1676, and D'Estrées defeated Binckes in the West Indies in 1677. The balance of power has come in favour of France then.

The programme is inspired by the lieutnant-admiral general of the republic, Cornelis Tromp, 53 years old, a Prince Willem III Hendrick of Orange's liege man.

¤ Tromp was involved in the infamous murder of the De Witt brothers in 1672, against whom he held a relentless grudge since his dismissal in 1666 after his failure off Nieuwpoort - an affair complicated by his known allegiance to the Prince of Orange against the De Witt. He was likely driven into the conspiracy by his brother-in-law, Johan Kievit, who was rewarded for his loathsome crime by high positions in Rotterdam, which he used to make fraudulent profit from customs.

Besides the high number of ships, the programme displays two outstanding features :

(1) the vessels of the first rank will be three-deckers for the first time ;

¤ There were already quasi three-deckers amongst the ships built in the 1660s, namely a short 66-gun prototype, Spiegel (1663), and the three 82-gun flagships, Gouden Leeuw, Witte Olifant and Dolphijn (1666).

(2) for each rank, the ship dimensions and armament are standardised, as it was attempted in England for its 30-ship programme of 1677. It is a noteworthy achievement as there are five admiralties and at least as many different units of measure in competition.

¤ The three-deckers are 158-foot long on the gun deck, 40-foot broad and 15-foot deep in English units. The model seems to be a shortened copy of Trump's flagship, Gouden Leeuw, for an armament pushed to 92 guns, that are twenty-eight 24-pounders at the lower deck, twenty-eight 18-pounders at the medium deck, twenty-eight 12-pounders at the upper deck and eight 6-pounders on the forecastle and the poop. As a comparison, the English 90-gun Vanguard (1678) is 160-, 44- and 18½-foot in length, breadth and depth, and she carries twenty-two 32-pounders, thirty 18-pounders and thirty-six 4-pounders.

¤ The second-rank, third-rank and fourth rank vessels are two-deckers carrying respectively 74, 64 and 54 guns. Their lower deck is armed with 18-pounders.

With this ambitious programme, the republic expects to recover its former rank, which was the first. Its war fleet has fallen third since England has carried out most of its 30-ship construction. If nothing is to change in the following years, this programme, likely as costly as the English one five years ago, but affordable to the first financial power in the world, may restore it to the first position before its rivals.

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LINK WITH A PREVIOUS CHRONICLE

1677 - Huge 30-warship Programme in England

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IN RETROSPECT FROM TODAY

NOTE - On the aftermath.

This programme will be superseded by a huge supplementary programme in 1685, which forms the contents of another chronicle. It has not been tackled vigorously : fifteen ships have been launched when the new programme is enacted.

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CREDIT

Peter Lely - Portrait of Cornelis Tromp - oil on canvas, circa 1680 - © National Maritime Museum - Tromp was portrayed twenty-two times during his life, which is a record of sorts for a sailor : he was skilful but rather vain.