Dutch Ships in Distress off a Rocky Coast by Ludolph Backhuysen, 1667

National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

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This highly dramatic scene of Dutch ships facing seemingly eminent destruction by the raging sea is a prominent example of Backhuysen’s abilities to theatrically portray the forces of nature. Despite the great danger the sailors continue a heroic battle for survival. The ship in the centre seems to be already in control. Her sails are reefed and she steers leeward from the murderous rocks. The ship at the right, however, is still drifting towards the coast with her masts crippled. Uncontrolled she is on a collision course to the ship in the center making the latter’s escape far from certain.

A contemporary observer could read morale from this painting. Man’s pride symbolized here as mighty sea-going ships can still be humbled by the elemental forces of nature or, in the eyes of a Calvinist Dutchman, the will of the almighty God.

This painting was commissioned in 1667 and today is on display in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

The Dutch burn English ships during the expedition to Chatham (Raid on Medway, 1667)

(De Hollanders steken Engelse schepen in brand tijdens de tocht naar Chatham 20 juni 1667)

by Jan van Leyden, 1669

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

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The Raid on Chatham is undoubtedly one of the most impressive victories in Dutch history. The success of this daring expedition is much owed to Grand Pensionary of the Republic Johan de Witt.  He envisioned an attack on the British soil that would provoke a rebellion against the English king; and the planning of the operation started immediately after the great victory of the Four Days’ Battle in 1666.  However, the details of the original plan were soon become known to the English and the operation was cancelled. But the later events of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, such as St. James’ Day Fight and the Holmes Bonfire (1666) were unfortunate for the Dutch and a success was desperately needed in 1667. The plan of the attack was revived and Cornelis de Witt, brother of the Grand Pesionary, was assigned to the fleet as a government delegate. In June 1667 the Dutch fleet commanded by De Ruyter, but effectively guided by Cornelis de Witt entered the Thames.

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Bombardment of Algiers, to Support the Ultimatum to Release White Slaves, August 26-27 1816, painted in 1823 by Martinus Schouman on orders of Ministerie van Marine

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

These two paintings depict episodes of a joint Anglo-Dutch action against Barbary States in 1816. For centuries the forces of North African monarchies have been raiding the shores of Christian Europe capturing fishermen, looting coastal villages and town; sometimes reaching as far as to England, Ireland and even Iceland. Slaves were captured to be sold on markets in Algiers and Tunisia. European maritime powers responded with punitive expeditions but did not completely succeed to stop the slave trade in North Africa until the French colonization in mid. 19th century.

One of such expeditions took place in summer of 1816. Following the end of Napoleonic Wars England no longer depended on supplies purchased in Algiers for her Mediterranean Fleet. Besides there was considerable political support for action against Barbary pirates and slavers. In 1816 a squadron led by Admiral Sir Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth managed to convince Dey of Algiers to sign a treaty to stop the white slave trade. However, due to misread orders Algerian troops massacred Sicilian and Corsican fishermen who were under British protection. This caused an outrage in England and elsewhere in Europe, and Admiral Pellew was ordered to punish the Algerians.

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In the early 1650s the damage caused by French and Barbary Coast pirates to Dutch Levant trade forced the Republic of Seven United Provinces to send an expedition commanded by Admiral Johan van Galen to the Mediterranean. With the start of the First Anglo-Dutch War the Dutch squadron had to face yet another enemy – the English ships under Captain Henry Appleton and Captain Richard Badiley.
In the first months of 1653 Dutch and English squadrons have been chasing each other in a cat and mouse game in the vicinity of the island of Elba. A series of actions resulted in a capture of an English frigate Phoenix by the Dutch. The ship was placed under the command of a young officer Cornelis Tromp, the son of the glorious Dutch Admiral Maerten Tromp.

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Unsuccessful English attack on the VOC fleet at Bergen, 12 August 1665, by Willem van de Velde the Elder, 1669

(De mislukte aanslag van de Engelsen op de retourvloot in de haven van Bergen)

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

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In July 1665 Lord Sandwich, commander of the English fleet, took his ships to the sea hoping to exploit the recent victory over the Dutch at Lowestoft. His two targets were de Ruyter’s squadron bound home from West Africa and the Americas, and a rich VOC convoy, which arrived twice a year from East Indies laden with spice, gems and luxury goods.

The English were having their usual problems with victualling, and a long cruising along the coast of Holland was unattractive. Sandwich took his fleet to the north to Denmark-ruled Norway where he expected the VOC convoy to be coming on the route around Scotland on its way home. Denmark was friendly to the Dutch and was obliged to maintain neutrality. The English envoy in Copenhagen, however, reported that King Frederik III of Denmark was about to break his alignment to the Dutch, and was only waiting for a rich Dutch convoy to arrive to one of his ports. The profits from the captured cargo would be shared with the English. At that time a single VOC Indiamen could be worth of £250000, which was a quarter of the English crown annual revenues. The VOC convoy arrived in 1665 to Bergen consisted of 60 ships carrying cargo worth of over 11 million guilders.

Sandwich decided to split his forces and sent 30 of his ships under Sir Thomas Teddiman to attack Bergen. At that time the new orders from the Danish king had not yet arrived, and when the English attacked on August 2nd (Old Style) 1665 they were met with a determined resistance put up by the Dutch Admiral Pieter de Bitter. The Danish commander Claus von Ahlefeldt did not only fail to cooperate with the attackers, instead, the Danish coastal batteries fired upon the English fleet. The attack failed and Teddiman was forced to retreat. The Dutch remained blockaded in the port.

On August 19th a relief force commanded by de Ruyter had arrived. The bad weather made the immediate escape impossible and only on August 30th had the Dutch left the port. Their ships were soon scattered by a gale on the Dogger Bank. Some of them had returned home safely but on September 3rd Sandwich captured total of 27 prizes, including two rich Indiamen. He allowed his unpaid crews to loot them while retaining the lion share of the booty to himself and his captains.

Willem van de Velde was present at the battle of Bergen and recorded it in his sketches. On this pen painting Dutch Indiamen are firing back at the English fleet with Bergenhus fortress in background on the right. On the right one can see the Catharina, one of the Indiamen, repairing the damage to her hull below the waterline. Her captain, Ruth Maximilianesz, is believed to be the commissioner of this painting.

An English Ship with Sails Loosened Firing a Gun, by Peter Monamy

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

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This painting had been formerly attributed to Willem van de Velde the Younger, but in 1973 it was re-attributed to Peter Monamy, a British painter (1681-1749). While there are some of the later van de Velde works portraying a similar ship, the re-attribution of this painting had been reaffirmed several times by M.S. Robinson, the late Curator of Paintings in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, who is a renowned researcher of the van de Veldes’ legacy and the author of two comprehensive catalogs of their works. One of the obvious reasons behind the re-attribution is the fact that the ship flies what appears to be a Hanoverian Standard of George I, who ascended the throne of  Great Britain and Ireland in 1714, seven years after the younger van de Velde had died. The white running horse of Hanover is clearly visible in the lower left corner of the banner.

I have seen a very similar painting titled Stern View of the Royal William Firing a Salute, which is signed by Peter Monamy. The stern decorations of the three-decker (also flying a Hanover Standard) are nearly identical to the ship in the former painting. Despite that the ship cannot be identified as the Royal William with all certainty, because she was laid up during the period when the painting was commissioned.

Stern View of the Royal William Firing a Salute, by Peter Monamy 

(in private collection)

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Sources: #ptrmnmy#, a catalog entry of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Shipping on the IJ by Amsterdam, by Ludolf Bakhiuzen

(Scheepwart op het IJ bij Amsterdam)

Emden, Ostfriesisches Landesmuseum Emden

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A study for this etching is located in the British Museum, London. From left to right are shown a flute, a ketch, a vessel of an unknown type, a rowboat, a man-of-war, and a smalschip.

Shipping on the Maas by Rotterdam, by Ludolf Bakhiuzen, 1701

(Scheepwart op de Maas bij Rotterdam)

Emden, Ostfriesisches Landesmuseum Emden

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On a beam in the water in the lower left corner there is a date, 1701, written mirrored. The leeboard of a yacht in the right is also inscribed, “LB”.
From left to right we see a boom rigged barge, an English yacht, an English frigate and a boeier yacht.

Both drawings bear a signature:

L. Bakhuizen fec: et exc: cum Privil: ordin Holland: et West Frisiae.

Sources: #zlschpn#

Boats in a harbour and a yacht sailing away, also known as Harbour mole of Texel by Willem van de Velde the Younger, 1673

Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam

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This painting by Willem van de Velde the Younger shows several boats at a harbor mole and a wijdschip with a headsail and a topsail in the foreground. On board of the latter there is group of people lively interacting with each other. Behind this boat there is another wijdschip with sails trimmed. The boats, masts, yards, sails and rigging form a complex composition in the left part of the painting. A careful observer can find a humorous detail: a freshly washed shirt left to dry on a rope in the rigging.

In the center and in the left corner there are two chaloupes. In the right side a richly decorated state yacht is sailing away towards the ships in the right background. It has just fired a salute and the grey smoke is obscuring the view of the boats behind it. The stern of the yacht bears the arms of Holland, indicating its owner – the Province of Holland.

This painting is mostly known under the name “Harbour Mole of Texel”. But this typical harbour scene can also be attributed to almost any other Dutch port.

The painter paid much attention to the light, shadows and reflections in the water, which was not an easy task given the complexity of composition. The choice of colors adds volume and perspective. The skies were painted using an expensive pigment Lapislazuli.

The author signed the painting in the left corner on the wooden beams of the mole. The signature contains the year 1673 as well as the place “in londe”. There is little doubt that this work was commissioned by Willem van de Velde soon after he moved to London from the Netherlands.

This painting is now in the collection of the museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam. Its origins are unknown. The museum has purchased it in 1866 at an auction in Paris. The information from the auction’s catalog allows assuming that it came from the 18^th century collection of Gerret Braamcamp. By a contradicting account a similar painting from the Braamcamp’s collection was discovered in 1859 in Brussels and was sold at an auction in London in 1925, which leaves the identity of the painting in Rotterdam unclear.

Source ID #hrdmmdk#

Koopvaardijrede ten Zuidoosten het eiland Texel
The merchant shipping anchorage southeast of Texel by Ludolph Backhuysen, 1661
Private collection

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This painting shows the merchant anchorage off the island of Texel, where ships of the Dutch East Indian Company (VOC) used to gather before setting sail for East Indies. In the center there are three vessels, a boyer, a kaag and a pink, full of people loading cargo. The smaller boats are delivering supplies to the larger boyer, while its crew is busy hoisting sails.

The scene is full of dynamism in the style that distinguishes Backhuysen from his contemporaries.  The light-colored sail directs viewer’s attention to the events on board of the pink where a family of one of the departing mariners is captured in the height of excitement.

This is one of the several tranquil sea views by Backhuysen, which were inspired by works of Simon de Vlieger,Willem van de Velde the Younger, Jan de la Capelle and Hendrik Dubbels.

Source ID: #backhlm#

Schepen op de rede van Amsterdam
Ships in the Roads of Amsterdam, ink on panel 75x140cm
Koninklijk College Zeemanshoop, Amsterdam
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This ink painting by Ludolph Backuysen shows the river IJ crowded with ships as it is viewed from the north bank. In the left side one can see the Amsterdam Admiralty’s depot. The ship in the centre shows its decorated stern and can be identified. The carved female figure personifies Freedom, so this must be the Vrijheid. The stern of the ship in the right is also visible, and it is possible to recognize the arms of Amsterdam. However, there have been many ships built at Kattenburg shipyard named after the city, and there is no way to tell which one is shown here. Unlike Willem van de Velde Buckhuysen did not attempt to capture exact features of individual ships, but adapted and combined details of different vessels. In this work he tried not just to portray precisely the reality but to express the peace and prosperity of Amsterdam. While the themes of struggle on land and at sea are more common to the 17^th century art, this painting evokes feelings of harmony.

Source ID: #backhlm#