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FAMOUS SHIPS |
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FAMOUS SHIPS |
The AEMILIA
There are some ships which become
famous not necessarily due to what the actual ship accomplished, although this
was important, but to who the commander of the ship was.
This can be shown by the famous example of the H.M.S. VICTORY. Her main claim to fame was the fact that she was the flagship
of Admiral Nelson, who was killed on her decks while accomplishing his greatest
victory. AEMILIA can make the same
claim.
AEMILIA was built in 1639, a typical
Dutch man-of-war of about 600 tons with a crew of about 200 and 46 cannon.
At the time she was the Dutch equivalent of an English first rate
man-of-war. She had two gundecks
with a typical Dutch full-bellied hull to be able to navigate the shallow waters
off the Dutch coast. She was able
to provision for up to four months at sea.
AMEILIA was the flagship of
Maerten Hjarpertszoon Tromp, whose name ranks with that of de Ruyter as one of
the most famous in Dutch history. Born
at Brielle in the south of Holland in 1597, Tromp first went to sea in 1605 when
he was only eight. The East
Indiaman in which he sailed was captured by an English frigate.
It took Tromp several years to be able to escape and make his way back
home. There are conflicting
accounts of his years until 1622, when he entered the Dutch Navy with the rank
of Lieutenant. Some say this event
took place in 1624. In any case,
his rise, like Nelsons, was rapid. In
1637, at the age of 40, Tromp was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Dutch
fleet.
Tromps most famous victory was
over the Spanish and Portuguese fleet in 1639.
Tromp learned of the assembly of a fleet of 75 sail, including the great
ship S. TERESA of 68 guns and a crew of 1,000.
This was about 4 times the size of Tromps AMEILIA.
Several other ships of this armada were almost as big – the combined
force was 21,000 fighting Spanish and Portuguese men. Against this, Tromp had his AMEILIA and 16 other ships with a
force of fewer than 2,000 men. Tromp
decided that his only chance against so vastly a superior force was to engage in
waters so confined that the enemy could not deploy all his forces at the same time.
Even with these odds, Tromp
sailed out to meet the enemy, but on his terms and at his choice of location. The first engagement took place off Beachy Head on 16
September, tromp using the same tactics that the English Drake and Howard had
used in defeating the previous Spanish Amada.
Tromp did not employ any line of battle formation, since his captains
harried the enemy at will individually. In
the smoke and confusion of the battle, the Spanish and Portuguese fired on their
own ships. It resulted in a Dutch
victory, the combined Spanish and Portuguese fleet withdrawing to the Downs.
Tromp pursued them and bottled them up in the neck of the channel.
Since the Spanish force was facing unfavorable winds and were badly
battered in the fight, they made no attempt to beat north – their way south
being blocked by the Dutch.
Tromp promptly sent a request for
more ships and fireships. The Dutch
were quick to respond and on October 21 Tromp struck again.
The Spanish and Portuguese were routed and almost entirely destroyed.
The enormous S. TERESA was set on fire and blown to pieces in one
enormous explosion. Only nine ship
escaped out of 75! Tromp captured
16 and the rest were either sunk or damaged beyond repair.
Tromp lost 100 men – the Spanish forces lost over 7,000. This really ended the Spanish power on the high seas.
The English, which the Dutch had been feuding with for years, was another
story altogether.
Tromp enjoyed the well deserved
acclamation of his Countrymen for the next 14 years as a result of the
resounding victory at the Battle of the Downs.
A little too much was demanded of him, however, when war with the English
was declared in 1652. He again went
to the Downs, the scene of his former victory, but this time he was the defeated
party, being beaten by Admiral Blake and forced to withdraw with a loss of two
ships. He came back again in
November with a strong fleet of 80 men-o’-war acting as an escort to a convoy
of 300 merchant ships bent on passage through the Straits of Dover.
He successfully fought off an attach by Blake and then, with all of the
merchantmen safely away, came to anchor off Boulogne.
A few months later, in February
1653, Tromp attempted to repeat his triumph by escorting another large convoy. This time, his opponents were ready. A combined English fleet under Blake, Penn and Monk engaged
him in a running battle from Portland to Calais Sands, and defeated him by
sinking nine of his warships and 40 merchantmen.
In his next encounter with the English in June of that year, he lost 17
of his ships and the Dutch government sent a message to Oliver Cromwell asking
for peace to be restored. Cromwell
refused, and Tromp again was forced to battle in the channel towards the end of
July. During this battle Tromp lost
his live in almost exactly the same way that Nelson was killed in 1805 – hit
in the breast by a musket shot. His
last words as he fell were: “Houdt geode, mijn kinderen!
Met mij is bet gedaan! (‘Keep
good courage, my children! With me
it is done!.)
Grievously mourned throughout the
Netherlands, Tromp was buried with great ceremony at Delft, where stands his
monuments. As to the eventual fate
of the AEMILIA I do not know – perhaps there is another story here!