The Dutch navy was traditionally, even in the times of Tromp and De Ruyter, rather sober in its looks - compared to other nations. A nice example of this can be found on the famous painting showing vice admiral De Winter surrendering to admiral Duncan. Just compare Duncan's bright uniform with De Winter's sober frock coat. That is Calvinism.

The republic of the Netherlands and later the Batavian republic, was a mercantile nation. The Staten-Generaal  were usually only prepared to invest large sums of money in a fleet when the need arose. This necessitated urgent shipbuilding programs, which allowed little time for extensive decoration and painting (apart from the fact that it would have cost extra money). Finally, at the time of the Battle of Kamperduin, the Batavian republic suffered from financial and material problems due to its alliance with revolutionary France and the demands that nation made.

The Hull - Exterior
Generally, the hull was of a dark natural wood colour. The lower wale was always black; the upper wale could be black or natural wood. Contemporary accounts talk of the side of the Vrijheid (flagship at the battle) as being all black. One expert in the field believes this was due to the fact that she was an old ship on which 'harpuis' would have been used and many applications would have darkened the wooden sides to a near black colour. Harpuis was stockholm tar without the addition of coal tar, which came into use later in the next century.

The Decks and Masts
Decks were of a light/bright natural wood colour. In this there is no difference with other nations. The masts were also of a light, natural wood colour - though of a different tone than the decks.

The fighting tops were black as was the cross part above it joining the two sections of the mast. Some pictorial evidence shows the overlapping pieces of the masts (in between fighting top and crosspiece) also painted black. Apparently some commanders had the whole area tarred, while others restricted themselves to the fighting top and the cross piece.

Ships Boats
These were generally of a natural wood colour. However, there is some variation - I have seen some showing the upper rim being painted white.

The Stern
The stern had gilt decorations. Also, in the Dutch navy, it was customary to give some representation of the vessel's name on the stern. In most cases, when the vessel was named after a town, it would bear the coat of arms of that town, sometimes with added coats of arms of, for example, the admiralty to which the vessel belonged (the Netherlands had five admiralties!). Apart from the decorations, the stern could either be dark natural wood, like the rest of the hull, or black, like the wales.

The Sails
Due to conservatism, lack of finances and lack of material, many (not all!) Dutch vessels of the time, used an old fashioned sort of mizzen sail. This lacked the boom and was therefore somewhat smaller than a mizzensail with gaff and boom. The lower outer corner of that sort of mizzen sail would fall within the bulwark area, allowing for a flagmast on the stern to carry the flag, rather than flying it from cables between gaff and boom. This feature can be easily recognised on drawings and paintings by looking for the flagmast. When the sail is furled, the lack of the 'bare' boom is easy to establish.

It is to be noted that the vessel Alkmaar had no flag mast and instead, flew her colours from the stays of her main mast.

Figureheads
Originally, the figureheads were invariably in the shape of rampant lions or lions heads. I was told by one expert that the admiralty of Zeeland appears to have used solely, gilded lion figureheads. I know from pictoral evidence that some of the vessels of the admiralty of Amsterdam carried red figureheads.

Flags
The Dutch flew the very well known flag with three horizontal bars, from top to bottom - red, white and blue. The pennants were of the same design. In 1809, Napoleon Bonaparte annexed his brother Louis Bonaparte's Kingdom Holland. From that year until 1813, the French flag was flown from the stern. However, in port, the Dutch flag was flown from a mast on the bowsprit and the Dutch pennants were retained.

There is one exception. During the period of the Batavian republic, in the upper corner to the mast, in the red bar, there was a white rectangle in which there was a woman's figure symbolising (revolutionary) Freedom. The same was to be found on the broad side of the pennants. In this case, the rectangle had the width of all three bars.

Admirals Flags
Just prior to the Batavian republic, the Dutch navy had adopted a system of blue, white and red ensigns to denote the seniority of admirals. The 'blues' were junior to the 'whites', who were junior to the 'reds'. The Dutch term for a Rear Admiral is 'Schout bij Nacht'. De Schout bij Nacht flew his ensign from the top of the mizzen mast. The Vice Admiral, in Dutch: 'Vice Admiraal' flew his ensign from the top of the fore mast. The (full) Admiral, in Dutch: 'Admiraal' would have flown his ensign from the main mast but I write 'would have' since in this particular period there were no Dutch (full) Admiraals commanding a fleet at sea.

Dutch and Batavian colour printed flags are available. See the Miscellaneous page. The Admirals flags are not sold printed but we hope to have some available here on the site for you to print yourself.

Top of page  |  Back to Kamperduin Fleet List   |  Back to Hulls List