Top objects
Painting
In Hudson time the Dutch were in a bitter struggle with the Spaniards for independence. This painting was attributed to Hendrick Vroom and made approximately 1600 depicts a number of small Dutch naval vessels closing in on a large Spanish warship.
Painting
The Dutch needed a great number of sailors and soldiers to man the extensive merchant fleet and to protect their overseas interests. This painting by Abraham Storck made around 1690 shows the embarkment of soldiers in Amsterdam. The smaller vessel would take them towards the waiting ships at the roads of the isle of Texel.
Painting
Amsterdam was in the seventeenth the commercial capital of the world. This map from 1692 of the city of Amsterdam, published by Frederick de Wit, shows the harbor and extensive canal network which made it possible to transport goods to nearly every part of the city.
Painting
A painting by Hendrick Vroom of Dutch pinnace in a choppy sea near a rocky coast, made around 1625. A pinnance of this size is a common merchant vessel of the seventeenth century .
Journal
A few Dutchmen wrote accounts of their travels and stay in North America. One of the most famous is by David Pietersz de Vries. De Vries made voyages to the New Netherlands and lived in the colony as a farmer from 1638-1643. In 1655 he published an account of his travels and stay in America. It is illustrated with remarkable lively etchings.
A print by Reinier Nooms of around 1650 depicting an East and Westindiaman. With these type of vessels the Dutch sailed and traded across the oceans in the seventeenth century.
Manuscript
The Dutch sailor Matheus Rogiers wrote his own manuscript handbook in 1666 on navigation as a source for reference. This was a common practice in the time. The manuscript has been embellished by Rogiers with colored drawings.
Cross-staff
A cross-staff is a common navigational instrument in the seventeenth century for determining the height of the sun above the horizon to be able to calculate the latitude position of a ship at sea. This is essential when crossing the Atlantic. The instrument remained in use until the late eighteenth century. This is a late example from 1791 made in Amsterdam by Gerard Hulst van Keulen.
Telescope
The telescope invented in 1608 became a much used instrument on board ship in the seventeenth centruy. This early telescope from late seventeenth century has a nice leather and gold embossed cover of the tubes. This telescope is made by the Englishman Joseph Howe in London between 1667 and 1710.
Compass
Bearing compass from the eighteenth century by Johannes van Keulen. The visors were eased for taking bearings on coastal marks to determine the position of a ship while sailing along the coast. Compasses did not change much in the seventeenth century .
Sounding Lead
Sounding lead to measure the depth of the water, found in a shipwreck of Dutch Eastindiaman, Hollandia, which ran aground on the Scilly Island off the English south coast in 1743. Sounding lead remained in use, unaltered until the nineteenth century.
Log-and-line
Log-and-line were used to measure the speed of a vessel through the water. This type of instrument was used from the seventeenth until the late nineteenth century. It was introduced by English sailors in seventeenth century. This example is from the second half of the nineteenth century.
Document
Order for the capitain Job Arisz to bring 3 packs of hides to Amsterdam from the New Netherlands in 1653. Hides and peltry were one of the main export products of the New Netherland.
Document
Document with the order for the captain Jan Janse Visser to take three immigrants from Amsterdam to the New Netherlands in 1641.