The main reason the Dutch could keep up at that time is the windmill once again. They became wood sawing machines, powered by the wind. The engineering is still incredible even by today's standard.
Not too many people are aware of this pre-industrial revolution wind powered machinery, allowing the dutch the capability to outbuild any and all of the European nations at the time. The exact ratio’s I should look up if I’d like to be exact…. From the top of my mind…, I think most other European wharfs would need something like 1,5 to 2 years build time from start to finish, the Dutch could do it in less than a year 9 months or so) On top of that superior capacity to build a nee vessel from scratch, the quality of their ships also exceeding the average norm for the age, again due too windmill powered mechanization. The wooden planks exiting the saw mills were of highly similar dimensions, easing the construction process by consistently providing predictable dimensions and quality. Well….. after raising your land from the bottom of the seas while pushing that relentless sea all the way out into the north Sea, then building ships, ships of trade and ships of war seems almost like a trivial activity…..;-)
This is the English point of view, omitting their war crimes, against citizens and merchant vessels. Heavily colored to make the English 'look good', and the Dutch 'lucky' that everything worked out as planned. Simply imagine: Which country would send the entire management of their navy deep into enemy territory on good luck? There was much more planning involved, a part of the navy sailed straight up the Thames towards London. Another part stayed at the mouth of the estuary to make sure the main force could not be closed in by the English. And the actions were swift and fast. The docks at Chatham were spared because the Dutch didn't want to weaken the English too much, they didn't want France nor Spain to get to much advantage. And there was no retaliation against the civil population for the English war crimes, even the military were treated with respect, no unnecessary murder of captured men, they were released as soon as the Dutch were done.
Even at the time, shortly after the attack, English critics noted that the Dutch had treated the English population more fairly than the English military themselves! After the Dutch retreated from the area, English soldiers streamed in - and started looting English homes.
Admiral de ruiter was the best admiral we ever had in the Netherlands, his ingenuity was unsurpassed, he literally saved the Netherlands at great personal cost.
As a result of inovations around 1590-1600 windmills could be used as saw mills, which speeded up ship building considerably by leaving more manpower available for the building itself
Even during World War II, in The Pacific, the Dutch East Indies merchant fleet still was the largest in the world. Most of these ships managed to escape to Australia, where they were placed under Allied command. For the remainder of the war, the Dutch East Indies merchant fleet would play a vital role in shipping troops and supplies across the Pacific.
The Dutch were able to built ships faster then the English because they had an important tool: the windmill. The sawwindmill functioned as an electric saw and therefore could saw planks and wood faster than any group of workers could. Ships were therefore build faster than in England.
One of the greatest and daring victories in Dutch history. It really made admiral Michiel de Ruyter a national hero. Ships like these were made in about 8-9 months by the Dutch. The English took about a month or two longer to built them. And fire ships were either purposely made for the task, or old crooked ships were used. The stern of the English flagship Royal Charles, is on permanent display in room 2.15 at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
At this time, didnt the Dutch build 3 for every one of the English? Or was that in an earlier time. I remember the Dutch shipbuilding techniques with the use of mill powered saws made it much more efficient to work on the large pieces of timber that ships required.
It took 3 months to build a ship in that time. The Netherlands had many shipyards, so in 6 months it could all be replenished. Fire ships are essentially written off merchang ships that were not safely seaworthy anymore.
It was for sure a hard life to work on ship. If you did something the captain did not like, it was possible to be sentenced to "kielhalen" (keel haul). You were thrown into the water and pulled under the boat to the other side. I doubt that many survived.
It's actually interesting how few wars and how small the navy and army of The Netherlands have been. Much of the power had always been in money and in playing other powers against one another. England didn't want France, Spain or the HRE to gain The Netherlands, and those three powers wouldn't let the English get a foothold on the continent. Which is why the idea of a 'commonwealth' of the UK and The Netherlands made me laugh. That would never have worked. And really? "The estuary was impossible to navigate without pilots who knew them" . . . . because the two countries have only been trading for several hundred years? There must have been defectors!
A little-known fact: having to give up New Amsterdam to the English, the Dutch not only got Surinam in return, but, more importantly, they also got the profitable Moluccan spice island of Run, known for its nutmeg. A lucrative deal, especially because the fur trade, a big source of income from North America, started to dwindle!
It takes a special kind of people to go on these sea-battles, but they could see their enemies. There were no snipers that could take you out any time, anywhere, no IED's no surprise mortier attacks or suicide bombers. They would not want to fight an enemy that they could not look in the eyes. I heart in another video that due to an early form of industrialisation of shipbuilding the Dutch managed to cut back the production time of building a ship from 9-12 months to 2-3 months.
Sawmills in Zaandam had thirty blades going up and down in a fast rate, while the English had to do it by hand with one blade. Because lumber was kept in water for a year, all resin, sugar based, was washed out, so the blades could continue without getting sticky. The Dutch bought entire forests in Scandinavia and Finland to be felled and transported, while the English picked out the trees they wanted. The Dutch selected the planks after sawing and the rejected ones were used for housing, warehouses, sheds, and even firewood if it wasn't usable for anything else. The booming economy made sure every little bit of wood could be sold.
*@vogel2280* That's a rather naive view of naval warfare of the time. Yes, there were snipers, operating from elevated positions in the masts and rigging, aiming to take out officers and the enemy ship's captain. If any of the warring parties had developed working seamines, they would have definitely used them. As to suicide bombers: what do you think fireships were?
@@AudieHolland Those ships sailed at 17 knots (35km/h). From the mast you have a horizon of 40km. If you meet the enemy head on, you could see them at least 30 minutes in advance. If you would change course and try to outrun the enemy, you probably would have an hour, maybe two to prepare fot battle. In Afganistan/Iraq soldiers got killed by enemies they never got close to. In Ukraine, the drone operator can drop a grenade in your trench from 10 km away.
Hello from the Netherlands 👊 How long it took to build a ship in those days. It took 1 year to a year and a half to build a ship. The Dutch shovels were flat-bottomed, which made it easy to sail up the River Thames. The shovels could easily sail in shallower water.
If you ever come to the Netherlands go to Lelystad they rebuild a voc ship with the tools from back then. Pretty impressive. And I'm with you, hell no I would want to be in one of those wars playing a sardine in a can with 200 ships attacking eachother. Question, you're sitting in a sleeveless shirt...it's winter or did that season passed your place?! 😇
12:27 Well, it's hardly unheard of. After all, a ship captured by the enemy in usable state strengthens their fleet while weakening yours. That's how Rome defeated Carthage. Also, it can be a matter of honor. Look up what happened to the German surface fleet after WWI (and what the British bastard of a commandant of the guard did to the surviving crew). Fireships were usually either purpose-built or ships that would otherwise have been decommissioned anyway. However, I guess that if an admiral was out of options and the benefits were great enough, he might sacrifice a ship of the line. After all, if you have a golden opportunity to break your enemy once and for all...
English ships are not usable for the Dutch navy. The Dutch had standardized ropes, parts, canons, and entire ships. They only took the Royal Charles as a show off for their victory and to put it on display. So Dutch navy personnel could see how an English ship looked like on the inside, how it was constructed and of course what was where, to be more efficient in the next battle. That it lay too deep for Dutch waters is complete nonsense because even nowadays enormous Chinese container ships can enter Rotterdam without any problem while no harbor in England can receive them.
From what i hear about the US education system, its extremely US focused. Now I'm not going to say that it's not that way everywhere, everyone focusses on their own country and relevant history above others. But this stuff is important for US history as well. Hell the Netherlands didn't contribute directly to the US independance war but it contributed significantly in financial matters. EDIT: From what i remember, Dutch fleets were often very aggressive, preferring boarding to prolonged cannon duels.
"The Netherlands didn't contribute directly to [...]" Where in seventeen hells did you get that idea? Who do you think broke the English blockade of the thirteen colonies? Who do you think provided the Continental Army with most of its arms, munitions, gunpowder? Tea that they didn't throw into the water? Where do you think Continental warships put to port in the Caribbean? How do you think the Republic became the first nation on Earth to recognize the United States of America as an independence country? Of course the US immediately screwed us over for our trouble, but still...
Every American was carrying a Dutch gun, smuggled into America from the Dutch-Caraibian island of Sint Eustatius. Read “The First Salute” by US historian Barbara Tuchman about the crucial role the French AND Dutch played in forming American independence.
The wooden sailing ships only remained serviceable for two or three journeys to the East. Eight of those ships that were scheduled for scrapping anyway were filled with oils, pitch and other combustible materials, set alight and sailed by a skeleton crew towards enemy ships, with the crews abandoning the ships just prior to colliding with the anchored ships. It was an old standing tactic and those ships were called "fire ships". Most likely in this case they used written off traders, although I can't guarantee that no former - highly decorated - war ships were used. After this raid Samuel Pepys - an English diarist and naval administrator - wrote in his diary the exclamation by Sir William Batten - a naval officer and member of the British house of commons - upon hearing of the raid: "By God, I believe the Devil shits Dutchmen"
That is the thing isn't it. The moment your leader thing. THey can never do it, there is one skilled experienced brave lucky and a bit crazy to go... No it can be done, watch me. We see this here. in Byzantium and even as far back as the naval battle between ancient greek and Persia. never ever should one think something can't be done. The moment you do. Someone will find a way. Burners where a tactic very well used by Sir Franciss Drake against the Spanish before. Woodenship who are covered in tarr to keep them floating burn really well. Its a dangerous to do. For fire does not care who or what it burns.
The Dutch user ther windmils to built chips the english had for everything clubs for sawing and everything wat jou can imagin to built a chip we built 4 the built 1
The main reason the Dutch could keep up at that time is the windmill once again. They became wood sawing machines, powered by the wind. The engineering is still incredible even by today's standard.
Not too many people are aware of this pre-industrial revolution wind powered machinery, allowing the dutch the capability to outbuild any and all of the European nations at the time.
The exact ratio’s I should look up if I’d like to be exact….
From the top of my mind…, I think most other European wharfs would need something like 1,5 to 2 years build time from start to finish, the Dutch could do it in less than a year 9 months or so)
On top of that superior capacity to build a nee vessel from scratch, the quality of their ships also exceeding the average norm for the age, again due too windmill powered mechanization. The wooden planks exiting the saw mills were of highly similar dimensions, easing the construction process by consistently providing predictable dimensions and quality.
Well….. after raising your land from the bottom of the seas while pushing that relentless sea all the way out into the north Sea, then building ships, ships of trade and ships of war seems almost like a trivial activity…..;-)
Fun fact, the Dutch allowed the stern of the HMS Charles to go back to England during the London Olympics
@17:14 I second that!🤗And name it "De Ruyter City"🤣
This is the English point of view, omitting their war crimes, against citizens and merchant vessels.
Heavily colored to make the English 'look good', and the Dutch 'lucky' that everything worked out as planned.
Simply imagine: Which country would send the entire management of their navy deep into enemy territory on good luck?
There was much more planning involved, a part of the navy sailed straight up the Thames towards London. Another part stayed at the mouth of the estuary to make sure the main force could not be closed in by the English. And the actions were swift and fast.
The docks at Chatham were spared because the Dutch didn't want to weaken the English too much, they didn't want France nor Spain to get to much advantage. And there was no retaliation against the civil population for the English war crimes, even the military were treated with respect, no unnecessary murder of captured men, they were released as soon as the Dutch were done.
War crimes?
@@chrisstaves1473 Terschelling 1666
Even at the time, shortly after the attack, English critics noted that the Dutch had treated the English population more fairly than the English military themselves! After the Dutch retreated from the area, English soldiers streamed in - and started looting English homes.
make New York City Dutch again :)
Please don't we'd be broke before we fixed atleast half of the water works. 😜
Admiral de ruiter was the best admiral we ever had in the Netherlands, his ingenuity was unsurpassed, he literally saved the Netherlands at great personal cost.
the lesson learned: tho shall not mess with the dutch.
As a result of inovations around 1590-1600 windmills could be used as saw mills, which speeded up ship building considerably by leaving more manpower available for the building itself
In the Rijksmuseum there is my favorite painting. A naval battle with flying body parts all over the sky. It must have been crazy that time.
@17:14 I second that!🤗And name it "De Ruyter City", or New Chatham City🤣.
The brits still call the raid on the Medway, ‘the most glorious defeat’ . Haha,.. yes i’m Dutch.
Even during World War II, in The Pacific, the Dutch East Indies merchant fleet still was the largest in the world.
Most of these ships managed to escape to Australia, where they were placed under Allied command.
For the remainder of the war, the Dutch East Indies merchant fleet would play a vital role in shipping troops and supplies across the Pacific.
The Dutch were able to built ships faster then the English because they had an important tool: the windmill. The sawwindmill functioned as an electric saw and therefore could saw planks and wood faster than any group of workers could. Ships were therefore build faster than in England.
One of the greatest and daring victories in Dutch history. It really made admiral Michiel de Ruyter a national hero.
Ships like these were made in about 8-9 months by the Dutch. The English took about a month or two longer to built them. And fire ships were either purposely made for the task, or old crooked ships were used.
The stern of the English flagship Royal Charles, is on permanent display in room 2.15 at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
At this time, didnt the Dutch build 3 for every one of the English? Or was that in an earlier time. I remember the Dutch shipbuilding techniques with the use of mill powered saws made it much more efficient to work on the large pieces of timber that ships required.
@@ProvidenceNL yes, you’re absolutely right.
Make New York Dutch again ! Don't say the Big Apple, say : the Big Orange !
It took 3 months to build a ship in that time. The Netherlands had many shipyards, so in 6 months it could all be replenished. Fire ships are essentially written off merchang ships that were not safely seaworthy anymore.
Make New York state Dutch again!!!
The russian tsaar, Peter de Great, came to the Netherlands to see and learn how to build ships.
You can see a seebattle in de video: Battle of Texel, 1673 (Third Anglo-Dutch War)
the duch build their ships in a few moths
It was for sure a hard life to work on ship. If you did something the captain did not like, it was possible to be sentenced to "kielhalen" (keel haul). You were thrown into the water and pulled under the boat to the other side. I doubt that many survived.
This raid was a answer to Home's bonfire and to change the peace talks
A average ship of the line took about 5 years and 100 men
The Dutch could build a ship fast because we had lots of windmills for sawing the wood .
from what i have learned, the fire ships where outdated ships that where already going to get scraped.
It's actually interesting how few wars and how small the navy and army of The Netherlands have been. Much of the power had always been in money and in playing other powers against one another. England didn't want France, Spain or the HRE to gain The Netherlands, and those three powers wouldn't let the English get a foothold on the continent. Which is why the idea of a 'commonwealth' of the UK and The Netherlands made me laugh. That would never have worked.
And really? "The estuary was impossible to navigate without pilots who knew them" . . . . because the two countries have only been trading for several hundred years? There must have been defectors!
A little-known fact: having to give up New Amsterdam to the English, the Dutch not only got Surinam in return, but, more importantly, they also got the profitable Moluccan spice island of Run, known for its nutmeg. A lucrative deal, especially because the fur trade, a big source of income from North America, started to dwindle!
And the British lost New York within a century, while Suriname remained Dutch untill the 1970s.
It takes a special kind of people to go on these sea-battles, but they could see their enemies. There were no snipers that could take you out any time, anywhere, no IED's no surprise mortier attacks or suicide bombers. They would not want to fight an enemy that they could not look in the eyes.
I heart in another video that due to an early form of industrialisation of shipbuilding the Dutch managed to cut back the production time of building a ship from 9-12 months to 2-3 months.
Sawmills in Zaandam had thirty blades going up and down in a fast rate, while the English had to do it by hand with one blade. Because lumber was kept in water for a year, all resin, sugar based, was washed out, so the blades could continue without getting sticky. The Dutch bought entire forests in Scandinavia and Finland to be felled and transported, while the English picked out the trees they wanted. The Dutch selected the planks after sawing and the rejected ones were used for housing, warehouses, sheds, and even firewood if it wasn't usable for anything else.
The booming economy made sure every little bit of wood could be sold.
*@vogel2280* That's a rather naive view of naval warfare of the time. Yes, there were snipers, operating from elevated positions in the masts and rigging, aiming to take out officers and the enemy ship's captain.
If any of the warring parties had developed working seamines, they would have definitely used them.
As to suicide bombers: what do you think fireships were?
@@AudieHolland Those ships sailed at 17 knots (35km/h). From the mast you have a horizon of 40km. If you meet the enemy head on, you could see them at least 30 minutes in advance. If you would change course and try to outrun the enemy, you probably would have an hour, maybe two to prepare fot battle.
In Afganistan/Iraq soldiers got killed by enemies they never got close to. In Ukraine, the drone operator can drop a grenade in your trench from 10 km away.
Bomb ships were stolen from the enemy and send back with a surprise.
Hello from the Netherlands 👊
How long it took to build a ship in those days. It took 1 year to a year and a half to build a ship. The Dutch shovels were flat-bottomed, which made it easy to sail up the River Thames. The shovels could easily sail in shallower water.
To get a real idea of how this war on sea with that ships was, please do a reaction on the movie The Admiral (Michiel de Ruyter)
Insane..............
If you ever come to the Netherlands go to Lelystad they rebuild a voc ship with the tools from back then. Pretty impressive. And I'm with you, hell no I would want to be in one of those wars playing a sardine in a can with 200 ships attacking eachother.
Question, you're sitting in a sleeveless shirt...it's winter or did that season passed your place?! 😇
It's never winter in Thailand...
Hahahaha, Thailand??? I thought Canada. You're joking😁
@@NB-gk5rx 😛 Nope, he lives near Bangkok.
Wauw, daar terechtgekomen na het leger ofzo? Of ben ik nu echt aan het slapen?
@@NB-gk5rx Vraag dat aan hemzelf... ik heb geen kristallen bol of dikke duim.
12:27 Well, it's hardly unheard of. After all, a ship captured by the enemy in usable state strengthens their fleet while weakening yours. That's how Rome defeated Carthage.
Also, it can be a matter of honor. Look up what happened to the German surface fleet after WWI (and what the British bastard of a commandant of the guard did to the surviving crew).
Fireships were usually either purpose-built or ships that would otherwise have been decommissioned anyway. However, I guess that if an admiral was out of options and the benefits were great enough, he might sacrifice a ship of the line. After all, if you have a golden opportunity to break your enemy once and for all...
English ships are not usable for the Dutch navy. The Dutch had standardized ropes, parts, canons, and entire ships.
They only took the Royal Charles as a show off for their victory and to put it on display. So Dutch navy personnel could see how an English ship looked like on the inside, how it was constructed and of course what was where, to be more efficient in the next battle. That it lay too deep for Dutch waters is complete nonsense because even nowadays enormous Chinese container ships can enter Rotterdam without any problem while no harbor in England can receive them.
On one day in our history, some one find out a way to change windmills in saw mills from that time on they where able to build ships in half the time.
Built a ship .fast .you can.t believe.so fast.
From what i hear about the US education system, its extremely US focused. Now I'm not going to say that it's not that way everywhere, everyone focusses on their own country and relevant history above others. But this stuff is important for US history as well. Hell the Netherlands didn't contribute directly to the US independance war but it contributed significantly in financial matters. EDIT: From what i remember, Dutch fleets were often very aggressive, preferring boarding to prolonged cannon duels.
"The Netherlands didn't contribute directly to [...]"
Where in seventeen hells did you get that idea? Who do you think broke the English blockade of the thirteen colonies? Who do you think provided the Continental Army with most of its arms, munitions, gunpowder? Tea that they didn't throw into the water? Where do you think Continental warships put to port in the Caribbean? How do you think the Republic became the first nation on Earth to recognize the United States of America as an independence country?
Of course the US immediately screwed us over for our trouble, but still...
Every American was carrying a Dutch gun, smuggled into America from the Dutch-Caraibian island of Sint Eustatius. Read “The First Salute” by US historian Barbara Tuchman about the crucial role the French AND Dutch played in forming American independence.
Go to Stockholm, great city, to the Wasa museum and be amazed.
The wooden sailing ships only remained serviceable for two or three journeys to the East. Eight of those ships that were scheduled for scrapping anyway were filled with oils, pitch and other combustible materials, set alight and sailed by a skeleton crew towards enemy ships, with the crews abandoning the ships just prior to colliding with the anchored ships. It was an old standing tactic and those ships were called "fire ships". Most likely in this case they used written off traders, although I can't guarantee that no former - highly decorated - war ships were used.
After this raid Samuel Pepys - an English diarist and naval administrator - wrote in his diary the exclamation by Sir William Batten - a naval officer and member of the British house of commons - upon hearing of the raid: "By God, I believe the Devil shits Dutchmen"
Big error in the video. He mentioned the Royal Oak, James and London before. They sank them. Later he tells us that we set them on fire.
The Dutch makes the fire in London
At the top the Dutch has 20.000.ships.
Merchant ships to be accurate
@@Raadpensionaris yes hh .Mister perfect..your right.
@@Raadpensionaris That.s made money.Militairy cost money.
It was the plan of Johan de Witt.
Historiy is important .your roots.learn from things .thst.s go wrong.
Real thing
That is the thing isn't it. The moment your leader thing. THey can never do it, there is one skilled experienced brave lucky and a bit crazy to go... No it can be done, watch me. We see this here. in Byzantium and even as far back as the naval battle between ancient greek and Persia. never ever should one think something can't be done. The moment you do. Someone will find a way.
Burners where a tactic very well used by Sir Franciss Drake against the Spanish before. Woodenship who are covered in tarr to keep them floating burn really well. Its a dangerous to do. For fire does not care who or what it burns.
The Dutch user ther windmils to built chips the english had for everything clubs for sawing and everything wat jou can imagin to built a chip we built 4 the built 1
Peter stuiyvesant