The Admiralty of Friesland or Frisian Admiralty (Dutch: Admiraliteit van Friesland or Friese Admiraliteit; West Frisian: Fryske Admiraliteit) was one of the five Dutch admiralties of the Dutch Republic. Set up on 6 March 1596, it was dissolved in 1795 during the reforms by the Batavian Republic.
Destruction of the admiralty archives Few sources on the Frisian Admiralty survived. The entire archive on the admiralty was destroyed in the large fire of 12 and 13 February 1771 in Harlingen, and many maps and documents relating to the history of Friesland were also lost. What little archive material remained was held in the Department of Navy at The Hague, until that too was destroyed by fire on 8 January 1844. Little is known on the great men of the admiralty, due to a lack of surviving archival material. One example of such loss is described by historian Beucker Andreae, who studied the life of Admiral Auke Stellingwerf. About his search on the latter's baptismal records in what might have been the man's birthplace, Workum, he wrote:
A box had been kept, however, by the church guardians, holding old books and manuscripts, among which, according to an elderly inhabitant of the town, the baptismal records should have been present. But that box had some years ago been given to the deacons for safe-keeping, and there — since there was no lock on the lid — the female supervisor of the old people's home had cut up the books she discovered in the box for domestic use, as sewing patterns! And so it came about that, although the box is still there, the papers can no longer be found in them.Michiel de Ruyter en syn Fryske ûnderadmiraels (Leeuwarder Courant, 4 March 1962); see also an article from "De Navorscher," dated 1854, presumably the source for the article in the Leeuwarder Courant.
History
Foundation The Dutch Revolt (1568–1648) brought about the need for an improved organisation for the protection of trade, i.e., the sea routes of the new Dutch Republic. Difficulties quickly arose between the different provinces with different views on the design of such organisation. Originally there were three different admiralties: that of Zealand, that of the Southern Quarter of the province of Holland, and that of the Northern Quarter of Holland, with Friesland to be controlled by the latter. In 1587, the Northern Quarter Admiralty established its headquarters at Amsterdam. Quickly a dispute arose between Friesland and this Amsterdam Admiralty over earnings from convoys, over import and export rights, over the financial administration, and because Amsterdam was simply too far away. Consequently, on 6 March 1596, the States of Friesland decided on the "Foundation of a Chamber or Council of Admiralty for this Territory." On 5 May 1597, Hoitze Aisma, Feijcke Tetmans, Sicke van Dijckstra, and Frans Jansz were entrusted with creating the Frisian Admiralty board.
Organisational structure On 14 June 1597 the States-General of the Netherlands, the highest confederal executive power of the Republic, approved a proposal in which the foundation of a Generaliteitscollege was decided upon; this replaced an earlier navy board, the Collegie Superintendent, of which Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange (Admiral-General since 1588) had been the head, but which had been dissolved in 1593 as a result of disputes between the provinces. The Generaliteitscollege was to be a loose cooperation, itself a mere formality without actual power, between five autonomous admiralties (the Zealand, the Frisian, the West Frisian, the Amsterdam and the Rotterdam) to be represented in it. Each admiralty also had its own hierarchy. The Frisian Admiralty was led by a college responsible for the appointment of civil servants as bailiffs and clerks. Furthermore, the States-General appointed for each admiralty a receiver-general, a secretary, and a public prosecutor. Friesland's admiralty was partly funded by the capital of another province, the city of Groningen (capital of the province of the same name), and so people from Groningen could also be admitted to the admiralty's positions (e.g. Admiral Rudolf Coenders), in return for its providing ships. The Frisian Admiralty was thus founded within a confederal context on 15 August 1597.
The Dokkum Era
The Frisian Admiralty was initially housed in the old raadhuis (town hall) on the corner of Hoogstraat on the Lange Oosterstraat in the city of Dokkum. This building had been bought in 1589 by captain Tjaerd Tjebbes for the sum of 900 gold guilders.
The admiralty also took up residence in the Blauhuis, an impressive building with a striking slender tower. The city administration initially paid the rent, but from 1610 this was taken over by the Admiralty. Terpstra, Piter Tweeduizend jaar geschiedenis van Friesland (Leeuwarden 1979) Blz. 133.
In 1618 the institution moved to another building, which thereby acquired the name Het Admiraliteitshuis ("The Admiralty House"); it is the location of the present city museum of the same name at Dokkum. Contrary to what might be expected from its name, this museum is not devoted to the maritime past of the city.
The period between the foundation and the Battle of the Downs is little known due to the destruction of the admiralty archives. It appears from a fleet list that at the Battle of Gibraltar Captain Teunis Woltersz was present in command of De Friesche Pinas, though her number of crew and of guns are both unknown.
That employment with the admiralty at Dokkum brought rich earnings is demonstrated by this excerpt from the minutes of an assembly of the States General, in which a captain asks around for payment of reward money promised to him because of courage he has shown:
Kapt.Thoenis Woltersz. asks by request payment of f. 50, = that have been assigned him on 17 December 1609 for courage shown in the battle of Gibraltar, furthermore [he asks] for an instruction to be given to the Adm. at Dokkum that he be readmitted into their service and that until that time he might receive wages. The States decide that the Adm is to pay Woltersz the f. 50, and to take him in service on the first vacancy [of full captain] to become available. For now he will receive an extra-ordinary wage of f. 12, if it appears that he does real service [as an extra-ordinary captain]. De Sneuper – Admiraliteit Dokkum (Blz. 649. 17 Mei 1612. 4b-538.)
Battle of the Downs
In 1626 the Frisian Admiralty was exempted from its duty to deliver six warships, suggesting that not all was well in Dokkum financially and administratively. The admiralty, however, came into action under the command of Dutch supreme commander Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp during the Thirty Years War to blockade the German Ems and Jade Rivers to prevent privateers working for the Habsburgs to leave port. During this blockade the Frisians even captured the freebooter Du Mortier. In 1639 the admiralty equipped three ships and four yachts for the Republic. A few were sent out on scouting duties in the actions that would lead up to the Battle of the Downs, including a roeifregat (galley) from the Frisian Admiralty, the Rotterdam, under command of Captain Joris Pieters van den Broeck. After it brought back its report, Admiral Tromp decided to give battle on 16 September, with a Dutch fleet of 29 ships against 67 Spanish ships. One of the largest ships in Tromp's fleet was a 70-man frigate with 22 guns under the command of the Frisian captain Tjaard de Groot. In the later Battle of the Downs Broeck defeated a 140-man, 18 gun Spanish galleon.
Van den Broeck found frequent fame in later years. In May 1641 he defeated an 80-man, 12 gun ship from Dunkirk, and in 1642 defeated a 140-man, 20 gun frigate with a ship of only 67 men and 10 guns.
Move The Frisian Admiralty at first only built the harbour facilities in Dokkum it thought necessary to equip about nine ketches that were to control the Wadden Sea, not considering it necessary to build facilities that could handle greater numbers of ships. When an actual need for large warships arose later on — normally two larger ships were operational — they simply used the ports of other provinces. For instance, from 1620 until 1636 the admiralty's large warships were equipped at Amsterdam. In 1636, these ships were even briefly stationed in Rotterdam, far away from Friesland. Already in 1631 a vote in the Frisian college had come up to move the Frisian Admiralty to the port of Harlingen, the main reasons being: The convenient location of the city of Harlingen and other commodities serving the equipment for sea and the defence against sudden enemy attacks. De Sneuper – Admiraliteit Dokkum (p. 136)
Harlingen was Friesland's only major sea port and offered obvious benefits as a naval port, if only to secure Friesland's main trade route. Dokkum, in contrast, was land-locked and could be reached only by light ships. Still it took ten years for a commission to investigate the possibilities for a move; it presented its report in 1642. An objection against a move had always been that the connection between the port of Harlingen and the North Sea, the Vlie estuary, lay in the area under control of the Admiralty of Amsterdam. The waters to be patrolled by the Frisian Admiralty were just these between the islands of Ameland and Schiermonnikoog and the coast, and the Eems estuary east of Groningen. Dokkum was ideally situated to serve as a base for light ships for this purpose, the river Dokkumer Ee giving direct access to this area. However, during the 17th century the Dokkumer Ee began to silt up very seriously; the commission feared that in future the river bed could only be kept deep enough at prohibitive costs, concluding that a relocation was inevitable.
A year later, on 18 August 1643, regulations were drafted to organize the move. On 1 March 1644, the definitive decision to move was taken, and over the course of 1645 the relocation took place. The magistrates of Harlingen promised to see to it that the admiralty would get good accommodation in "their" city, expenses to be met by the city. The admiralty had, however, expected to be provided with more buildings—meeting rooms, warehouses, space for prisoners, and housing for servants. The admiralty got a building on the south side of the south harbour. There was a request also for a building on the north harbour. A last admonition was necessary in 1653 before a few warehouses around the Westkerk became admiralty property too.
First Anglo-Dutch War At the start of the First Anglo-Dutch War in July 1652, the fleet of the Republic was in state of serious neglect. In 1651 it had been decided to expand the active fleet of 40 ships by activating 36 older warships. One year later it was decided to acquire a further 150 armed merchantmen as a reserve. The Frisian Admiralty did not, however, manage to comply with this first order of 1651, though it punctually met the second command (from 1652) for delivery of 17 ships. For the first time in its history the admiralty had a considerable number of larger warships operational: up to eight were supplied to the national fleet. Each ship was between 120 and 125 feet long and between 27 and 28 feet wide. The ships were manned by 85 sailors and 25 soldiers and armed with between 28 and 30 guns.