It may be of interest to make a few comparisons between the ships of the United Provinces with the contemporaneous vessels of other European countries during that most interesting period in the development of naval architecture, the last decades of the 17th Century.
The ships of Holland during this epoch were on the whole somewhat smaller than those of the more formidable of her naval rivals--France, Spain, and England--based upon an approximately equal rating so far as armament is concerned. Again, they had much flatter floors with more square bilges and drew less water in order to clear the shoals abounding near the coast of the Low Countries. Their forefoot had considerably more rake. The beak-head was usually longer. The sterns varied in construction, although the Dutch methods seem to have been patterned to a certain extent upon the French. (Click here* for a look at some typical sterns.) The dissimilarity of treatment of the ornament upon the sterns made them look quite unlike. The forecastle bulkhead in the Dutch ships showed a marked variance from the English both in form and in relation to the catheads. Another peculiarity of the Dutch ships is the "clapboard" effect of the clinker-built works.
In the rigging, some difference may also be noted. The masthead caps of the Dutch ships were much wider, and in side view showed a sort of serpentine line, being considerably thicker in the aftermost portion. This thickened curved part was so designed in order to carry without too much nipping the jeers passing over it instead of through large blocks which in the English ships hung below the cap. The form of the combined lift and sheet block at the end of the yards was also notably different.
Sometimes it is difficult to differentiate between some of the Dutch and Scandinavian vessels because the Danish and Swedish shipwrights followed Dutch methods closely, while Peter the Great of Russia actually worked in the shipyards of the Netherlands in order to be able to reproduce their methods in his own country.
