Description
The Naval Battle of Gibraltar took place on 25 April 1607, during the Eighty Years’ War, when a Dutch fleet surprised and engaged a Spanish fleet anchored at the Bay of Gibraltar. During the four hours of action, most of the Spanish ships were destroyed.
The Battle of Gibraltar, was a naval battle fought on April 25, 1607, between ships of the Spanish Empire and the Dutch United Provinces. After their loss at the Battle of Ostend, the Dutch United Provinces intensified their maritime campaign against Spain. This culminated in the breathtakingly bold raid on the Spanish fleet in harbour at Gibraltar, one of the most celebrated Dutch naval victories in their war of independence, an episode at the midpoint of the so-called Eighty Years’ War.
A painting of one of the most important events in Dutch maritime history, the Naval Battle of Gibraltar in 1607. On April 25 of that year, a Dutch war fleet launched a surprise attack on Spanish naval forces. It became the greatest victory in the War of Independence, which had been going on for forty years at the time, and still one that took place under the Spanish coast.
On the Dutch side, Jacob van Heemskerck commanded, the same one who had immortalized himself ten years earlier by his wintering at Nova Zembla with Willem Barentsz. With a fleet of thirty ships, he had been sent out by the States General to increase military pressure on the Spaniards. When he failed to find the enemy near Lisbon, the ships continued southward. The Spanish fleet appeared to be in the bay of the fortified city of Gibraltar. On April 25, the Council of War decided: die Spaensche Armade, zijnde inde Strate ende Baye van Gibraltar (soo wij vernomen hadden) aen te tasten hoe wel die laghen in haer eyghen haven ende onder t’geschut vande Stadt ende casteel.
(those Spanish Armade, being in the Strait and Bay of Gibraltar (as we were informed) to attack how well they were lying in their eye port and under artillery of the city and castle.)
The surprise attack culminated in a bloody battle. Joris van Spilbergen was one of the chief officers of the Dutch fleet. He wrote an eyewitness account of the glorious victory that God granted, which appeared in print within a few weeks of his return: daer is seer hert ende grouwelijk gevochten daer by vreeselijck ende wonderlijck om (te) sien het gweldich branden der Spaensche galioens.
(There was a very hard and fierce fight there by fearful and wonderful to see the fierce burning of the Spanish galleys.) Twelve Spanish ships were sunk, burned to the waterline or were driven aent strang (on the beach). On the Dutch side, not a single ship was lost. The Spanish counted several thousand dead, the Dutch “only” a hundred or so.
The painting:
Shown is the Bay of Gibraltar, with the rock of the same name and the city on the far right. The naval battle takes place in the bay, consisting of a number of boarding battles between Spanish and Dutch ships.
In this small painting painted on copper, Cornelis Verbeeck focused on the attack on the Spanish Vice-Admiral on the Nostra Sennora de la Vega and the Spanish Admiral Don Juan D’Alvares D’Avila on the St Augustin.
From left to right
Notably, the second ship on the left is the Rode Leeuw, the ship from Laurens Jacobsz. Alteras Admiral of Zeeland. On the next scene, the Spanish Vice-Admiral on the Nosta Segnora de la Vega is attacked by Captain Roest, amongst others. The Dutch Admiral Jacob van Heemskerk in on the Aeolus, and next to him is Rear-Admiral Lambert Hendriksz. The Spanish Admiral Don Juan Alvaris is sailing on the St. Augustin, The ship has the Admiral flag, indicating, he is on board.
Is virtually the same as the modello The Naval Battle at Gibraltar by Cornelis Claesz. Van Wieringen of the Maritime Museum (Formerly collection Rob Kattenburg), Oil on panel, 49 x 115 cm, signed lower right: F.C.W……./ The Naval Battle at Gibraltar, C.C. van Wieringen c. 1621, Oil on panel 136.8 x 187 cm, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (proof). The naval battle at Gibraltar (final result) Oil on panel 180 x 488 cm, Het Scheepvaartmuseum Amsterdam.
Literature:
J.C. De Jonge (1859), Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Zeewezen [History of Dutch Naval Tradition], V Vols., Haarlem.
J.C. De Jonge (1859), Heldendaden den Nederlanders ter zee van de vroegste tijden tot heden [Heroic Feats of the Dutch at Sea, From the Earliest Times to Today]. In: Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Zeewezen [History of Dutch Naval Tradition], Haarlem.
Museums:
National Maritime Museum; Greenwich, London, National Gallery of Art; London, The National Gallery of Art, Washington; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA; The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham; Frans Hals Museum; Haarlem, Amsterdam Museum, Amsterdam Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam, Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum, Cheltenham
