ALPHEN
Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 8:21 pm
Built as a frigate by the Admiralty Yard in Amsterdam for the Dutch Navy.
May 1764 completed under the name ALPHEN.
Tonnage ?, dim. 140 x 38 x 16ft.
Armament 36 guns.
Complement 230.
June 1778 sailed as escort vessel to the West Indies, with orders to protect all merchant shipping in the area against privateers.
Early in the morning of 4 August 1778 the Dutch warship ALPHEN entered the port of Willemstad, Curaçao under command of Captain George Willem Hendrik, Baron Van Der Feltz and a crew of 230 men.
She berthed or anchored near an other Dutch frigate PRINCESSE ROYAAL FREDERIKA SOPHIA WILHELMINA under command of Rear-Admiral Lodewijk Graaf Van Bijlant.
15 September in port were five big merchant vessels and a large number of small ships. The same morning a British privateer also entered the port and anchored near the ALPHEN.
Around 08.00 a.m. of 15 September of that year the Governor of Curaçao, Rodier and the Commandant of the PRINCESSE ROYAAL FREDERIKA SOPHIA WILHELMINA had breakfast in the Government house.
Suddenly they heard gunshots and both men left the breakfast table to look what happened. When they noticed that the privateer fired some guns, they returned to their breakfast.
When back at their breakfast they heard a heavy blow, followed by a terrible explosion, first thinking that an earthquake had hit the town, both men jumped up from their chair and raced to the veranda from where they saw pieces of wood, bullets and people falling out of the air in the water of the bay.
From all sides a lot of yelling was heard.
At the position where the ALPHEN had been anchored noting was seen only a heavy swell in the water. From the ship the stem and the accommodation were blown ashore, the hull was sunk.
By luck she had exploded upwards through her main deck and not her hull; otherwise the PRINCESSE ROYAAL FREDERIKA SOPHIA WILHELMINA would also have been lost.
After the explosion the water level increased more as three meters by a tidal-wave in the bay, eleven ships under which barques and schooners were thrown ashore and five were a total loss. The English privateer had complete disappeared under water, and many houses were flooded.
Beside water damage, the buildings in the town lost a lot of roof tiles, two large pieces of wreckage landed on the roof of the Government house and all closed doors in the houses sprung open or were complete blown out.
After the disaster everywhere in town and the nearby plantations the horrible mutilated bodies and body parts were found.
The total equipment of 230 men of the ALPHEN except 23 men which were at shore at that time, lost there live, some people in small boats in the harbour were also lost, how many were killed is not exactly known.
The reason that she exploded is also not known, but most probably by fire in the powder room.
Since no recorded images were found of the ALPHEN prior to the explosion, the image depicted here is an artist’s impression based on the date of the ship and images from similar ships of that time.
There is also a legend on the ALPHEN.
Fifty years later some fishermen found a figurehead in their nets in the St Annabaai, and the people at Curaçao believed it did belong to the ALPHEN.
The figure-head was given to the harbourmaster a naval officer who put the figure-head in front of his house.
Some time later the house was sold to the well known family Maduro, and it stayed there until 1875, when it suddenly disappeared. It turned out that the figurehead was important to the men of the Dutch Royal Navy, and they hided it on board of their ship and in 1876 she arrived back in the Netherlands. The navy authorities not so pleased with the stolen figure-head send it back with the first navy vessel to Curaçao.
During the passage she was repainted by the crew, given red colored hair, where after she received the name “Rode Verrader” (Red Traitor), later most probably due to the heavy weight of the figurehead corrupted to “Loden Verrader” (Leaden Traitor).
The next years till now she has been many times disappeared from the island on board Dutch Navy vessels, bound for the Netherlands, and every time send back to Curaçao with the next navy vessel..
1975 The family Maduro gave the figure head in permanent-loan to the Dutch Scheepvaartmuseum in Amsterdam, which in her turn gave it in loan to the Curaçao Maritime Museum in 1998.
13 November 2004 the ‘Loden Verrader” disappeared again from the island, she was not taken over the Ocean to The Netherlands, but after eight days given back to the museum in a festive way.
Netherlands Antilles 2001 275c sg?, scott?
Source: http://home.wanadoo.nl/bekkenk/diversen/loden.htm (not more on the net) Curaçao Maritime Museum. Maritime Museum at Amsterdam. Post Netherlands Antilles.
May 1764 completed under the name ALPHEN.
Tonnage ?, dim. 140 x 38 x 16ft.
Armament 36 guns.
Complement 230.
June 1778 sailed as escort vessel to the West Indies, with orders to protect all merchant shipping in the area against privateers.
Early in the morning of 4 August 1778 the Dutch warship ALPHEN entered the port of Willemstad, Curaçao under command of Captain George Willem Hendrik, Baron Van Der Feltz and a crew of 230 men.
She berthed or anchored near an other Dutch frigate PRINCESSE ROYAAL FREDERIKA SOPHIA WILHELMINA under command of Rear-Admiral Lodewijk Graaf Van Bijlant.
15 September in port were five big merchant vessels and a large number of small ships. The same morning a British privateer also entered the port and anchored near the ALPHEN.
Around 08.00 a.m. of 15 September of that year the Governor of Curaçao, Rodier and the Commandant of the PRINCESSE ROYAAL FREDERIKA SOPHIA WILHELMINA had breakfast in the Government house.
Suddenly they heard gunshots and both men left the breakfast table to look what happened. When they noticed that the privateer fired some guns, they returned to their breakfast.
When back at their breakfast they heard a heavy blow, followed by a terrible explosion, first thinking that an earthquake had hit the town, both men jumped up from their chair and raced to the veranda from where they saw pieces of wood, bullets and people falling out of the air in the water of the bay.
From all sides a lot of yelling was heard.
At the position where the ALPHEN had been anchored noting was seen only a heavy swell in the water. From the ship the stem and the accommodation were blown ashore, the hull was sunk.
By luck she had exploded upwards through her main deck and not her hull; otherwise the PRINCESSE ROYAAL FREDERIKA SOPHIA WILHELMINA would also have been lost.
After the explosion the water level increased more as three meters by a tidal-wave in the bay, eleven ships under which barques and schooners were thrown ashore and five were a total loss. The English privateer had complete disappeared under water, and many houses were flooded.
Beside water damage, the buildings in the town lost a lot of roof tiles, two large pieces of wreckage landed on the roof of the Government house and all closed doors in the houses sprung open or were complete blown out.
After the disaster everywhere in town and the nearby plantations the horrible mutilated bodies and body parts were found.
The total equipment of 230 men of the ALPHEN except 23 men which were at shore at that time, lost there live, some people in small boats in the harbour were also lost, how many were killed is not exactly known.
The reason that she exploded is also not known, but most probably by fire in the powder room.
Since no recorded images were found of the ALPHEN prior to the explosion, the image depicted here is an artist’s impression based on the date of the ship and images from similar ships of that time.
There is also a legend on the ALPHEN.
Fifty years later some fishermen found a figurehead in their nets in the St Annabaai, and the people at Curaçao believed it did belong to the ALPHEN.
The figure-head was given to the harbourmaster a naval officer who put the figure-head in front of his house.
Some time later the house was sold to the well known family Maduro, and it stayed there until 1875, when it suddenly disappeared. It turned out that the figurehead was important to the men of the Dutch Royal Navy, and they hided it on board of their ship and in 1876 she arrived back in the Netherlands. The navy authorities not so pleased with the stolen figure-head send it back with the first navy vessel to Curaçao.
During the passage she was repainted by the crew, given red colored hair, where after she received the name “Rode Verrader” (Red Traitor), later most probably due to the heavy weight of the figurehead corrupted to “Loden Verrader” (Leaden Traitor).
The next years till now she has been many times disappeared from the island on board Dutch Navy vessels, bound for the Netherlands, and every time send back to Curaçao with the next navy vessel..
1975 The family Maduro gave the figure head in permanent-loan to the Dutch Scheepvaartmuseum in Amsterdam, which in her turn gave it in loan to the Curaçao Maritime Museum in 1998.
13 November 2004 the ‘Loden Verrader” disappeared again from the island, she was not taken over the Ocean to The Netherlands, but after eight days given back to the museum in a festive way.
Netherlands Antilles 2001 275c sg?, scott?
Source: http://home.wanadoo.nl/bekkenk/diversen/loden.htm (not more on the net) Curaçao Maritime Museum. Maritime Museum at Amsterdam. Post Netherlands Antilles.