The ''Gouden Leeuw'' ( nl, Golden Lion) was a Dutch
ship of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colu ...
armed with 80-82
cannon. The ship was built for the
Admiralty of Amsterdam in 1666 during the
Second Anglo-Dutch War. The ''Gouden Leeuw'' was for a time the largest Dutch warship. During the
Third Anglo-Dutch War, the ship served as the
flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...
of
Lieutenant Admiral Cornelis Tromp.
She was Tromp's flagship at the
Battle of Texel in 1673, with the Irishman
Thomas Tobiasz Thomas Tobias (Tobiaszoon) (born 1630s? - d. 1681) in Ireland, was an Irish Roman Catholic sea captain of the mid-17th century who served as an officer in both the English Navy and Dutch Confederate Navy before and during the Second and Third Anglo- ...
as his
flag captain. She was broken up in 1686.
The name ''Gouden Leeuw'' was available, as a previous Dutch ship with the same name had been wrecked on the coral reefs of
Liuqiu Island, then known to the Dutch as Lamay, in 1622. The crewmembers were killed by the native inhabitants of the island, which ultimately led to a
planned massacre and depopulation in 1636, sanctioned by the
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...
'
colonial government.
The ''Gouden Leeuw'' was, in English feet, about 165 ft long by about wide by approximately deep, and was armed with 28 guns on the lower deck, 28 guns on the upper deck, and 26 guns on the forecastle, quarterdeck, and poop deck.
The ship was featured in several paintings by
Willem van de Velde the Younger
Willem van de Velde the Younger (18 December 1633 (baptised)6 April 1707) was a Dutch Republic, Dutch marine painter, the son of Willem van de Velde the Elder, who also specialised in maritime art. His brother, Adriaen van de Velde, was a landsc ...
. The most prominent of these was
De Gouden Leeuw voor Amsterdam, painted in 1686.
References
Ships of the line of the Dutch Republic
1660s ships
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