Johan van Walbeeck and the conquest of Curaçao in 1634

[aukepalmhof]

To commemorate the fact that Curacao 300th years ago under Dutch Administration came, first of the WIC, later under Dutch Government Administration.
The Dutch Post issued two stamps in 1934 of which the 6c shows us the port of Willemstad at Curacao. The stamp shows us cargo ships of which I have not any information.
The 12½c shows us a ship of the WIC. from the time of around 1634, I believe it is a fluyt viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11974&p=12854#p12854 I do not believe that she was one of the ships of van Walbeeck fleet, the background of the stamp shows us the houses of Willemstad from a much later date. When the first Dutch arrived, there were not many people living on the island, and most were slaves.

Johan van Walbeeck and the conquest of Curaçao

The Netherlands, in order to obtain their independence, was engaged in a war with Spain from 1560 to 1640. Partly because of this war, which required a lot of resources, ships, and men, the Dutch did not participate in the first exploration, like Portugal and Spain. Their ships were not seen in the Caribbean before 1580. This changed in 1580 when Spain conquered Portugal and the union with Portugal (1580-1640) was established. Portugal was not allowed to trade with the Netherlands, Spain's enemy. The Portugal-Netherlands trade was mainly in salt and the Dutch were forced to look for other areas to get their salt. Salt was very important for the preservation of food, particularly fish in those days. In 1585 the first Dutch ships sailed off the Venezuelan coast, where they came to collect salt from the salt pans of Punto Araya, near Curaçao. After the Dutch were expelled from St. Maarten, the “Heeren XIX”, the directors of the West India Company (WIC), consisting of 19 people, began considering the possibility of maintaining a well defensible basis in the Caribbean, from which all operations could take place. The option of Curaçao was on the table, because of the well defensible harbors. It was conveniently positioned to Venezuela and the trade routes. It could be used as a marine base to attack (supply lines of the) enemy .
At the meeting on April 6, 1634, the directors of the WIC approved the plan of conquest. An expedition force was formed, led by Johan van Walbeeck and Pierre Le Grand. The expedition consisted of 180 sailors and 225 soldiers. On July 29, 1634 they conquered Curacao. The Spaniards surrendered with the agreement that the majority of Indians, about 400 in number and 32 Spaniards would be free to leave. They were sent to Coro, Venezuela. On August 21, the capitulation was a fact.

Source: Nationaal Archief Curaçao

The fleet
The ships that were designated for the expedition were the GROOT HOORN, the EENHOORN, the BRACK, and the ENGEL GABRIEL.In addition, two large so-called "Biscay sloops” were boarded at the GROOT HOORN; At the time it often happened that people had large sloops on board which was assembled at the place where they could be used for useful purposes, for example to land troops. De GROOT HOORN was one of the largest ships (three-masted vessels) of the company and measured 350 last(one last is two tons). We can assume that the ship looked like the well-known ship on the seal of the West India Company. http://www.hubert-herald.nl/NedeWIC.htm This ship was designated to transport 80 men of war; the expeditionary army is said to be 225 men in all. De EENHOORN and De BRAECK were small vessels (80 and 30 last), but also with three masts. The ENGEL GABRIEL was a flute ship of 160 last.

More info is given on: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15229&p=17544&hilit=walbeeck#p17544

Netherland 1934 6c/12½c sg 440/41, scott?