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The Dutch claim to the Delaware River valley goes back to Henry Hudson's exploratory movement in the entrance to the bay in 1609 aboard the ship Halve Moen (Half Moon), the point of land separating the Atlantic Ocean form the Delaware Bay, now known as Cape Henlopen. His later explorations of the river named after him (Hudson River, NY) combined with the Delaware, to form the axis of the New Netherland. However, the Dutch considered both areas as their sphere of influence by right of exploration. As early as 1614 this territory between New England and the English tobacco colonies was referred to as New Netherland. The area was soon exploited by a cartel of merchants licensed by the States General of the United Provinces under the name of the New Netherland Company. When the Twelve Years' truce with Spain elapsed in 1621, the West India Company (WIC) was formed to carry on the war with Spain in the Atlantic theatre of operations. The WIC was also given exclusive rights to the trade in New Netherland.
In 1624 Dutch colonists settled in three major watersheds of New Netherland: at Fort Orange on the upper Hudson (Noort Revier), at the mouth of the Connecticut (Versche Revier), and on High Island (now Burlington Island) in the Delaware (Zuyt Revier). The Delaware was painted as a "tropical paradise", but it was soon out that it was prone to unfavorable weather in the winter. In 1626 Peter Minuit becomes director of New Netherland. Since relations with the Mohawks in the north were unsettled, outlying settlements were abandoned, as well as High Island, but Dutch presence in the Delaware was maintained by constructing a fortified trading post near present-day Gloucester, called Fort Nassau. The fort was maintained during the summer, but left empty during the winter, when Indians would usually occupy it. Due to this, in 1635 the English in Virginia sent a force of some 15 men to occupy and hold the fort; however soon after the Dutch took them prisoner and sent them to New Amsterdam. In 1631, a Dutch settlement called Swanendael was formed near present-day Lewes (pronounced Loo-is) Delaware. The colony began with a population of 28 men who built a brick trading house surrounded by a palisade (stockade). Although the adjacent land was fertile enough for farming, the primary attraction in the area was the possibility of developing a trane oil works (whaling station) due to the numerous whales annually sighted in Delaware Bay. In 1632, all but one of the settlers in Lewes (Swanendael) were massacred, and the settlement destroyed, by a local tribe of Lenni Lenape Indians due to a misunderstanding over the punishment of an Indian accused of stealing a metal boundary marker with the Dutch coat of arms. Since the Dutch now had no presence at the entrance to the bay, this allowed the English and Swedes to sail upriver unchallenged. In 1638, Peter Minuit established the colony of New Sweden in a region of New Netherland called the Zuyt Revier (or South River by the Dutch). In 1641, the Dutch and Swedes teamed up to thwart an attempt by some English from new Haven to settle in the Schuylkill (now Philadelphia). The English settlers were returned to New Haven aboard a Dutch ship and their buildings burned. Constant vigilance against English incursions kept relations from becoming strained. Mutual distress often creates unlikely partners. In 1643, Johan Printz - veteran of the Thirty Years' War - became governor of the New Sweden Colony. In the spring of 1647, Petrus Stuyvesant became director-general of New Netherland. He assessed past and present relations with the Swedes on the Delaware and reacted in a calculated and single-minded manner. In 1649, the Dutch built Fart Casimir (called Sant Hoeck by the Dutch, present day New Castle, Delaware), in memory of Ernst Casimir of the house of Orange-Nassau, a here of Petrus Stuyvesant's native province of Friesland, just south of the Swedish settlement Fort Christina (named after the Swedish Queen). Fort Nassau was demolished. May 30th, 1654 (Trinity Sunday), The Swedes under Governor Rising captured Fort Casimir without firing a shot. Fort Casimir's defenses had been weakened in favor of strengthening Manhattan against a possible attack from New England during the First Anglo-Dutch War. The Swedes renamed it Fort Trefaldighet (Fort Trinity) in honor of the day on which it was taken. September 5th, 1655, Fort Trefaldighet was surrendered to a Dutch expeditionary force of 300+ troops, siege cannon and seven ships, under Petrus Stuyvesant, representing the West India Company. The Swedes also surrendered Fort Christina (now Wilmington, DE) on September 25th, which was the administrative center of the New Sweden Colony. A surrender agreement was signed that gave the Dutch control of the entire New Sweden Colony. However, the Swedish could, and did, relocate into Dutch territories throughout New Netherland. October 5th, 1655, a large confederation of Algonquin Indians from the lower Hudson, Long Island and Raritan area attacked New Amsterdam, as well as the extensive agricultural communities in Pavonia and on Staten Island. This was called the Peach War, as the reason for the Indian uprising was because a certain Hendrick van Dyck allegedly killed an Indian for stealing peaches in his orchard. Dutch casualties were high as 28 farms were destroyed, 12,000 skipples of grain burned, 40 Dutch killed and about 100 captured (mostly women and children.) All of Pavaonia had been burned and everyone killed except for one family that got away. This caused quite an alarm amongst the Dutch forces. In 1664, The Dutch strongholds on the Delaware were reduced by the English as a result of the Anglo-Dutch War. In 1682, the land which now comprises the State of Delaware was conveyed to William Penn by the English Courts at which time the embattled settlement was named Lewes (pronounced Loo-is) in honor of the town in Sussex County, England. The town was visited by Captain Kidd and other pirates as late as 1698. And then during the War of 1812, a British frigate bombarded the town in 1813. One of the town buildings (Cannonball House Marine Museum) still proudly wears an embedded cannonball from the bombardment. Lewes has always been essentially a seafaring town. Blessed with an excellent harbor, Lewes is home to a large fleet of charter fishing boats stationed on the canal along Pilottown Rd. It is likewise the base of the Delaware Bay & River Pilots Assoc., whose members guide cargo vessels to and from the ports of Wilmington and Philadelphia. Lewes is also the site of the University of Delaware College of Marine Studies and is the southern terminus of the Cape May-Lewes Ferry. Dutch Soldiers The New Netherland Colony did include many Dutch soldiers, due to the many threats posed by the English and Swedish colonies, as well as Indians. Many Dutch soldiers had served in the Swedish armies, and were therefore veterans of many wars. In addition, Dutch captains and skippers commanded many Swedish ships, and Dutch money helped Sweden to support it's armies during the Thirty Years' War, as well as found it's commercial companies and help to develop Swedish industries. For that matter, Swedish students even went to Holland to study commerce and Swedish scholars gained inspiration from Dutch teachers. The Half Moon The original voyage of the Half Moon departed Amsterdam in March 1609, in search of a Northwest Passage to India. After sailing above Norway and the Arctic Circle, they headed eastward over Russia. Blocked by ice, the crew now agreed to search for a Northwest Passage. Having lost their foremast, they landed in Maine to cut and shape a replacement. The ship then sailed south to the mouth of the Chesapeake, then back northward along the East Coast. The Half Moon was the first European ship to sail in the Delaware Bay, and explored the Hudson River to present day Albany, New York. This voyage led to the development of the New Netherlands Colony, which comprised NY, NJ, CT, PA and DE. The tricolor on the stern is the flag of Netherlands, with initials VOC, and is the flag of the Dutch East India Company. The triple X flag on the mizzenmast, is the flag of Amsterdam, dating from the 1400's. The multi-stripe flag on the main mast, is the flag of Prince Maurice, the Stateholder of the United Provinces; his flag served as a state flag, and is also that which the Dutch forces will carry into battle. The red lion rampant on gold field flying from the foremast, is the flag of the Province of Holland, the most prominent Providence of the United Provinces of New Netherlands. |
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