The Dutch were often handicapped by the smaller size of their ships relative to the vessels of other nations, particularly those of England and France.
This was partly due to the shallow home waters of the Netherlands, which limited the maximum draft with which ships could operate.
Consequently, the Dutch did not build large three-deckers such as were found in the navies of England and France, except for a brief period from 1682 to 1695 (and a very few much later on during the Napoleonic era).
However, during the period up to 1650 the Dutch made up in sheer quantity of ships for what they lacked in terms of the size of vessels; the list below is incomplete and does not include some of the many hundreds of Dutch warships belonging to the United Provinces between 1579 (when the Netherlands effectively became independent from Spanish control) and 1795 (in which latter year the French invaded and established the puppet state of the Batavian Republic).
Prior to 1632, the Dutch did not have a system of categorising vessels beyond a simple functional division into "ships", "frigates" and lesser ship-rigged "three-mast yachts".
[1] On 11 March 1632, the Dutch government approved three standard designs (which they termed "charters") to which all new warships should be built.
Subsequently, having won the Battle of Dungeness in November 1652, Tromp persuaded the Staten-Generaal to add a further class of 150 feet ships as the "1st Charter", although only two of this length were built initially - the Eendracht and Groot Hollandia, both launched at Rotterdam for the Admiralty of the Maas in 1653 and 1654 respectively with 58 guns each.
Between 1652 and 1680 the "Charters" underwent drastic revision, but it was still more appropriate to classify ships of the line during this era by their (gundeck) length than by the number of guns carried.
However, in the 1660s four ships of the Amsterdam Admiralty were built which were structurally three-deckers (the Spiegel of 1663, followed by the Gouden Leeuw, Witte Olifant and Dolphijn of 1666), but these had only partially-armed upper decks, with guns mounted forwards and aft (under the quarterdeck) but not in the waist at this level.
From 1682 twenty complete three-deckers were built, the last in 1721; these comprised the 1st Charter issued on 15 February 1680, and provided for these to have dimensions of 170 (Amsterdam) feet on the gundeck (146 ft 3 in on the keel) x 43 feet x 16 ft. After these twenty, no further 1st Charter ships were built by the Netherlands.
The majority were between 120 and 130 feet in length as measured on the upper deck, the exceptions being the fleet flagships built in 1632 and 1644, which are separately listed below; the warships built for the Admiralties were supplemented frequently by ships hired from the VOC (East India Company, established 1602), WIC (West India Company, established 1621) or other mercantile source (this was particularly true in 1652, at the outbreak of the 1st Anglo-Dutch War), but only a few of these are mentioned.
Both were built for the Maas Admiralty in the naval shipyard at Rotterdam by Jan Salomonszoon van den Tempel.
The Charter (rating) system was introduced in 1652 - initially defined by ships' lengths - but was radically revised during this era (see notes above).
While structurally three-deckers, on these two ships the upper deck was only armed forward (under the forecastle) and aft (under the quarterdeck), with no guns in the waist (this system was also common to other navies in the mid 17th century).
The Dutch had learnt by late 1652, following their defeats in the first year of the Anglo-Dutch War, that a haphazard collection of warships and armed merchantmen could not prevail against a professional naval force.
A second set of thirty warships was ordered in 1653 by the States-General, again comprising a flagship (the Groot Hollandia, similar to the Eendracht) and 29 smaller ships.
[2] This programme, which was all built in the period 1664 to 1667, included ten ships of 160 (Amsterdam) feet length or more, now forming the 1st Charter.
This list includes ships of the line built (all for the Amsterdam Admiralty) in the period 1661 to 1663, prior to the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
In 1685 a long-term plan for a battlefleet of 96 ships was agreed in principle (to comprise 20 of the 1st Charter, 28 of the 2nd, 24 of the 3rd and 24 of the 4th), although this target was never fully achieved.
This is the period during which the reduced Dutch forces maintained their strength at a lesser level from the conclusion of the War of the Spanish Succession.
In the period of higher international tension, culminating in the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, a massive effort to renew the Dutch navies was undertaken.
The list below is continued beyond 1795 to include other ships originally ordered for the United Netherlands but subsequently brought into service for the (French dominated) Batavian Republic.
While these 20 years are here treated together, they actually comprise four distinct political eras: (A) The Batavian Republic (a French 'client state') - February 1795 to July 1806.