Sunday, January 23, 2011

The Battle of Livorno

The Battle of Livorno (Leghorn) by Johannes Lingelbach, 1660In the early 1653 Dutch and English squadrons have been chasing each other in the vicinity of the island of Elba. The Dutch were then able to capture the English frigate Phoenix and the ship was placed under the command of a young officer, Cornelis Tromp.The Battle of Livorno (Leghorn) by Reinier Nooms, 1653In March 1653 the English Captain Henry Appleton and his 6 ships were trapped in the port of Livorno (Leghorn), a neutral territory under the Grand Duke of Tuscany. With a successful sortie the English recaptured the Phoenix, but this action meant a violation of the port’s neutrality. The Dutch Admiral Johan van Galen asked the English ships to leave, but another squadron, commanded by Richard Badiley, was coming to rescue the trapped ships.The Battle of Livorno (Leghorn) by Willem van de Velde the Elder, 1655While the Dutch were sailing toward the new threat, the blockaded squadron saw the chance to escape and left the port. Surprisingly the Dutch engaged Appleton's ships and only one of them was able to flee and rejoin the incoming English squadron.The Battle of Livorno (Leghorn) by Willem Hermansz van Diest, 1756The Dutch moved then toward Badiley's squadron. Outnumbered 16 to 9 the English ships were forced to retreat. Admiral Van Galen was mortally wounded in the action and died on March 23.

The paintings in this post:
The Battle of Livorno (Leghorn), 1660
by Johannes Lingelbach, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
The Battle of Livorno (De zeeslag bij Livorno), 1653
by Reinier Nooms, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
Slag bij Livorno (Battle of Leghorn), 1654-1655
by Willem van de Velde the Elder, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
The Battle of Leghorn, 1756
by Willem Hermansz van Diest
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London


External links: Battle of Leghorn - Cornelis Tromp - Johan van Galen - Henry Appleton - Richard Badiley (Wikipedia)

The battle of Livorno
(History of the Sailing Warship in the Marine Art)
Capt. John Wood's forgotten Italian grave
(Leghorn Merchant Networks)

18 comments:

Traveling Hawk said...

Wonderful paintings and their photos, documenting an important moment of history.

EG CameraGirl said...

Lots of action in those paintings. I just learned something new today! I did NOT know Leghorn was/is Livorno!

Michelle said...

I like these paintings. Very historical and action packed.

Anonymous said...

What a joy to have a history lesson during the night. Thank you for teaching me something that I did not know before. Please have a good Sunday.

Luis Gomez said...

What a great piece of history VP. Thanks for showing us the paintings and telling us how the battle went.

Jack said...

One of the wonderful things about these blogs is the opportunity to learn about other places. This was a nicely done lesson, VP. I think the last print is my favorite of this sequence.

Re your comment on HDP today, I actually agree with you. I rarely convert images to B&W, in fact I rarely do anything beyond crop and maybe adjust brightness or contrast. Today I picked B&W to focus viewers on the architecture, because of the contrast with Sunday's post (coming up soon). Come take a look after 1 p.m., your time.

Randy said...

Great history and paintings too. Enjoy your Sunday!

Small City Scenes said...

Interesting piece of history and great paintings. Can you imagine the cannons booming aboard those ships. This was wonderful---today not then. MB

Dina said...

The whole idea of battles at sea seems so strange to me. Thanks for this dramatic illustrated story.
What a history Livorno has!

Cezar and Léia said...

Excellent post VP and these paintings are wonderful!
This week my son and I visited The Villa Vauban Museum in Luxembourg an exhibition of Dutch paintings.The exhibition features Dutch 17th-century seascapes
"Under Full Sail".

Your post is very interesting , so well elaborated, congratulations and thanks so much for sharing.
Léia

Kaori said...

I love this part of history with the drawings! Very interesting post ;-D

cieldequimper said...

I love a good, nicely illustrated history book! :-)

With your permission, I might just steal the idea (but then it won't be theft anymore).

Unknown said...

Very interesting!

Unknown said...

I must have seen the three first paintings but, honestly, I don't remember them. Great story, VP!

tapirgal said...

What an interesting concept for a post. I love those old romantic/heroic paintings.

Gunn said...

That is what I call action..... The last photo perhaps the most!?
Great art and photos!

Francisca said...

Good stuff, VP!

GREAT MILITARY BATTLES said...

Warfare is a fascinating subject. Despite the dubious morality of using violence to achieve personal or political aims. It remains that conflict has been used to do just that throughout recorded history.

Your article is very well done, a good read.