In the matter of the evolution of the war ship, properly so-called, the
reader needs merely to be referred to the preceding chapters.
Before about 1675, there were, as a first war ship proper: the
_Pinasschip_ (Pinace) and later the _Spiegelschip_ (a square stern
ship). The square sterned _Spiegel_ disappeared and then round sterns
were again taken up, whence resulted the war ship called _Schip
van oorlog_. At the beginning, this class of vessels was made up
exclusively of ships with two decks. At the end of the XVIIth century,
however, a few types with three decks were built in the Netherlands.
Use was often made of the “Fluitschip” (flute or transport), of
ships of the East India Company (“Oost-Indische Compagnie schip”),
of “yachts” (“Jachten”) and of various sorts of vessels of less
importance, as auxiliary war ships, and of tenders (“Boeier”), galliots
(“Galjoot”), galeas (“Galeas”), “Bommen”, kuffs (“Koffs”) and smacks
(“Smaks”) as coast defence vessels.
All these vessels belong rather to the category of merchant ships and
will be described in the next chapter.
Among the types imitated from abroad there may be mentioned the
_Fregat_ (frigate), and later the _Brik_ (brig), the _Schooner_ and the
_Bark_.