Dutch Marines/Naval Officers c.1700-20

[Astor]

Hi gentlemen,

My wargames group is going to be starting LOTHS in the new year, so we're all putting together bands and ships ready to play in Jaunuary. As a few people wanted to play government warbands, we decided on different nationalities so that we could justify the possibility of them fighting each other.

Anyway, onto my questions - I've chosen to depict a Dutch warband, and have been trying to find sources for Marine/Officer uniforms during the 'Golden Age of Piracy', with little success.

A friend has suggested a light blue/grey coat with medium blue cuffs and facings for the marines, while the Navy officers themselves would be in dark blue (although i'm not sure what colour the cuffs and facings would be).

Does anyone have any recommendations/sources/suggestions that could help?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Captain Blood]

Not accurate sources no... But here's my attempt at 'Dutch' uniform, 1680ish...

Royal blue coats, orange cuffs and ribbons, claret stockings...

They look Dutch to me. 

Can't remember where I got this idea from - probably one of those little Blandford 'uniforms of the world' books...

[Hammers]

Definitely Dutch. You can tell by the clogs and wimples.

Not accurate sources no... But here's my attempt at 'Dutch' uniform, 1680ish...

Royal blue coats, orange cuffs and ribbons, claret stockings...

They look Dutch to me. 

Can't remember where I got this idea from - probably one of those little Blandford 'uniforms of the world' books...

[Astor]

Not accurate sources no... But here's my attempt at 'Dutch' uniform, 1680ish...

Royal blue coats, orange cuffs and ribbons, claret stockings...

They look Dutch to me. 

Can't remember where I got this idea from - probably one of those little Blandford 'uniforms of the world' books...

<snip>

They do look very Dutch, and I think i'll use that as a base for my Marines and Officers - It was never my intention to be 100% accurate, just to get something that looked 'Dutch', and your colour scheme does a very good job of capturing 'Dutchness' for want of a better word. 

I know that pirate and merchant/government seamen are pretty much identical, but I can see the Dutch seamen in this band having splashes of either blue or orange to add a bit of coherency to the group.

Thanks for the advice! And i'll be sure to post some pictures when my miniatures have arrived and been painted. 

[Calimero]

... According to CS Grant’s book, The Armies and  Uniform of the Marlborough’s Wars,

The Scots and Swiss infantry regiments in Dutch service wore Red uniforms while the Walloon regiments have green ones. The rest of the infantry, except the Guard, had grey uniforms by 1700.

There's nothing on the uniform of the Marines though...

EDIT: find this on the net; http://warsoflouisxiv.blogspot.com/2009/07/couple-of-interesting-dutch-marine.html

[Astor]

... According to CS Grant’s book, The Armies and  Uniform of the Marlborough’s Wars,

The Scots and Swiss infantry regiments in Dutch service wore Red uniforms while the Walloon regiments have green ones. The rest of the infantry, except the Guard, had grey uniforms by 1700.

There's nothing on the uniform of the Marines though...

EDIT: find this on the net; http://warsoflouisxiv.blogspot.com/2009/07/couple-of-interesting-dutch-marine.html

Thank you very much Calimero. It seems that my friend's suggestion of blue/grey with blue cuffs was well-informed after all.

Right, so I think i'll go with the historical source for the Marines, and maybe paint the Naval Officers themselves in a way similar to Captain Blood, unless anyone knows of a source for Naval uniforms of the time (even though I know this was some time before many navies adopted uniforms for officers and crew)?

[carlos marighela]

I'd go with the grey/ blue depiction from Calimero's link if I was you. That's an excellent resource if you haven't used it before but it primarily relates to the latter part of the 17th C. By 1700 most Dutch infantry were in grey coats, with a few variations for foreign regiments and the Guards in the distinctive Blue, with Orange cuffs.

The NYPL website has a good selection of prints you might want to look at:

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?num=20&parent_id=120465&word=&snum=&s=&notword=&d=&c=&f=&k=0&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&imgs=20&pNum=

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?parent_id=120468&word=

[Galloping Major]

Great reference source stuff guys, Ralphus's blogs are always packed with useful stuff and that NYPL stuff is superb. 

Lovely paint jobs as usual Richard, without checking the uniform puts me pretty much in mind of the Dutch Guards. 

Astor - looking forward to seeing your marines painted 

[Astor]

Well, here are my first four Marines, using the plate that Calimero provided. Apologies for the poor light quality - I haven't quite mastered the art of photography yet.



I'm really pleased with them, although i'm still debating what to do for the Naval Officers. I've been thinking of something along the lines of this with a few modifications (maybe white stockings and a lighter coat) - http://www.frontrank.com/big_pictures.asp?prod=4475&pn=3.

If anyone has any ideas, i'd love to hear them.

[Calimero]

Real nice 
plus, I'm a big fan of Front Rank figures!

[warrenpeace]

Astor, it doesn't really matter too much what you do with the Dutch naval officers, as officers often ignored uniform regulations in this period.  A lighter grey or white coat would be fine, or another color coat altogether.  Do give the Dutch officers an orange sash, though, as this was the item that really set off the Dutch officers from the rest during this period.  Even in foreign regiments in Dutch pay the officers often wore the orange sash to indicate that they were in Dutch service.