known due to the destruction of the admiralty archives. It appears from a fleet list that at the Battle of Gibraltar Captain Teunis Woltersz was present in command of De Friesche Pinas, though her number of crew and of guns are both unknown. That employment with the admiralty at Dokkum brought rich earnings is demonstrated by this excerpt from the minutes of an assembly of the States General, in which a captain asks around for payment of reward money promised to him because of courage he has shown: Kapt.Thoenis Woltersz. asks by request payment of f. 50, = that have been assigned him on 17 December 1609 for courage shown in the battle of Gibraltar, furthermore [he asks] for an instruction to be given to the Adm. at Dokkum that he be readmitted into their service and that until that time he might receive wages. The States decide that the Adm is to pay Woltersz the f. 50, and to take him in service on the first vacancy [of full captain] to become available. For now he will receive an extra-ordinary wage of f. 12, if it appears that he does real service [as an extra-ordinary captain]. Battle of the Downs In 1626 the Frisian Admiralty was exempted from its duty to deliver six warships, suggesting that not all was well in Dokkum financially and administratively. The admiralty, however, came into action under the command of Dutch supreme commander Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp during the Thirty Years War to blockade the German Ems and Jade Rivers to prevent privateers working for the Habsburgs to leave port. During this blockade the Frisians even captured the freebooter Du Mortier. In 1639 the admiralty equipped three ships and four yachts for the Republic. A few were sent out on scouting duties in the actions that would lead up to the Battle of the Downs, including a roeifregat (galley) from the Frisian Admiralty, the Rotterdam, under command of Captain Joris Pieters van den Broeck. After it brought back its report, Admiral Tromp decided to give battle on 16 September, with a Dutch fleet of 29 ships against 67 Spanish ships. One of the largest ships in Tromp's fleet was a 70-man frigate with 22 guns under the command of the Frisian captain Tjaard de Groot. In the later Battle of the Downs Broeck defeated a 140-man, 18 gun Spanish galleon. Van den Broeck found