Willem van de Velde the Younger (Leiden, December 18, 1633 – London, April 6, 1707) was a Dutch sea painter.
Son of Willem van de Velde the Elder, also a painter of seascapes, he learned from his father and later from Simon de Vlieger, a famous artist of the time. In 1673, the year he moved to England, he had already gained fame in his native country.
In London, King Charles II hired him to paint drawings and sketches of sea battles for a salary of 100 pounds a year. Part of his job was to color drawings by Willem the Elder, also hired in court. He is also commissioned by the Duke of York, later crowned as James II, and by several members of the nobility.
Dutch Shipping Offshore in a Rising Gale
Willem Van De, The Younger Velde
The most beautiful paintings of van de Velde are views out to sea from the Netherlands, showing Dutch ships. His best paintings are delicate, inspired, detailed and very accurate in describing the ships and their components. Many figures are introduced with great eloquence, and the artist successfully represents the sea, either calm or stormy.
Many of his works are now in museums around the world.
The Tall Ships’ Races fleet finally crossed the start line after a two hour delay because of the lack of wind. As the hour approached for the scheduled race start of 1900 local time, the race committee on the start vessel decided there was insufficient wind to get the fleet across the start line and announced a one hour delay. A second hour’s delay was also deemed necessary but then the wind picked up allowing the fleet to cross the line at 2100 local time with around 10 knots of wind and a setting sun providing a beautiful setting.
First across the line for the Class As was Sørlandet (Norway), close behind was Lord Nelson (UK) and third Cuauhtemoc (Mexico). In Class B Jolie Brise (UK) made an excellent start and was soon catching up some of the Class A vessels. Behind her was De Gallant (Netherland) with Etoile (France) looking good in third place.
First across the line for Class C was Spaniel (Latvia) with Ocean Scout (UK) in second and Antwerp Flyer (Belgium) in third. In Class D Zryw (Poland) lived up to her name and made a speedy dash across the line. Behind her came Svanen (Netherlands) with her sister ship Thyra (Netherlands) in third, both clearly eager to head for home.
As the sun dipped behind the horizon at around 2145, the ships disappeared into the gloom on their way to the first waypoint in the race, which will take them across the North Sea to a point around ten miles east of Aberdeen. From there the fleet will turn and head directly down towards Den Helder in the Netherlands, where they are due next Wednesday 20 August.
Race updates will be reported each morning and evening with the vessel positions shown on the fleet tracking and their positions in the race shown in the results page of this website. The fleet’s positions are gathered at 0600 and 1700 GMT and the results posted on the website around two hours afterwards.
