The Oud Engel Gabriel was part of the second large fleet of the Dutch West India Company (WIC) that was sent out to support the recently conquered city of San Salvador in Bahia, Brazil. The ship had the nickname oud ('old') because there also was another WIC ship with the name Engel Gabriel, which was older.

The war in the West was part of the 80 Year's War. The WIC - even though it was a private enterprise - was an active instrument of war. The conquering of Brazil was high on the list (this was called the 'Great Design' by the WIC - the multi-year plan to take possessions of the Portuguese and Spanish in America and Africa). The conquest of San Salvador (on May 10th, 1624) was the first big military succes of the WIC.

In reaction to the conquest of Bahia, king Philip IV of Spain sent a large relief fleet to the city to retake it. This armada reached Bahia on April 1st, 1625. After a siege of several weeks, the city surrendered to the Spanish-Portuguese troops. The Dutch relief fleet arrived a few days later but could not do anything. San Salvador had been lost. The fleet subsequently set course to El Mina in Africa to conquer this. This also failed - after earlier successes, 1625 was not a very good year for the WIC.

It is not clear what became of the ship.

Koninklijke Bibliotheek

WIC chamber: Noorderkwartier

Armament: 14 bronze cannon, 8 iron stone cannon

Possible slave trade

Slavevoyages.org mentions a voyage with enslaved people by a Dutch ship with the name Engel Gabriel in 1615 from Western Africa and St. Helena to the Spanish Main. Of the 283 people taken on board, 245 survived the voyage.

• Laet, J. de (1644)
  Historie ofte iaerlijck verhael van de verrichtinghen der geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagnie, zedert haer begin, tot het eynde van 't jaer sesthien-hondert ses-en-dertich
  pp 20-21
• slavevoyages.org
  Engel Gabriel