The Cattenbau was a small yacht from a fleet of admiral Cornelis Jol of the Dutch West India Company (WIC). His nickname was 'peg leg' since his leg needed to be removed when he was wounded in battle and was replaced with a wooden leg. The Cattenbau could be used as a fireship.

Rijksmuseum

Detail of a print depicting the battle of Agosta in 1767, anonymous, 1687-1699. A Dutch yacht is shown in the foreground.

Jol made nine voyages across the Atlantic for the WIC. In 1640 his fleet was involved in the Second Battle of Salvador da Bahia in Brazil,in which 27 Portuguese sugar mills were destroyed. After this they went on to plunder Spanish settlements in the Bay of Matanzas in Cuba. It is around this time that his fleet was caught in a violent storm, and on 11 September 1640 the Cattenbau stranded near Havana. The crew was rescued and imprisoned in Havana.

Rijksmuseum

The capture of the Silver Fleet by Piet Hein in 1628, anonymous after a print of Claes Jansz. Visscher (II), 1651-1652. This is a different, and more famous, WIC action in the Bay of Matanzas.

Type: yacht, fitted as a fireship

Crew: 15 sailors and 5 soldiers

Tonnage: 25 tons/50 last

The Cattenbau was designed as a so-called fireship filled with highly combustible material. In battle a fireship was intended to ram enemy ships and set them on fire, sacrificing the ship in the process.

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

Scetch for a painting by Willem van de Velde the Younger, depicting an attack with a fireship, possible date 1692.

The wreck has not been found and possibly remains in situ.

• Archivo General de Indias. Audiencia de Santo Domingo. Legajo: 101. No.: 143B. Fecha: 11 de septiembre de 1640.
• OWIC, 1.05.01.01, 55,35,134.OWIC 1.05.01.01. 68, 1567, fol 123.
• Nationaal Archief.
  Oude West-indische Compagnie, OWIC, 1.05.01.01, 55,35,134, 68, 1567, fol 123.
  1.05.01.01.