The Wapen van Medemblik was a ship of the line of the third charter and it belonged to the admiralty college of the Noorderkwartier.

Convoy to the Mediterranean. 

On June 9th, 1693, a British-Dutch squadron of fourteen ships of the line under the command of admiral Rooke and vice admiral van der Goes was sent to the Mediterranean to accompany a large merchant fleet. It was suspected that the majority of the French fleet would still be in the port of Brest after an earlier defeat. The French got wind of the convoy and a fleet of 70 ships of the line under admiral de Tourville managed to leave Brest unseen and they positioned themselves before the south Portuguese Lagos to intercept the convoy.

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Naval battle near Cabo São Vincente

The main convoy met the vanguard of the French fleet on June 26th near Lagos. Rooke thought that he had only encountered a squadron and sailed on. Yet the next morning, it turned out that they were being met with a large amount of French ships. Then the convoy diverted to the southwest.

The last two of the Dutch warships, the Zeeland and the Wapen van Medemblik under the captains Philip Schrijver and Jan van der Poel, were overtaken by the faster French ships (see Europische Mercurius, 39 under references). The Dutch manoeuvred against the French attackers. The two ships each had 64 guns and at five o'clock they were caught in the crossfire of the French Ardent, under captain d'Evry, and two other ships with 92 an 100 guns, the Victorieux under Gabaret and the Dauphin Royal under Panetié, which forced them to strike their colors.

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This was enough to give the other ships of the line and a part of the merchant vessels a chance to escape. Yet at least 50 British and Dutch merchant were sunk and 40 ships were taken. The accompanying warships managed to escape.

Ville de Meldemblick

The Wapen van Medemblik went over in French service. The ship was still references in a list of the French navy in 1704 with the designation mauvais voillier.*

*) Back then, the French navy used a fixed but not very standardised vocabulary to describe the sailing qualities (qualité du vaisseau) of their ships, and obviously they did not think much of the sailing qualities of the Medemblik.

It is not clear what the final fate of the ship was after it went over in French possession.

• La Roncière, Charles de.
  Histoire de la marine française, 144.
• Europische mercurius IV,II.32,30.
• Réalisation Jean-Michel Roche. Sources : Archives Nationales.
  Flotte Francaise 1704.
• Nationaal Archief.
  Staten Generaal.
  1.01.04, 7016, 7084.