Abraham Varleth

http://varletfamily.pbworks.com/w/page/8500463/Chapter%205%3A%20The...
Abraham Varlet took part in the First Anglo-Dutch War in the Battle of the Gabbard (12-13th of June 1653) and in the Battle of Scheveningen (aka Battle of Ter Heijde) on the 10th of August 1653.

Commanded the Walvisch

In the Battle of Scheveningen, every available war- and merchant ship, even the dilapidated ones, were annexed to the fleet, in order to impress the enemy with the greatest possible number of sails. The course of the battle shows how pernicious this order of the Admiralty was. It's not so strange that many captains of the worn-out ships dissociated their ships and crew from the battle. Among those who chose to withdraw were Captain De Gaulery with his ship "Jonas", described as "a leaking barrel", and Captain Jan Coenders of the "Graeff Willem", whose ship was so mouldered that the decks could not hold any cannon. Other runaways were the "Blaeuwen Arent", "'t Huijs van Nassau", the "Swarte Bol" and the "Peereboom", which had recently qualified as 'inadequate.' Engaging these ships in naval warfare would have meant certain death for most, if not all, of their crewmen, so although they would face a court-martial later, the captains of these ships wisely withdrew.

But also among those who avoided any contact with the enemy were, according to Vice Admiral Witte de With, several very battle-worthy ships, such as four ships of the Admiralty from Amsterdam, and two merchant ships of Amsterdam, "De Moor" with captain Adriaen Cornelisz. van Akersloot, and the newly built "Walvisch", carrying 30 guns and a crew of 110 men, commanded by Abraham Varlet.

On their return to Texel, by order of Vice Admiral Witte de With, the captains of these "runaway" ships were arrested, accused of desertion from battle. In war, mutiny is a capital offense, but the behavior of de With towards these captains was so unreasonable that the entire Admiralty turned against him, refusing to sentence any of the captains to death. Instead, the whole affair, as the Dutch saying goes, bled to death, meaning it was allowed to die out with no further action taken against the so-called mutinous captains.