…; collection Theodorus Frederik van Capellen (1762-1824);¹¹J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, no. 1195, manuscript in NHA 476, inv. no. 1089. donated by his children to the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, October 1866;²²Ibid. transferred to the museum, 1883

Object number: NG-MC-1195

Damaged Dutch tricolour, fringed and with twelve loops for the pole or halliards.

This flag was carried by the 46-gun frigate Melampus (built in the United Kingdom and taken into Dutch service in 1815, decommissioned in the Dutch East Indies in 1823) during the bombardment of Algiers on 27 August 1816. The damage was caused during the battle.

Melampus was the flagship of Rear Admiral Jonkheer Theodorus Frederik van Capellen (1762-1824). Captain A.W. de Man was flag captain of Melampus at the time and presided over the first memorial of the event in 1850. On the fiftieth anniversary in 1866 it was presented by the family Van Capellen to the Dutch Navy and transferred to the Navy Model Room.

J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089, no. 1195; J.J. Backer Dircks, De Nederlandsche zeemacht in haar verschillende tijdperken geschetst, 2 vols., The Hague 1890, vol. 2, pp. 454-72; A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, p. 11; M. van den Brandhof, Vlaggen, vaandels en standaarden van het Rijksmuseum. Een geïllustreerde catalogus, Amsterdam 1977, no. 164

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Ship Flag, Netherlands, 1815', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20054167