In 1660 Steven Coerte, the patriarch of the Van Voorhees family in the new world,
sailed on de Bonte Koe to Nieuw Amsterdam. De Bonte Koe means The Spotted Cow. While little is known of de Bonte Koe, it is surmised that the ship was 170 feet long, 49 feet in beam, and about 20 feet in depth, based on similar ships of the period
(Historical Handbook, 1935). The above rendition of de Bonte Koe is from the Holland Society and was published in the January 1996 edition of the Van Voorhees Nieuwsbrief.
In 1663 de Bonte Koe sailed from Amsterdam on 16 April arriving in New Amsterdam between 11 May and 17 August, under the command of Captain Jan Bergan.
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