Delft

Delft ([dɛlft]) is a city and a municipality in the Netherlands. It is located in the province of South Holland, where it is situated north of Rotterdam and south of the The Hague.

Delft is known for its historic town centre with canals, Delft Blue pottery, the Delft University of Technology, painter Johannes Vermeer and scientist Antony van Leeuwenhoek, and its association with the royal House of Orange-Nassau.

History

Early history

The city of Delft came into being aside a canal, the 'Delf', which comes from the word delven, meaning delving or digging, and led to the name Delft. It presumably started around the 11th century as a landlord court.

From a rural village in the early Middle Ages Delft developed to a city, that in the 13th century (1246) received its charter. (For some more information about the early development, see Gracht).

The town's association with the House of Orange started when William of Orange (Willem van Oranje), nicknamed William the Silent (Willem de Zwijger), took up residence in 1572. At the time he was the leader of growing national Dutch resistance against Spanish occupation of the country, which struggle is known as the Eighty Years' War. By then Delft was one of the leading cities of Holland and it was equipped with the necessary city walls to serve as a headquarters.

Dutch ship Delft (1783)

Coordinates: 51°54′08″N 4°27′06″E / 51.90221°N 4.45154°E / 51.90221; 4.45154

The Delft was a Dutch 56-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the navy of the Dutch Republic and the Batavian Republic.

The order to construct the ship was given on 27 May 1782 by the Admiralty of the Meuse. The ship was commissioned on 16 May 1783 by the United Netherlands Navy.

On 24 December 1787 the Delft set sail on a mission against the Barbary pirates and protected Dutch traders in the Mediterranean.

For the ship's second mission starting 31 May 1793 Theodorus Frederik van Capellen became the new commanding officer. During this mission 75 Dutch slaves were freed from Algiers.

In 1795 the Dutch Republic was conquered by the French and the new Batavian Republic was founded. Delft was initially disarmed by the French (because they feared that it could be used by Orangist rebels) but the ship was later reactivated to participate in the war with Britain. Gerrit Verdooren van Asperen became her captain.

Neduntheevu

Neduntheevu or Neduntivu (Tamil: நெடுந்தீவு, Sinhalese: ඩෙල්ෆ්ට්) (also known by its Dutch name Delft) is an island in the Palk Strait, northern Sri Lanka. This island is named as Delft in the Admiralty Chart unlike the other islands in the area which are named with their Tamil names. The island's area is 50 km² and it is roughly oval-shaped. Its length is 8 km and its maximum width about 6 km.

Neduntivu is a flat island surrounded by shallow waters and beaches of coral chunks and sand. There are feral ponies on the island that were abandoned after Dutch period, which is home to a small population of Tamil people, mostly living in quiet compounds close to the northern coast. The vegetation is of a semi-arid tropical type, with palmyra palms, dry shrubs and grasses that grow on the pale Grey porous coralline soil. Papayas and bananas grow close to the local people's homes. In the western coast of the island there are remains of a 1000-year-old ancient temple built by the Chola Dynasty, as well as the ruins of a Dutch colonial fort. The water is slightly brackish, and it is taken from shallow wells using buckets made from palmyra palm leaves. A naval battle was fought off the coast of the island in 2008 during the Sri-Lankan Civil War.