Ohio History Journal

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STORY OF AN OLD DUTCH CHEST

STORY OF AN OLD DUTCH CHEST

BY C. S. VAN TASSEL.

The ordinary student of the world's history knows

more or less of the story of the Spanish Armada--

how that majestic maritime wonder of the sixteenth

century sailed from Corunna, in July, in the year 1588,

in all its splendor and heralded invincibility, intent upon

crushing the English Dynasty and changing the map of

Europe. Instead of success, however, the great fleet

met with almost annihilation, only a bleeding and sadly

battered remnant returning to Spain again, after a

campaign of some two months' duration.

Of one hundred and thirty-four ships which put to

sea so majestically, only fifty-three succeeded in reach-

ing home shores. Of the thirty thousand men, the pride

of all Spain, who sailed with the Armada, only about

ten thousand ever saw their native land again.

And there is entwined with this great world event

another story which brings it down through the cen-

turies and combines with it a vivid local color; a story

of interest to all Ohio, which centers around a promi-

nent Toledoan, Mr. Walter J. Sherman.

To go back, even before the disaster to this great

Spanish fleet, there was in the Netherlands, during a

period of the sixteenth century, an era of expert carving

and wood-working. There were, among the Dutch,

masters in the art of fashioning elaborate chests and

beautiful cabinets, equal in design to those of other

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