Page 101 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters
P. 101
The VOC directors felt the need to control many aspects of the organisation, this extended to the choice of sites used for maintenance. They certainly did not want to spend too much money on the repairs in Asia if they could be done in the Netherlands. Vessels that regularly sailed back to Europe, retourschepen in particular were sheathed there, where enough materials and carpenters were available instead of using the more expensive and scarce resources in Asia. This policy also applied to bigger yachts and men-of-war, which, although they were due to stay in Asia longer than the retourschepen, were deliberately returned to the Netherlands for major maintenance. Governor-General Van Diemen (in Coolhaas , p. ) made the follow- ing recommendations in his report of : ‘construction and repairs to the ships in India cost the company big money and that the larger ships are not well maintained. It is therefore neces- sary that all substantial repairs to the ships will be exempt as much as possible and it be or- dered that the precious men-of-war and the larger yachts should be employed at sensible times their own people in Batavia. The logistical challenge was to have enough craftsmen, timber, tar, hair and nails available to sheath the vessel in a reasonable time. Given the extensive shipbuild- ing sector, this was not a problem in the Netherlands. In Asia, Batavia eventually became the best location for this work, since there was a regular supply of craftsmen and materials from the Netherlands supplemented with materials from the region, like jatij planks from Siam for the sheathing (Colenbrander , p. ). Other repairs Another common problem area was leaking at the waterline, or as it was known at the time ‘the area between wind and water’. Here, the planking was easily affected by rot. This type of dam- age could have major consequences because it was generally only discovered when the vessel was heavily laden. More problematic was when the discovery was made at the time the vessel had already left the port and was heeling on one side at a given point on its course with the troubled spot submerged. The consequences could be that the ship took on water, which would make it difficult to sail and put the vessel under serious threat. This happened with the yacht Avondster (ID:) when it left for the second time to the Netherlands in . The yacht was discovered to leak severely when it sailed over a certain side. Eventually it was decided to sail back to Batavia because: ‘\[...\] desselfs ranck- ende leckheit, opdat bij voortzeijlen geroerde costelijck geladen schip ende soo veele sielen niet als voorbedachelijck den zee ten proije te geven’. \[The instabil- ity and the leaking, by continuing the sailing this precious loaded ship and so many souls not by purpose to offer as a price to the sea\] (De Hullu , p. ). Whether a ship could sail was dependant on how the ship was loaded and also on the condi- tion of the crew – if they were not fit enough to pump the ship dry then the ship was lost (Coolhaas , p. ; Colenbrander , p. ). Repairs, by the onboard ships’ carpenters, were reasonably simple following partial unloading or careening the vessel. However, it was first necessary to reach a port or anchorage. If the whale, a heavy construction element on the outside of the ship, had to be replaced more specific skills for handling heavy timber and mate- rials were required. The ship’s internal construction was also in need of regular maintenance. One of the biggest problems for the VOC was dry rot (decay of timber by fungus) exacerbated by the humidity in the packed holds under tropical conditions. The only remedy – ventilation and pickle – was difficult to combine with the VOC policy of keeping their fleet sailing rather then have it wait- ing empty in a port. Only in the Netherlands could vessels stay idle for a longer period. In Asia the VOC must have weighed the cargo capacity against the longer lifespan of their fleet. Construction problems could also occur inside a vessel due to heavy sea conditions. In the flute Trouw (ID:) was caught in a storm near Taiwan. Apart from the external damage, as homeward-bounders’. Smaller vessels could be maintained in Asia . If sheathing to these ships was unavoidable, the VOC preferred to execute these works with The shipping and logistics in operation
