Page 76 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters

more defensible yachts at the cost of the successful cargo carrying but less defensible flutes. Often these choices meant a burden on the VOC later on in times of peace as these military vessels became less economical than those they replaced. The yacht Domburg (ID:) was built during the Dutch-Anglo war but arrived in Asia after that war had ended. Though the need for well-defended cargo transport was no longer urgent in most regions of Asia, the Domburg could still serve some purpose through the shipping of a cargo of silver from Japan to Suratte. Its military capacity was fully exploited between May  and May , when the Domburg took part in the blockades of Bantam and Goa. Between blockades over the period of a full year it did not have any other commercial task other than transporting  last of rice from India to Galle. Small yachts (under  last) \[Rate \] The approximately  vessels in this rate are mostly or exclusively referred to as ‘yachts’ in primary sources, but also included are vessels with other name-types such as fregat and pinas. Yachts of these dimensions sailed as armed surveyors with the first fleets from the Netherlands to Asia. Early shipping was organised in fleets and initially these small yachts were to stay in the vicinity of the larger ships, but they quickly made voyages on their own. The first recorded European visit to Australia was made in  by the yacht Duyfken (ID:), measuring only  last. It was probably  metres long and  metres wide with accommodation for a crew of around twenty and three gun ports on each side. In , the Enkhuizen Chamber was allowed to build two ships designated for intra-Asian shipping (NA .., VOC , fol. ). The yachts Brack (ID:) and Hazewind (ID:) were built. Both ships sailed to Asia in . The Brack only served for a short period, and was wrecked in  on a trip to Japan and the Spice Islands. The Hazewind, however, had a longer and more interesting career in intra-Asian shipping. In accordance with shipping practice at that time the yacht made a round trip throughout Asia. It sailed to the Coromandel Coast, to Japan and, from there, directly to the Spice Islands arriving back in Bantam in  where it was deemed to be no longer capable of safe transport over longer distances. With the development of a network in Asia, these small yachts were used for new purposes in addition to the existing functions of survey, discovery and communication. Shortly after  there was a demand to send small but defensible vessels from the Netherlands to be used in Asia for trade in certain areas. Most probably local vessel-types were not considered defensible enough. Building these small yachts in Asia was not a success, judging by the short period of service of the vessels built there before . There were also serious concerns about their sea- worthiness; the Groene Papegaai (ID ) built in Arakan in  and another Brack (ID:) built in Jayakarta in  both capsized on their maiden voyages (Colenbrander , p. ; NA .., VOC , fol. ). The small yachts built or bought by the VOC in the Netherlands in the s, were  to  feet in length with a beam of  to  feet. Generally they were armed with  to  cannons and were crewed by  to  men, depending on the duration of the voyage. From  onwards, small yachts, sent from the Netherlands, transported pepper for the VOC on the shallow Jambi River and blocked the local private trade in cloves (called smuggling by the VOC) in the Spice Islands (Colenbrander , pp. , ; Colenbrander , p. ). The Jambi River in the southeast of Sumatra was an area where VOC vessels were subject to attacks from small Portu- guese fusts (vessels probably comparable to a Dutch sloop). The Halve Maan (ID:) was also listed as a vlieboot (a small square-sterned vessel in use since the th century). It had become famous for its part in Hudson's voyage of discovery to find a passage to Asia in , after which it was sent to Asia where it served the VOC for six more years (Colenbrander , p. ). The yacht, recorded to be of about  last, could transport at least  picol or . pounds of pepper along the Jambi River. In the period from  to , when the VOC intended to withdraw from most of the intra- Asian trade, only two small yachts were sent to Asia from the Netherlands. At the same time The development of the VOC fleet 