Page 85 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters
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transport goods between the capital Ayutthaya and the river mouth, where the large ships had to anchor(NA .., VOC , fol. -v). Some of them were so seaworthy that they sailed to Taiwan or Batavia and sometimes even on to the Spice Islands. Fig. .: View on the harbour of Souratte (Gujarat) ca. , Anonymous, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. Besides local vessels, ships with a typical Dutch appearance, were used for transporting goods from the anchorage of Suratte (kom van Suali) where the larger ships stayed at anchor, to the unloading sites at the beaches or to the city of Souratte itself, up the river. Many of these ships are not administrated in the database because they were only used for such local transport and not mentioned by their own names in the sources. All the ships which are depicted in detail seem to be modelled on Dutch ship types, but also seem to be adapted to the tropical environment by having an sun tent on the back of the vessel. Ship type ‘Kaag’ could be used as being a type depiction under details and . In , a vessel named Geldria (ID ) is mentioned in the ‘Navale Macht’ as having been a kaag and being ‘lost at sea’. The vessel at detail looks as having been modelled on a Dutch State yacht. Detail could be called a ‘boeier’. Two boeiers from taken up in the database, the Ouglij (ID) and the Masulipatnam (ID ) are evidently from India. The VOC had many small vessels built at local wharfs in the vicinity of Souratte. After , when the VOC again started to send small vessels on their own keel to Asia, a number of small ship-types not previously mentioned emerge in the historical records. Next to the type-name ‘yacht’, these small vessels were most often referred to as galjooten (galliots) which nomenclature was attributed to different vessels. However, the same vessel-type was also regularly called boot, fregat, sloop, quel and sometimes even a (small) flute or yacht. The galliot could apparently have a single smack sail, or it could be square-rigged (NA .., VOC , fol. ). It seems that the small single-masted galjoot (of only to last) was also Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters
