Page 194 - Loss of the VOC Retourschip Batavia, Western Australia, 1629

Figure 48. A medallion struck in 1630 to conunemorate the assistance o f the Chinese in the construction of the defensive walls ofBatavia during the siege of 1629. note the Waterpoort is comple•• (de Haan. 1919: G8).
There are, additionally, a number ofblocks that do not fit into the reconsunction. In particular, there are eight small blocks that form two annuli. These are possibly windows for the entrance. There is an excellent illustration ofthe north face oftbe casUe of Batavia in the Vingbooms Atlas (Fig. 49), of uncertain date but possibly 1630-1640, showing the Waterpoort with portico fa~ade of almost identical design to the fa~ade from the wreck of the Batavia(AlgemeenRijksarchiefVELH-619-32-G79204). On the exterior east side of the Waterpoort may be seen four windows, two to each floor, indicating that there was a room, possibly a guard-house, flanking the tunnel that would have formed the entrance. It may be that these annuli were for an observation window or a gunport.
In later years, the Waterpoort became the main en- trance to the casUe and the city of Batavia, possibly because the access to the Landpoort via the river became more difficult as the seashore silted up. In 1629, the sea
reached the north wall of the casUe. By 1780, the river mouth was nearly akilometreaway. The Vingbooms AUas (Fig.49) clearly shows that the crane had been moved from the south side of the casUe to the north and that a canal had been dug through from the river to provide access to the Waterpoort. The old Landpoort was eventually demol- ished, together with the south wall of the casUe since the city walls and fortifications made the defences on the south sideofthecasUeredundant.TheWaterpoortwasrebuiltin 1756 in a more magnificent style as illustrated in Fig. 50 (de Haan, 1922: K9) and thecasUe walls were finally dis- manUedin1809.sothattodaynothingremainsofthecastle or Waterpoort. The V.O.C. built many casUes and forts throughout the Indies. One of the most famous was the CasUe Nieuwe Victoria at Ambon, where a Waterpoort still survives today. The design of the Ambon Waterpoort is very similar to the Landpoort at Batavia, described by Valentijn (1724-6) as having the Arms of Batavia at the
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