Page 66 - Loss of the VOC Retourschip Batavia, Western Australia, 1629

••
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 lOO Weight in pont
The tally-stick from Ihe Batavia (BA T 4497, see be- low) is particularly interesting, since it gives the relation- ship between diameter in duim and weights of iron, stone and lead shot The duim scale gives Ihe average of 1 duim = 25.0 mm. This value does not correspond wilh any known European duim,and it was originally Ihought to be due to shrinkage of the wood. However, when Ihe tally- stick was checked against Ihe gauge, it was found to correspond exacUy wilh Ihe II pont mark. Since Ihe gauge is marked u+11", we can reasonably assume that the tally- stick has undergone minimal shrinkage.
It should be noted, also, that the relationship between the duim and the weight scale would remain the same, even ifthe wooddidshrinkand, therefore, therelationshipcould still be determined. Using various sources, a number of calculations were made on a computer, using a statistical package, to calculate Ihe density of the shot in pont/duim (keeping in the original units initially to avoid conversion factors). The data was entered into a spread sheet and then plotted as density against weight (Fig. 34) and, in addition, the mean density and standard deviations were calculated. The Batavia tally-stick gives the following results:
6Wilsen 2 .Van IJk
Figure 34.
Graph of the relationship between the density of iron shot in pont/duim] and the weight of the shot in Amsterdam pOn! given by Witsen (1671), Van Jjk (1697) and the BaJavia tally-stick.
.29 .28 .27
:8 .26 u=
.25 :g .24
c
.~
~
c
.21
.2 .19
.5 =
&.
.23 .5
~
.22
o Tally-stick o Witsen 1
56