Page 71 - Loss of the VOC Retourschip Batavia, Western Australia, 1629

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MISCELLANEOUS GUN ACCESSORIES AND ACCOUTREMENTS Gunner's tally-stick
DAT 4497
from Witsen (1690):311, who measured the weight of a volume of rain water contained in a cube wi!h sides 0.5 Amsterdam voet; this measurement gave a weightof5 pont 24 '/" which, when converted, gives I Amsterdam pont equal to 0.49373 kg, assuming that I Amsterdam voel = 0.283 m and 32 loot = 1 pont. The actual value of the Amsterdam pont varies according 10 various au!hors, thus Simienowicz (1729) gives 0.486 kg whereas Galschut (c.1690) gives 0.496 kg (calculated from the ratio of the Amsterdam pont to the pound Avoirdupois). It is obvious that more research is required here to determine what values are being used and what errors, if any, were incor- porated in !he scale. It is beyond the scope of this present work to pursue the subject further.
Shot-gauge
DAT 3336(SCALE1:4)
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This wooden tally-stick, found during the [ust expedi- tion to the Batavia site, was identified and briefly de- scribed by McGrail (1974). The discussion above has shown that the scales for iron are almost certainly laken from asintilar source to the Table I in Witsen (1690:501). A plot of the different scales on the stick give densities (assunting the Amsterdam pont is being used) of 11.78 grms/cm', 7.54 grm/cm' and 2.16 grm/cm'. It would seem that the densities are reasonable, if a little on the high side. For example,lead has a density of 11.0 gnn/cm'. Likewise, iron, which normally would be grey cast iron, has a density of7.03to 7.13 grms/cm'. It is possible that there may be a systematic error in this analysis, possibly due to an incor- rect value of the pont. The percentage error is about 6.5% too large for the lead and between 5.5 and 6.5% too large for the iron. The value of the pont obtained here was laken
A copper shot-gauge was recovered, consisting of a round sheet of copper with a hole in !he centre and a small hanging tag. On the upper, left-hand edge is stamped '+11'. The diameter, 113 mm, corresponds exactly with the '11' mark on the gunner's tally-stick. Obviously, this was used to gauge shot, those passing through were then less than 11 pont in weight.
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