Page 162 - Dutch Asiatic Shipping Volume 1

or waiting for her is Asia.9
Female as well as male stowaways belonged to a hotchpotch often booked as 'passen-
gers', and including the private slaves brought along from Asia by returning passengers, or, particularly in the late eighteenth century, the slaves to be delivered at the Cape as clandestine merchandize, sometimes scores of them.1 0 On homeward voyages the so-called 'impotenten were included with the passengers who due to sickness or injury (they were often soldiers) were allowed to return to Europe, and also the condemned who because of a criminal offence in Asia or on board ship, were taken as prisoners to the Cape or Europe. A n d lastly foreigners, 'captured' in raids or battle, were sometimes temporarily held on board to be delivered as prisoners of war at a port of call. Naturally these 'passen- gers' did not receive the privileged treatment enjoyed by the higher VOC officials and freeburghers with their attendants: at best they were given board and lodging with the crew, at worst they suffered in irons in the ship's lock-up.
Recruitment in the Republic
Most of the voyagers were first-time recruits from the Republic. Recruitment was entrusted to the six chambers. When the Heren Zeventien had made their decision on the equipping of a VOC fleet the chambers had to take care of not only equipment and provisioning of the ships allotted to them, but also of the stated number of personnel. To what degree there was re-direction of applicants between chambers to cater for local surplus or shortage, merits further research - it certainly did occur.
On appointed days the directors of each chamber held a recruitment session. Date and times were announced and posted up in the town to attract applicants. On appointment contracts were signed by directors and employees, and wages for two months advanced if agreed by contract, although the actual employment did not start until the day the ship was at sea. The wages remained practically the same throughout the centuries. Sailors earned between fl 7 and fl 12 a month, soldiers around fl 9, petty officers on ship fl 18 to fl 24, and mates' salaries could rise to a monthly fl 50, those of masters from fl 50 to fl 80 or even fl 100. The salaries of high officials sailing usually as passengers were generally higher than a master's pay. These officials were approached individually, outside the recruitment days, although their contracts started mostly in the same period and their employment began equally at sea. A complete list of ranks and rates of pay in Appendix I illustrates the hierarchy and evaluation of VOC occupations.
Since public recruitment of lower personnel took place on fixed days, irregularly spread over the year, and the period between signing the contract and embarkation was usually a long one, the chambers relied on a more or less informal form of employment agency privately run. A type of brokers known as volkhouders, who acted for the navy and merchant navy, served the VOC as well. For the recruitment of soldiers the chambers generally appealed to another circuit of agents, recruiting for the army in the Republic and acting as separate crimps. These volkhouders and crimps tried to attract the attention and interest of those seeking employment, offering them temporary lodging in their own homes or with other landlords in their pay, tried to find them a place on a Company,
9Dekker&VandePol,Daarwaslaatsteenmeisjeloos,passim;listofstowawaysdiscoveredin research 122-129.
10 About (clandestine) slave trade on V O C voyages little is known as yet. Certainly in the late eighteenth century Indonesian slaves were taken to the Cape, cf. Bruijn & Van Eyck van Heslinga, Muiterij, 128-129.