Page 213 - Dutch Asiatic Shipping Volume 1

verongelukt als genoomen en verbrand, vermist of afgelegt, alle ten dienste van de Oostin- dische Compagnie. Zedert den jaare 1603' (Aanwinsten eerste afd. 1891, 19E ). This is a register of VOC ships sailing for Asia between 1603 and 1778, alphabetically arranged with subdivisions in order of departure, giving the following data per column: type of ship, year and place of construction, length, sometimes numbers of lasts and of crew, place and date of departure, name of master (though this again is often lacking in the seventeenth century), and the ship's fate. The register is not quite complete, and of the Zeeland ships in particular details are lacking for the first decades of the seventeenth century, such as date of departure from home, but nevertheless the list is valuable in providing an opportunity for supplementing and correcting the uitloopboeken. The fact that certain data are missing makes it likely that this register was not compiled on the basis of the aforementioned uitloopboeken.
On the basis of these sources it was possible to compile a chronological loose-leaf index of the ships sent to Asia by the VOC, in order of departure date. This is a different order from that of the uitloopboeken, where the date of the Heren Zeventien s resolution forms the starting point. Since the chambers were not allowed to send ships to Asia without the Heren Zeventien's knowledge and mandate, the records could safely be assumed to be as good as complete for at least the outward bound voyages. A n d indeed few ships have been encountered in other sources which were not mentioned in the uitloopboeken. One such exception is the NEPTUNUS (0167), a small ship not mentioned in the 'ordinary' uitloopboekje of Amsterdam.1 4 In the eighteenth century there are a few ships, hired during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch W ar, which, due to the exceptional circumstances, have not ended up in the uitloopboek.15 Finally the returns for the years following 1795 are not complete either. The 'Commute tot de zaken van de Oost-Indische Handel, which took over the Company from the directors in March 1795, attempted by the hiring of ships under neutral flag and by entering into contracts with third parties to maintain the shipping of Asiatic goods to the Netherlands. These partially successful efforts are not to be found in the uitloopboeken or ships' registers and it would require a separate research project to provide a picture of Dutch-Asiatic shipping in 1795 and later years. Whereas the archives of the Oostindisch Commute have been consulted to complete the data on the voyages of ships sailing before January 1st 1795, the charting of shipping after that date, which of course was organized quite differently, has had to be forgone.16
On a few occasions the uitloopboeken mention ships which according to the resolutions were to sail but did in fact not do so, for instance because these ships were wrecked on the return voyage or arrived home in such a poor state that they could not be ready in time for the next equipage. In such cases the ships have not been incorporated in the Lists, although there are some dubious cases, like the VOGEL STRUIS (0646), a ship destined for the equipage of 1652/53, but at the last minute made available to the navy to serve in the war against England. Ships wrecked on departure, as happened for instance to the BUREN (2782) in 1729, do of course have a place in the Lists. A special problem is presented by the many changes in ships' names in the eighteenth century. It then became customary for a ship which by resolution was to be equipped, but was not ready in time, to be replaced by another ship which was then given the name mentioned in the resolution.
14 The ship is listed in the register K A 4390+; see also IJzerman, Cornells Buysero, 8.
15 They are the ships DOLFIJN (4405), MAGDEBURG (4412), FACTOR (4416) and L'HARMO-
NIE (4418).
16 For snipping and trade after 1795 see the forthcoming study of E . S van Eyck van Heslinga.