Page 91 - Dutch Asiatic Shipping Volume 1

not depart until the goods, which largely came from the Company's outposts, had been received and transshipped. Many things had to be done all at the same time during this period. November was too early.
Until well into the seventeenth century it was therefore mostly an actual Christmasfleet that left the Batavia roadstead. During January and February a number of naschepen followed. The directors persisted in calling this too late, the more so since these naschepen carried all kinds of high value goods instead of cargoes of bulky 'big goods'. Auctions had to be postponed to avoid two sales in quick succession. Merchants were not prepared to make high bids while they were not certain whether further goods would arrive. The particularly late departure of 1683 cost the Governor-General Speelman a court case.4
Not until the final years of the seventeenth century did the Batavia authorities succeed in dispatching a sizeable return fleet in November. At the same time, the increase in the size of the fleets resulted in the period of departure spreading across the months of October to February and beyond. Three to four times a sizeable contingent of ships would sail for home. Y et this splitting up of fleets was partly cancelled out by the fact that they waited for each other at the Cape, and eventually sailed for home in one or usually two fleets. At least the arrival of the first fleet now occurred much earlier than before, i.e. in May or June. This splitting up into two return fleets was made a definite rule in 1742.5 The first contingent was to depart from Batavia during October, the second one was to leave Sunda Strait during the second half of January. A s a result of this decision December was used less than before as month of departure. In this way the advancement of the return fleet, formerly so urgently demanded, was finally arrived at in the course of the eighteenth century. Towards the end of this century however a tendency developed of letting more ships depart outside the accustomed months (see table 14a).
Table 14a: Numbers of monthly departures from Batavia
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX
X XI XII
8 12 7 17 87 3 23 118 1 52 63
1602-24 23 6 3 2 2 1625-49 45 1 7
1650-74 44 29 2 1675-99 21 54 17 2 1700-24 62 28 10 1 1725-49 56 42 16 20 2 1750-74 59 7 1 10 8 1775-95 19 20 6 9 14
1602-99 133 90 37 6 2 1700-95 196 97 33 40 24
I = January, II = February, and so on.
2 4 5 4
1
16
9
25 152 99 61
13 337
141 153 82 83 117 6 60 20
94 275 400 262
In contrast to the voyage out, where for the majority of ships Batavia remained the most important destination, as port of departure the city of Coen could not maintain this
4 Ibid., vol. 87, 494-499 and 504. Gaastra, De geschiedenis van de VOC, 63. 5 Heeres, 'De 'Consideration", 569.
216 7
1
6 4 7
4 7 6 8 38
2 5 5
Il