Page 100 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters

worm preferred the latter above the softwood pine. To nail the sheathing with iron nails with big heads increased its effectiveness because the corrosion from the iron formed an extra layer  The sheathing covering the planking below the waterline could only be applied when the hull was out of the water. For this purpose, the vessel could be careened, i.e. pulled over onto its side, so that the carpenters could work on the exposed surface. Facilities to dry the ship without pulling it on its side were limited in Asia where it was only possible in river outlets and bays in a region with a substantial tidal difference. Careening could, however, be done on every shel- tered coast. The only thing that was needed was an ‘op en neerhouder’ (up and down holder) from which the vessel could be pulled onto one side. Often an old vessel was specially kept near a harbour for this purpose; in  the ship Ter Veer (ID:) was sent on its last voyage to the repair wharf Onrust near Batavia for this purpose (Colenbrander , p. ). Sometimes, if circumstances required, active ships had to withdraw from shipping to help maintain other vessels (NA .., VOC , --; Colenbrander , p. ). In other cases, the ves- sels could only be partly repaired and sheathed (NA .., VOC , fol. ). It appears that the Dutch vessels were better designed for this practice than the English. Careening was used in the Netherlands as a common method to clean and repair the ship, as can be seen in the many paintings of harbour scenes. On the otherhand, the English ships were built and main- tained in dry docks. In the first decades of the th century the English had problems with careening and lost two ships in attempts to renew the sheathing (Heeres , pp. , ). An official of the English East India Company wrote in : ‘The Dutch in Jayakarta sheathed three ships in  days, which are in the fleet off Mallacca, being at least  tons each. It toucheth our reputation too near that we should not be able to do it there as well as they’ (Foster , p. ). Partial careening was often practised to clean the hull of the barnacles that hampered the passage and speed of the vessel. For instance, the small patrol boats operating in the Strait of Malacca were regularly cleaned to maintain their speed. The big homeward-bounders were often delayed by the sea-growth on their hulls, but there was little that could be done about it. The VOC tried impregnating the underwater body of the vessel with a layer of grease and tallow in order to prevent the growth of barnacles. Often the ships needed to be cleaned after only several months at sea. If the occasion allowed, the ships were then partly careened to scrape them clean and burn a layer of roet (soot) on the outside. The products to do the cleaning and protection of the hulls were sent out on the ships to Asia. Sheathing required a location where suitable timber and other materials were available and where carpenters could be housed. If the ships were completely careened, they had to be com- pletely unloaded, which meant that storage capacity on shore was necessary. Already, before the establishment of Batavia in , vessels were sheathed in the bay of Jayakarta and on the Spice Islands, but the English destroyed the facilities in the bay of Jayakarta on the little island of Onrust. The facilities were partially rebuilt, but in  this infrastructure was again unable to be used because of the attacks by the Javanese, with whom the VOC was at war at that time (Coolhaas , p. ). Eventually Onrust would develop into a major maintenance centre. From  on, ships were careened in Japan and up to  the VOC also had repair facilities at their disposal in Japan (Coolhaas , p. ). In , the homeward-bounder Wapen van Enkhuizen (ID:) was prepared for its return trip to Europe in Japan (NA .., VOC , -). However, the Japanese authorities would soon limit the freedom of the Europeans. The crisis between the VOC and Japan over Taiwan around , made the maintenance of big VOC ships virtually impossible. Middle-sized ships could be maintained on the Coromandel Coast, in Siam and in Arracan (Coolhaas , pp. , ; NA .., VOC , --). of protection (Coolhaas , p. ) the shipworm from reaching the main hull construction. Eventually every ship that sailed in Asia for longer then two to three years needed to have new sheathing. Careening . The purpose of the layers of hair and tar was to prevent  Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters