Page 104 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters
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back: % was considered the minimum profit for these ballast goods that were not perishable and that could be stowed underneath the cargo-floor (so it would not reduce the cargo capa- city!) (NA .., Archief Geleijnessen de Jongh , p. ). However, it was not always possible to find ‘paying ballast’. The fact that ballast was inaccessible for a prolonged period before it could be sold, made the VOC consider the financial losses in this type of trade. Stones turned out to be efficient ballast because it cost the VOC only the labour to collect them and these materials were useful at most destinations. Also the bricks transported from the Netherlands and other stone building materials were used as ballast in Asia. A striking example of this is a well-known portico for Batavia found on the wreck of the ship Batavia off the coast of Western Australia. Tombstones were also transported from the Netherlands, such as the tombstones of three by seven feet that were requested for the new church in Batavia in (Coolhaas , p. ). Coral stone was also used as a building material; it was only shipped in older ships because of the possibility that the sharp stones would damage the cargo floor (De Hullu , p. ). The simplest form of ballast was sand but this product was only used as a last resort, as in the event of leakage, water would be difficult to pump out and identifying the source of the leak was impossible (Elias , p. ). Sand was used on the Avondster (ID:) when no other products were available to make the vessel stable (SLNA, /, --), On a logistical level, the difficulty in the choice of ballast goods lay between the importance of short loading and unloading periods in combination with the unloading of the ballast from underneath the cargo floor. It was not uncommon for saleable ballast to remain in the ship, even when replacement ballast was available, due to a lack of sufficient time for the unloading and reloading (Coolhaas , p. ). Assembling the ballast for the fleets bound for Europe was also an important assignment for the Asian organisation. For the homeward-bounders, the VOC organised ebony wood from Mauritius (NA .., VOC , fol. ), saltpetre from Coromandel and Bengal (Colenbran- der , p. , ), copper from Japan (NA .., Archief Geleijnessen de Jongh , p. ) and sugar from Taiwan. These products also served as ballast goods for the vessels sailing from these places to Batavia. Ships sometimes sailed specially via Mauritius to collect ebony, which was considered very useful and practical ballast. It could be obtained without cost from the woods on Mauritius. It could be sold for a good price in Europe and was not perishable. It could also be stowed directly on the inner planking of the hold in between the frames without utilising any of the cargo space (Colenbrander , pp. -). In that respect saltpetre and sugar were problematic. A separate type of ballast was the broken anchors and cannon that were shipped back to the Netherlands for recycling. The quantities of these could be large; as for example, in when cannon were shipped back to Europe (Colenbrander , p. ). Local goods could be used as ballast between destinations within the intra-Asian shipping network. Sugar was used between Taiwan and Japan. Stone ballast was used to destinations where useful ballast could be acquired, for example vessels travelled to Japan with stone and returned with copper. As with grain in Europe, rice could be shipped without additional bal- last. Rice was much heavier than the spices and pepper, and thus a ship that was only partly loaded with rice was stable enough to take an additional cargo of these lighter products. Rice was, for this reason often loaded as useful ballast product on intra-Asian routes (De Hullu , p. ). Crewing the fleet in Asia During early shipping, problems encountered with the crew were due to long intercontinental voyages. Within Asia, owing to the longer voyages and more hostile circumstances relative to routes in Europe, also a larger crew was required. The developing intra-Asian shipping net- work required a considered policy regarding the manning of vessels. On Asian routes, the size of the crew that was capable of manning the vessel did, on a number of occastions, drop below a critical number . The aim of the organisation was to have a reasonable surplus of crew in order to buffer against unforeseen circumstances. Crewmembers falling ill was hardly an un- foreseen circumstance and, therefore, the VOC established hospital facilities strategically lo- Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters
