Page 12 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters

The lacuna in the information in the existing literature on intra-Asian shipping was even more apparent when the study of the VOC shipwrecks in Galle Bay, Sri Lanka, commenced in the ’s. The th century shipwrecks of the Avondster (), Hercules () and Dolfijn (), (of which the first two were located by an international team of historians and archaeol- ogists), were not part of the shipping between the Netherlands and Asia, but of the intra-Asian shipping network (Parthesius ; ). For a proper interpretation of the archaeological site, a better insight into the organisation of intra-Asian shipping was important. The outcome of this research gradually grew into a database that now contains a large amount of information  on VOC ships and shipping in Asia for the period - . By analysing the development of the VOC ships in service in Asia up to , the research reported here hopes to reveal the interesting and complex world behind the better-known return voyages. To apply these questions to individual VOC, ships, it was first necessary to understand the total context in which shipping took place. It was, therefore, important to gather detailed infor- mation about the ships and ship types that were in service and their areas of operation. Bruijn, Gaastra and Schöffer (-) provided the starting point for ships that sailed for the VOC between Europe and Asia. However, the expansion of shipping within Asia itself was of crucial importance to the changes that took place during this period. Therefore, in order to reconstruct the complete shipping activities of the VOC, the work of these authors had to be extended. The result was a database of more than , ships’ movements for the period -, which proved to be a rich source of information on the development of the trade and shipping net- works of the Dutch in Asia. Information was gathered on  ships that took part in the Asian trading network in this period. This database includes ships that started their VOC career in Asia, having been built, captured or bought there. This component of the VOC fleet has not previously been studied, although it is an important aspect of the VOC organisation. The extent of this ‘hidden world’ of intra-Asian shipping is demonstrated by the size of the fleet involved in Dutch-Asiatic shipping and the fleet that served within the Asian network, which is outside the scope of the Bruijn, Gaastra and Schöffer study. That work lists  ships up to the year ; the work reported here has identified a further  ships and vessels. These are only those ships which were of sufficient size to be included in the records of the time under a specific name. Many other smaller ships and vessels in service of the VOC in this period remain in the shadows of recorded history. Following this method, statistical information became available on the development of Dutch shipping in Asia and the composition of their fleet operating in those waters. This part of the study was valid as a stand-alone research, but the information gathered allowed further analyses towards a research question that was partly raised by concurrent his- torical-archaeological research (Parthesius ). In the second half of the th century, the de- velopment of the VOC in Asia reached its peak. It was during this period that intra-Asian trade contributed to a large extent to the economic soundness of the company (Gaastra ). The success of this hidden world, behind the better-known shipping between Europe and Asia, gives rise to many questions. The main question simply is: how was the VOC able to achieve this level of organisational success so far removed from the formal management of the Nether- lands? Other questions follow: what were the goals of the organisation? What obstacles were they confronted with in attempting to achieve these goals? How were these obstacles over- come? What role did the VOC vessels play in the successful development of an extensive net- work that, in size, exceeded by many times the European shipping network? This study focuses on the logistical and technical aspects that made the development of trade and shipping in Asia possible. It examines the development of Dutch shipping in Asia in the first half of the th century. The aim is to shed light on the way the VOC developed and managed its complex shipping network and the process by which the VOC gained its experi- ence and adjusted its fleet to the many requirements linked with trade, military-political activ- ities and the maintenance of a network of trading posts and strongholds in Asia. To what extent was the VOC successful in adjusting their fleet to the demands of the overall organisation and unfolding events in order to conduct their Asiatic operations? The suitability of a ship for a certain function depended on a complexity of features. In order to track the development of the fleet fully, it became essential to study the complete range of functions Introduction 