Page 140 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters
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from Persia to Surat. The VOC tried to keep the profits for themselves but they had to accept that they could not control the situation in this region especially because the English facilitated the private trade with the consequence that ‘therefore the Moors will never be pushed from the bench’ (Coolhaas , p. ). These activities placed emphasis on the military capabilities of the vessels that operated in this region. Therefore, generally speaking, one would expect defensible medium-sized and big- ger ships to operate in the area. Trade was a secondary aim for these vessels. The pure trading vessels such as the flute could only operate in convoy. The smaller long haul traders were not suitable for this region. Table .: The activity level of the various types of VOC vessels in the region of the Arabian Sea per - year period to Table - shows the composition of the VOC fleet in this region up to . In the early period the fleets sailing from Europe to Java often visited the west coast of India to attack the Portu- guese headquarters in Goa. The composition of these fleets was not specially selected by the VOC for this region but reflected the typical unspecialised fleet of the time. In the period - the sailing route from the Netherlands to Java was redirected to the southern part of the Indian Ocean. After no fleets departing from the Netherlands passed this region anymore. From the s a start was made with shipping to Persia and Surat. The bigger well-armed vessels above rate were responsible for most of the activity in that period. The vessels of rate of the VOC, the men-of-war, were very active in this region. From on these men-of-war were gradually replaced by the retourschepen; firstly, in the Anglo-Dutch ‘fleet of defence’ and, after the cooperation ended between the two countries, as part of the VOC strategy to patrol against the Portuguese in the whole region from the east coast of Africa up to their headquarters in Goa. The retourschepen sometimes combined their military task with an experiment in direct shipping between the region and Europe. Between and and again after , shipping in this region was determined by the annual blockade of Goa. During the blockade and in the period of the truce, middle-sized yachts were also used in the region. The flutes, which were the pure cargo carriers, sailed to Surat and sometimes Mocha in convoy with defensible vessels. In , for instance, the flute Rarop which was wrecked near Negombo in Ceylon a year later, had to be escorted from Mocha Fleets per region
