Page 142 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters

Although many other international traders were present, as they were in the Arabian Sea region, no large-scale military confrontation with European competitors was expected during this period. In most cases, the skirmishes that did occur were with smaller Portuguese vessels (often private traders) when Dutch vessels cruised the area for booty. The VOC was the aggres- sor in most of these instances. There were campaigns to remove the Portuguese from Ceylon and some locations on the coast of Coromandel, but also to patrol against enemy traffic in the waters south of Galle. As explained earlier, this was a strategic region because it formed a “wind shed” between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. Ships sailing between these re- gions had to orientate on the southern tip of Ceylon. Since the VOC initiated the aggressive actions they were, therefore, able to select the vessels they thought most suited their operations. From a military perspective big well-armed vessels were not necessary, but on the other hand vessels that were too small would have been too vulnerable. Medium-sized vessels with a normal armament were, therefore, most suitable, ac- companied by smaller boats to pursue their quarry into shallow waters. The products shipped in this region were diverse. Once the VOC was established in Ceylon ample cinnamon was available. This product was shipped on almost any available vessel that was leaving the region for Batavia. Other cargo like the shipping of elephants to India required vessels that were or could be adapted for this special but not irregular transport (see Case Study -). For most other local and regional shipping of which foodstuffs and areca nuts were the most important, all smaller vessels were found to be suitable. There was also enough cargo, mainly textiles, available in various destinations on the Coast of Coromandel. Although the VOC also organised local shipping on a smaller scale to take the cargo to a central place, in general trade goods had to be collected from various harbours, which made the medium-sized vessels most suited to this purpose. The cargo from Bengal, comprising mainly saltpetre, silk and other raw materials, could be shipped by bigger trading vessels. The slave trade in the region required bigger vessels like the retourschepen and big flutes. In  the retourschip Gouden Leeuw (ID ) was explicitly sent to this region ‘\[to get\] a crowd of slaves (that small ships cannot ship)’ (Colenbrander , p. ). It becomes clear from the database that there was regular shipping for slaves in this period from at least  when the Gouden Leeuw already sailed on this route. After  other retourschepen took over the role as slave carriers. In  and  the Wapen van Rotterdam (ID ) and the Wapen van Enkhuizen (ID ) made three journeys to the region to ship slaves and rice to Batavia. In view of the parameters described above, one can expect a diversity of vessels with an emphasis on the medium-sized trade vessels in this region. Case Study -. Elephant transport One of the earliest elephant transports by the Dutch must have been in  when the King of Candy honoured the Dutch Prince Maurits with two elephants . It is unknown what happened with these elephants, but soon the shipping of rare and unusual species to the Netherlands became popular. The Prince of Orange was a fancier of exotic animals. When Prince Maurits was offered a leopard in  he announced that he would also like a little elephant or a cockatoo. His successor, Prins Frederik Hendrik requisitioned these animals from the VOC. To please him the VOC shipped on the return fleet of , \[: ‘a schoon gespickelt hert (beautiful spotted deer), steenbockie (serow), two beautiful white birds called kackatuwa (cockatoo), a young elephant and two Suytlantse catten (cats from the Southland) (Coolhaas , p. ). The young elephant was called Hanske and would travel Europe as public attraction for  years. Loading the elephants was quite complicated. To ensure that the elephant was not spooked by the whole manoeuvre the walking path on the sides of the jetty were covered with branches and leaves. The small vessel that was to take the animal to the ship on which it was to be transported was also covered in greenery (L’Honoré Naber b, p. ). Hoisting the elephant on board was the next challenge. In  an elephant escaped during a similar operation in the Bay in Galle and swam ashore (NA .., VOC , fol. -). Once the problems of getting them on board were overcome, it is surprising how many elephants could be shipped. On one occasion up to Fleets per region 