Page 143 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters
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twelve were taken on board the Neptunus (ID:) a medium-sized yacht of last (Colenbrander , p. ). Keeping the animals alive must have been the skipper’s biggest concern. Vessels often had to make refreshment stops to take in fresh vegetables and water. Shipping live elephants also made demands on the available space for victuals. The requirements for the transport of elephants were recorded in in his journal by a German crewmember who wrote that, in order to be able to transport the elephants on the flute Heemstede (ID:), the accompanying vessels had to carry several hundred ‘Pisang Bäume’ (banana trees) that were known to be a food favoured by these animals. During the journey it transpired that owing to a shortage of drinking water two elephants died and the crew also had to suffer (L’Honoré Naber a, p. ). Table .: The activity level of the various types of VOC vessels in the Bay of Bengal region per year period to In the period up to this region was only visited by VOC-fleets which on their outward vayage to Java and the Spice Islands tried to attack the Portuguese strongholds at the Indian westcoast and Malacca. At a few occasions yachts were split of from these fleets to visit the Indian east coast. In the period that followed, safety and confrontations with the Portuguese were still major issues. The frequent presence of bigger, well-armed vessels in this region can be explained as follows. In the s, the bigger yachts (rate ) travelling more or less directly between the Netherlands and the Coromandel Coast were still popular. These ships sailed di- rectly from the Netherlands to Coromandel and vice versa. Sometimes they sailed via Batavia back to Europe or from Batavia via Coromandel to the Netherlands. The growing contribution of the retourschepen (rate ) was for the purpose of these trips between Batavia and the textile market on the Coromandel Coast but also as military vessels around the southern tip of India This latter function influences the statistics disproportionately. For instance, the Dordrecht (ID ) patrolled the border of two regions between and and made three arrivals in a short period. The role of Ceylon as a junction of shipping routes also explains some other anomalies in the expectation of the types of vessels used in the Bay of Bengal as, the activities of the men-of-war (rate ) can be explained through a visit of the Nassausche fleet on their way Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters
