Page 153 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters

Batavia for the collection of supplies for the VOC headquarters. This route did not call for the use of a particular vessel type or require specific vessel features. Enough bulk goods like sugar and silk were available from Taiwan to justify the use of big ships for this trade, but the shallowness of the harbour entrance meant that they had to be loaded at the Pescadores. Flutes were suitable as carriers since military confrontations were not expected. Copper, precious metals and some luxury items were shipped from Japan. The copper could stay in the ships for shipping to other parts of Asia but part of the cargo of precious metals had to be unloaded in Taiwan to purchase silk and part was shipped on to Batavia or, following , directly to the Coromandel Coast and Surat. Flutes and bigger yachts were suitable for this purpose. Smaller vessels were needed to facilitate the distribution of cargo. The smaller flutes turned out to be ideal for that purpose. The VOC’s voyages to and from Taiwan were highly monsoon- dependent. The loading took place in a short period between August and December. The small flutes stayed near Taiwan during the season, with an occasional short trip to Japan and back and sailed back to Batavia in the off-season. It was sometimes difficult for the vessels that had to wait for the auctions in Japan in October/November to reach Batavia in time for the depar- ture of the return fleet at the end of December or early January. Fast sailing vessels were appro- priate for this purpose. Table . shows that after the VOC gave up its aspirations towards China, the military needs were lifted to a large extent and they were able to differentiate their fleet in this region. Up to  there was a clear emphasis on military and bigger vessels. This changed dramati- cally after the establishment of the VOC stronghold in Taiwan with a fleet focused on trade. Apart from the sporadic military confrontations and the military vessels heading for the Philip- pines, the Far East was suited to dedicated cargo carriers. This general image should be nuanced a bit, especially for the transition period in the s when some developments took place at the level of the separate destinations. For the military operations, Japan was the pre- eminent base for the bigger vessels to capture the big junks sailing between China and the Philippines, until the Japanese authorities became more restrictive about the kind of vessels that were allowed to visit their harbours. Closer to the Chinese coast most of the smaller or middle-sized yachts were employed. Note also the almost complete absence of the flute, which vessel type could not play a role in the military action in China and the Philippines. As is the case with the smaller vessels in the Strait of Malaccathe smaller vessels needed as utility vessels around Taiwan, i.e. the vessels that brought cargo from Taiwan to the waiting fleet at the Pes- cadores, are not revealed in the statistics since they rarely left the region. The heavy sea conditions required strongly built new ships. The possibility of typhoons was the pre-eminent threat, and no ship was able to withstand those conditions. The most suitable combination of vessels was big flutes and retourschepen as trade ships together with smaller flutes and other small vessels to facilitate the loading and unloading of cargo near Taiwan. Retourschepen often sailed on the Batavia and Thailand route. In Table - the important role of this rate  vessels in the shipping to Thailand becomes clear. The newer retourschepen could also sail direct or via Thailand to Japan. In Thailand there was usually enough cargo of prod- ucts for the Japanese market in combination with food supplies and building materials for Tai- wan, for these bigger ships. On the return trip these ships often called at Thailand again to load supplies for Batavia. The need for these supplies depended on the political situation in Java. A stopover in Taiwan was often inevitable for the redistribution of cargo for the various destina- tions: China, vietnam, Batavia and later also the direct connection with the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. The central role of Taiwan in this region becomes obvious in Table - where it is shown to be by far the busiest destination. It was a shipping junction with the specific need for smaller vessels and the medium sized flutes (rate ) in order to be able to serve as a point of transhipment. It was also possible for retourschepen to combine a trip to Taiwan with a return trip to Europe. With a departure from Batavia in August at the latest the ship could be in the region around Taiwan in September. As was the case with the collecting of a pepper cargo from southeast Sumatra, the ships could take on a good shipment of sugar; however, loading took a month  Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters