Page 58 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters

trip between Europe and Asia seven times before it was wrecked on a reef near Lombok on  December  (p. -). At - last, it belonged to the largest ship type in the service of the VOC in that period. In  the Hollandia was sent to Banda to transport soldiers and in  and  it collected pepper at Jambi. But in all the other cases the ship arrived in Batavia and returned directly to Europe, mostly with a very short turn-around time. The Hollandia is an interesting example of the problems the VOC encountered synchronising the Asian trade system to these voyages to and from the Netherlands. Because the loading of pepper at Jambi took longer then expected, the Hollandia left Batavia at the end of January  on her second return voyage. This was rather late, bearing in mind the instructions of the VOC directors. Indeed, the ship did get into great trouble in the midst of the Indian Ocean and had to sail to Madagascar for repairs. Both her companions, Gouda (ID:) and Middelburg (ID:) perished. The voyage is vividly described in the travels of Willem Ysbrands Bontekoe, a book famous in the Netherlands in the th century and still read today. The Hollandia lost its masts during the storm in the Indian Ocean. The ship was repaired on the Mauritius and was fitted with new masts, locally cut (Hogerwerff ; Roeper ). These problems gave the directors in the Netherlands new reasons to set the urgent departure of the homeward bound ships from Batavia in December so as to avoid the hurricane season in the Indian Ocean. Because of the repairs needed, the Hollandia could not leave the Netherlands again before May. The third voyage of the ship in  is also very well documented in a journal printed in the th century (Commelin f). Shortly after the Hollandia left, the skipper discovered that he had to bear the consequences of poor maintenance work during the short turn-around time in the Netherlands. Whether the Mauritian masts were replaced in the Netherlands is unclear, but the repairs were not satisfactory and the ship was leaking heavily when it reached the Atlantic Ocean. During a stop over at Sierra Leone on the west coast of Africa in order to attend to this problem, the carpenter found the bow of the ship in very poor condition. Stops like these could cause long delays, especially on the west coast of Africa, were the wind and current con- ditions in the Gulf of Guinea could hold the ships up for many weeks. Later when more experi- ence was gained, ships were forbidden to stop in this region and had to follow a very specific course over the Atlantic Ocean, sail close to the east coast of South America and then follow a long curve to the Cape of Good Hope. At Sierra Leone, the Hollandia also had an encounter with the illustrious Dutch pirate Claes Compaen. During a short exchange of gunfire, four peo- ple, including the vicar and his wife, were killed. However, the homeward-bounder must have been too big and powerful for the pirates. The confrontation ended peacefully with some cour- tesy calls and even the exchange of presents. After this setback, the continuation of the trip to Batavia was still problematic, and in October the ship lost parts of the bow section. Neverthe- less, the Hollandia arrived on  December  in Batavia, after a relatively fast trip, with  souls on board including  woman and children. During the trip  people died and Com- mander Schram died shortly after his arrival (Heeres , --). In view of the repeated strict proscriptions about departure times, the Hollandia was too late for the returning fleet of that year, and had to wait until the end of  to return. Given the problems encountered on the journey from Europe, the ship must first have been sent to On- rust, an island off the coast of Batavia with repair facilities. In the course of , the return cargo was collected from all parts of Asia. In October, the return fleet was ready for departure to Europe. The management in Batavia under Governor-General Coen, then starting his second term of office, was faced with the following dilemma. The preference was to send the fleet off at the earliest opportunity, taking the ships back to the Netherlands in the late spring or at the start of the European summer, in accordance with the VOC directors’ insistence on arriving before the autumn. The sailing scheme dictated by the monsoon however forced the manage- ment in Batavia to wait as long as possible in order to include cargo from a number of other destinations. If this cargo missed the return fleet, it would have to be stored in Batavia for a year with all the additional costs and risks. Often, the practice was for one or two ships to wait for the delayed deliveries from the Asian VOC fleet and sail after the main fleet in the first months of the New Year. The VOC directors restricted this practice after the loss of the ships Gouda (ID:) and Middelburg (ID:) in the previous year. Connecting the Asian regions: The trading and shipping network in operation after  