Page 64 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters
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collect cargo from many places in Asia and a fleet of large well-armed ships was built up and used in Asia to counterbalance Portuguese and English forces. In , Both perished at sea on a return trip to the Netherlands when his ship and two others were lost, all of which had sailed for over three years in Asian waters (Colenbrander , p.). The effective deploy- ment of specialised homeward-bounders commenced after the establishment of the VOC head- quarters in Batavia in . The significance of these headquarters is discussed in Chapter . From the commencement of this differentiated shipping between Europe and Asia in the ’s, a new and different ship type was designed, tailored to the inter-continental journey. As these vessels were not commonly available on the market, they needed to be constructed in the VOC’s own shipyards. This gave the organisation the opportunity to develop customised homeward-bounders, optimised for their purpose like the grain and timber flutes in Europe. The development of this ship type was often the subject of discussion within the VOC organi- sation, as is reflected in the resolutions of the Heren XVII. The VOC eventually developed a ship building policy which was the result of of experiences with a variety of models and the insights of both the ship builders and users. In /, -the Dordrecht (ID:)- was built in Amsterdam according to the dimensions of the Charter for the ‘large ships’. At the inspection of the ship by the experts of the com- bined Chambers, the Dordrecht was found to have been built slightly broader than the specified dimensions. Although the purpose of the inspection was to make sure that the agreed charter was followed, the committee came to the conclusion that a new charter of ship with the dimen- sion of the beam of the Dordrecht, but longer, would better serve the VOC (this changes were laid down in the Charter). This type of important technical decision was taken by men with extensive experience in shipbuilding. Among them were Jan Rijksen, the VOC master carpenter who, in , had already built two very successful Indiamen with exceptional di- mensions for that period, and Pieter Jansz Liorne, the Mayor of Hoorn, who was the initiator of the innovations in Dutch shipbuilding which resulted in the construction of flutes (NA .., VOC , fol. ). The Amsterdam shipbuilder Jan Rijksen played an important role in the development of the homeward-bounders. In , the ships he had built were praised for their excellent perfor- mance by those who used them in Asia (NA .., VOC , fol. ). During the first dec- ades of Dutch shipping in Asia, these ships did not just sail between Europe and Asia. Most large vessels built before only made a few return voyages and were not used or built exclusively for this purpose. Within two years of the Charter a total of seven vessels were built according to these new ideas, at least one by each Chamber. With regular maintenance, these ships were capable of lasting at least ten years and of making three or four return voyages in that time. Some, like the earlier mentioned Hollandia (ID:), were in fact used for years. This homeward-bounder made seven return voyages, a number that became the standard for the following generations of homeward-bounders. According to the egalisaties, the cargo capa- city of these ships was last. In reality, the Hollandia was able to transport last (NA .., VOC , fol. ). The vessels of this category of ships were consistently called re- tourschepen from about on. From this date it can be established with little doubt if newly built vessels were of this type or not. Of the ships built before the Charter was established, only the Dordrecht and two other vessels named and used as homeward-bounders could be classified as Rate ; the remainder are classified as ships (Rate ). Differentiating vessels in this transitional period is not simple. For instance, the classification of the ship Westvriesland (ID:), built in as an early homeward-bounder, is not clear cut. This vessel, built by the Chamber Hoorn, exceeded the agreed Charter of . The directors of this smaller Chamber created immense problems for themselves in their greed for profit. The ship was probably not much larger than the ships built after the Charter, but the Westvries- land’s draught of feet or more when fully laden caused great logistical problems. The only Dutch inlet where this ship could enter safely was the Schelde in Zeeland, where it returned three times not only causing navigational problems, but also problems with the egalisatie sys- tem since the costs and benefits to the Chamber Zeeland had to be compensated. The Chamber Hoorn’s gross disregard of the Charter initiated a system of mutual inspections and fines. The development of the VOC fleet
