Page 77 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters

about  vessels, built in Asia, came into service. Most of these had been captured from the Portuguese, but the VOC now also had the contacts and the capacity to have yachts built in Asia. The VOC had contacts with wharfs in the region near Surat on the Indian coast famous  From  on, the VOC embarked on a programme to build small yachts in the Netherlands. Their area of service had expanded. To frustrate Portuguese trade or Asians transporting goods for the Portuguese along the coast of China and Coromandel and in the Strait of Malacca, the VOC utilised small but well-armed vessels. In addition, when the establishment of Batavia as a rendezvous brought conflicts between the VOC and the local Javanese rulers, the Dutch used small yachts against local vessels and forces positioned at the harbours of the island. Between  and , three to seven of these small yachts of  to  last were dispatched per year with the fleets from the Netherlands for these tasks in Asia. With these dimensions, they were somewhat larger than the yachts sent out before . They could be armed with up to  cannons and could be manned with  sailors and soldiers when used for military purposes. Some were soon lost during these confrontations, but others were in service for  years in Asia. Finding the balance between suitability for tasks in Asia and seaworthiness for the voyage to that continent was a process of trial and error. The design of the yacht Rijswijk (ID:) built by the Delft Chamber in  was disastrous. The sailing capacities of this yacht were so bad that it had to be towed by the other ships of the fleet (NA .., VOC , fol. v). The fleet was hampered to the point that Rijswijk was sent back to the Netherlands from the coast of Brazil despite the issue of the defensibility of this vessel sailing on its own. On its way back in , it was captured by Dunkirk pirates operating from the Flemish coast. When in  another small yacht was captured on its way to Asia, the VOC changed their modus operandi. From then on, for a number of years, small yachts were transported to Asia in the large ships in prefabricated form and assembled there; these so-called afbreekboots are classified as Rate  and are discussed on page . After , the VOC made a further change in policy regarding the smaller vessels. The truce with the Portuguese in Asia meant that fewer armed vessels were needed in this region and the reduction of the threat from the privateers in European waters made it possible to send less defensible vessels to Asia. Vessels of very small dimensions sailed with the fleets to Asia on some occasions. These were the smallest sized yachts of between - last that could be used over longer distances. The area these small vessels sailed in the period between  and  is quite remarkable. The Leeuwerik (ID:), a yacht of  last, was used in Asia for  years and sailed to both Japan and to Persia. The even smaller Zeemeeuw (ID:) of  last brought seven slaves from Madagascar to Mauritius, and also made a voyage of discovery to Australia (Heer- inga , p. ). The extensive use of these smaller vessels in this period can also be ex- plained by the fact that it was the first time in its existence that the VOC had no need to fear confrontations with other European military forces in the Asian waters of the VOC trade net- work. The only area where the VOC used its military force against Europeans in this period was in the waters around the Philippines to prevent trade between the Spanish and the Chi- nese. Frigates and other small vessels \[Rate \] Of the  vessels in Rate  only  originated from the Netherlands and most of them were built in Asia. Vessels of less than  last in Asia were often listed as ‘frigates’. The VOC used these type-descriptions very regularly for small captured Portuguese vessels or for small ves- sels that the Company had themselves built in Asia for their own use. However, the frigate was almost always also listed as a yacht . For this reason it is hardly possible to distinguish between yachts and frigates of less the  last and both are therefore included in the classification: Rate   for its shipbuilding tradition (Terpstra , p. ) some small-scale shipbuilding once they had developed some understanding of the local mate-  rials (Kroniek , p. ) . . The frigate in the VOC fleet clearly originated in Asia; only once was a vessel listed as a  Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters . At Ambon, the VOC were able to set up