Page 78 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters
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frigate equipped from the Netherlands: Waeckende Boeij (ID:). Governor Van Diemen men- tioned that frigates were very useful in fighting small Portuguese vessels. The frigates therefore must have been well-armed and had good sailing capabilities (Coolhaas , p. ). This is supported by the renaming of frigates sent to Ceylon as “yachts equipped for war” (Anthonisz , p. ). From VOC descriptions we have the basic specifications of the Portuguese frigates. They were vessels of feet long with a beam of about feet, crewed for war by men with cannon: three in the front and two in the stern (Colenbrander , p. ). Around , the VOC built three frigates of feet long and feet wide in the area of Suratte. They were used for a number of years as yachts in the Spice Islands to counteract ‘smuggling’. Most captured Portuguese frigates had a short career with the VOC. As an exception, the frigate Pera (ID:), captured in the Strait of Malacca in , together with the frigate Arnhem (ID:) ,built in Asia, undertook a voyage of discovery in the Gulf of Carpentaria during the second VOC expedition to that area in , after which it operated in the Spice Islands until . The majority of frigates captured from the Portuguese in the Strait of Malacca were also used by the VOC in this important route between the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea. Using the principle ‘it takes a thief to catch a thief’, captured frigates were deployed to attack other Portu- guese vessels. Because of their sailing capabilities they were seen as better adapted to this task than the Dutch built yachts. Another ship-type included in this rate is the pinas. At the end of the th century, the pinas was a small war-ship much used by the Dutch Admiralties. Some of these pinasses sailed out to Asia with the first fleets. In the th century, the type-name no longer appears in VOC docu- ments for vessels in Asian waters although in the Netherlands the type-name pinas was in use for a heavily armed trade-ship whose dimensions increased over time. Some confusion can arise with the type-indication pinance, also used in English sources in the th century for small surveyors called ‘yachts’ in most Dutch sources. The small yachts could be rowed in emergencies but were not specially designed for this manner of propulsion. Oars are even mentioned for VOC vessels up to last (Colenbrander , p. ). The only mention found in the VOC sources to rowing over long distances, is the use of the small tenders to rescue crews after a shipwreck. Around there was a short period when the VOC attempted to use galleys in Asia. Initially this type of vessel was mostly used in the Mediterranean Sea. Galleys were propelled by large numbers of forced oarsmen. The Iberians were also successful in employing these vessels in the region of the Moluccas. Galleys were ideal to avoid the VOC blockades in times of little wind and to take supplies and soldiers to their strongholds. These vessels were also successful in taking some smaller Dutch vessels, like the one in with Admiral van Caerden on board. Around , the Dutch gained some experience in constructing and using this effective ves- sel-type in their battle against Spanish galleys operating from Dunkirk on the Flemish coast. Some galleys were brought from the Netherlands to be assembled in Asia (Colenbrander , p. ; Colenbrander , p. ; Colenbrander , pp. , , ). Another galley was captured from the Portuguese in the Moluccas (Rietbergen , pp. , ) and one was built on the island of Onrust near Batavia (Colenbrander , pp. , ). These vessels, however, were not successful partly due to their poor construction but also because of a lack of manpower to row them. A separate rate for rowing vessels was not included in the classifica- tion system, and these vessels fit the criteria for, and are included in Rate . Prefabricated vessels (Afbreekboots) \[Rate \] A special category was developed for the so-called afbreekboots. These were small vessels, mostly yachts, prefabricated in the Netherlands and loaded onto larger ships. Afbreekboots are also referred to in the reference sources as sloep, sloepjacht or roeifregat, but these vessels were clearly different from the tenders that were standard equipment for larger ships and which could be hoisted onto larger vessels. The afbreekboots were assembled at ports on route to Asia or in destinations in Asia like Batavia or the Spice Islands and, after construction, sailed inde- The development of the VOC fleet
