Page 80 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters
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last. The new charter decided on by the Heren XVII for small yachts was feet long and wide, whereas the last one for the prefabricated yachts was feet by (NA .., VOC , fol. ; NA .., VOC , --). Sending these small vessels on their own keel was possible due to the reduced threat from privateers. The advantage was that the larger ships could carry more spare materials for the fleet in Asia (Coolhaas , p. ). The galliots are included and discussed in Rate . Flutes \[Rate and \] Fig .: Abel Tasman’s ships of his discovery journey in , at anchor at Mauritius. Nationaal Archief. On all illustrations which are attached to his journal, there is a clear distinction between the fluyt Zeehaan (ID ) of rate , and the (war) yacht Heemskerck (ID). The yacht Heemskerck, (with the de flat transom) is flying the flag of the main topmast as a sign that it is the Admirals ship; the fluyt Zeehaan (with the round transom) is depicted as being smaller than the Heemskerck, even though its cargo capacity is twice as large as that of the Heemskerck. Besides this discovery journey, the Heemskerck was also used in the military actions to Goa and Manilla; the Zeehaan was mostly used for cargo transport. The illustration shows how the yacht is also shooting towards the back, but the fluyt is defenceless against attackers from that side. The third vessel depicted could be the Swarte Arend (ID ), a yacht which landed at Mauritius on its way from the Netherlands to Batavia. It is however, more probable that it is the Klein Mauritius (ID ) – a pre-fabricated vessel (rate ) – which during Tasmans visit was also used at Mauritius. At the end of the th century in the Netherlands, a ship-type was in development whereby shipbuilders tried to combine large cargo-carrying volumes with small dimensions for tax-pay- ing purposes. At the same time, they wanted to construct a vessel that was easy to sail and could be managed by relatively small crews. With a ratio of one to five (unconventional for that period) , or even six between beam and length, and very full lines with bulging bow and stern sections, they succeeded in this task. In a short period around , this ship-type – ori- ginally called (Hoornse) gaing but later fluit – became the most successful cargo ship of north- western Europe. Within the flute concept it was possible to develop different kinds of flutes The development of the VOC fleet
