Page 83 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters

The VOC purchased most flutes sent out, but some were built on VOC wharfs, and there are records that one vessel was built in  on the Coromandel Coast: the flute Pegu (ID:) (NA .., VOC , fol. v). In Europe, flutes commonly sailed without cannon or with only lightly armament. VOC flutes were regularly reported as being armed with a considerable number of cannon. However, as they were constructed without a square stern it was difficult to arm flutes with cannon shooting from the stern, which rendered them vulnerable to attack. After the type-name gaing was replaced by fluit, this was one of the most consistent type- indications of a VOC vessel of more than  last. A vessel was a flute, in which case it was always mentioned by that name and never by another type-name, or it was not a flute. Most of the flutes used by the VOC were larger than  last. Due to the equalisation system which struggled with the administration of vessels that stayed in Asia, all VOC flutes had to be re- corded as  last irrespective of their real capacity (see p. ) (NA .., VOC , -- , --). More realistic dimensions can be calculated by taking into account the vo- lume of transported cargoes, values as shown in the Navale Machten and the numbers of lasten recorded when a flute was bought. In , when the threat of new hostilities between the Dutch, the English and the Portu- guese was imminent, the VOC did not send any more flutes to Asia. Vessels with a greater military capacity were thought to be required. After the war with the English, flutes were again sent to Asia (Coolhaas , p. ). The demand from Asia at this time was for smaller flutes, to be used in the Channel of Taiwan, the entrance to Fort Zeelandia, which was becoming ever shallower (Stapel , pp. , ). The flutes in Asia now clearly fell into two distinct cate- gories: the large flutes, growing larger and larger, up to  last, and small flutes. The largest flutes were also used as homeward-bounders (NA .., VOC , --), and were in service all over Asia, whereas the small ones were mainly deployed on the Batavia-Japan route and in the area around Taiwan. Flutes of the smallest dimensions, specially suited for use near Taiwan, were hard to buy in the Netherlands, and most of them were built by the VOC. Typical dimensions were  feet long,  feet wide with a depth in the hold of  feet, or respectively ,  and 1⁄2 feet (Stapel , p. ). When fully laden these flutes could carry approxi- mately  last and had a draught of one foot more than the depth of the hold, which allowed them to reach Fort Zeelandia on Taiwan with a full cargo. In the classification of the flutes, the same margins in dimensions are used as for the yachts, i. e. the most realistic cargo capacities and not those from the egalisaties. Large flutes in Rate  are considered to be of  last or more, and small flutes (Rate ) below that value. Vessels smaller than  last were seldom consistently called flutes. VOC references often refer to them also as boot(je) or galjoot. Other references confirm this ambiguity of type-names for these smaller ves- sels (Hoving , p. ). For this reason a rate for flutes less that  last has not been created. Vessels occasionally called flutes with a lastmaat below this value are included in ‘Rate  – mis- cellaneous vessels’ Miscellaneous small vessels \[Rate\] The VOC used a large number of small and very small vessels in Asia, which were sometimes owned by the Company and sometimes used by or for the VOC in other ways. For many of these vessels, nearly always of Asian origin, we only know the type-name. They were mostly used for local transport in ports and on or to roadsteads. They are not included as the scope of this study is limited to ships that were registered, those which can be distinguished by their own name and those which made voyages from one port to another. In total,  vessels of less than  last meet these requirements and are clearly not yachts. Nearly all vessels over  last can be classified as one of three main vessel types: ship, yacht or flute. The only other ship-type deserving a separate rate for classification is the jonk (junk), of which many were found in the VOC sources. The complication is that this ship type includes a diverse range of vessels: both small vessels, as well as others with a cargo capacity up to  last. The reality is, however, that in Dutch sources many Asian vessels were simply described as junks but were most probably of very divergent designs. The few junks known to have a large  Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters