Page 87 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters
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years. Therefore, a vessel may be counted in successive periods. To determine the size of the fleet at any given time, the entire career of each vessel had to be traced, including all voyages and stays in ports. The analysis of vessel histories provided information about the lastmaat or cargo capacity of each vessel at the time it came into service and throughout its career, supply- ing data on the actual capacity of the VOC fleet per period. Table .: The development of the VOC fleet up to in ten-year periods Table . shows the overall growth of the VOC fleet. In the first years until , the total fleet increases to vessels. For the following years, between and , the number of ships used by the VOC in each ten-year period was stable at around active vessels. Between - there was a drop in the number of vessels in use. It is only after that the capacity grew again to vessels in service. These figures do not represent the size of the fleet at a specific moment in time but the total number of vessels that were employed over a ten year period. In order to understand the policy of the VOC to adjust their fleet to the demands encoun- tered, the figures in Table - have been refined to show the distribution of vessels by rate, this is shown in Table -. By classifying the vessels into rates, it becomes possible to uncover various factors at work in the development of the VOC fleet in Asia. It is important to note that in the early years, almost half the fleet comprised of rate – unspecified ships and by rate comprises less than % of the fleet. This change demonstrates the introduction of the differentiated fleet. Although the rate homeward-bounders were primarily intended for the shipping between Europe and Asia, they also played a substantial role in intra-Asian shipping (up to % of vessels). It seems a maximum number of - vessels of this rate was simultaniously in service from to . Throughout the entire period the proportion of smaller vessels (rate -) is % or higher. The shift in the ’s from rate to rate vessels within this important sector is an interesting development. This change of vessel types indicates the replacement of European vessels for Asian built vessels. Although Table - shows the distribution of vessel types within the fleet for certain periods, it doesn’t reveal the VOC policies governing the building of the fleet in the changing circum- stances. For this information the distribution of vessel types brought into service during these periods needs to be analysed (Table -). The types of vessels that were brought into service by the VOC during the various stages of its establishment in Asia are shown in Table -. The pattern of vessel types introduced is linked to the VOC’s shipping policy. Nevertheless, the data only shows the general develop- ments. A general development that can be seen in Table - is the increase in the percentage of smaller vessels (up to rate ) brought into the fleet, reflecting the changing developments of the intra-Asian shipping policy, while the number of larger vessels remains stable – those predomi- nantly used for inter-Asian shipping. Another reason for this high input of smaller vessels is the shorter lifespan of these vessels. By rates - comprise more than % of the vessels brought into service Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters
