Page 89 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters
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carriers could replace more heavily armed vessels, and the decline of the flute in the s reflects the resumption of military tensions in Asia. As stated, the figures in Table - do not represent the size of the fleet at a specific moment in time or developments that could take place within a ten-year period. An examination of se- lected individual years indicates the size of the fleet in use in Asia at certain points. A recon- struction has been made for , , , , and . The selection of these years is based on as the starting point, because this was the first year a Governor-General in Asia actively pursued a policy of building an Asian fleet. After that, eleven-year intervals were cho- sen in order to spread the reference years equally over the periods. As the exercise revealed dramatic changes in the composition of the fleet in the analysed years, the additional reference years of , , and were examined. This analysis showed that the VOC was able to react swiftly to changing circumstances by bringing specific vessels into service in a rela- tively short space of time. 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1611 1 7 3 3 2 1 1615 14 4 1 8 4 1 1622 17 14 24 4 7 8 1 1 1 1 3 1625 13 20 6 9 9 7 2 1 2 9 1628 20 20 2 5 5 7 5 1 3 2 2 1633 17 22 9 4 1 7 4 2 6 3 4 1644 15 18 10 12 15 1 2 5 1 1655 13 18 14 25 10 1 1 3 6 4 1659 20 14 18 12 12 19 9 1 1 1 Table .: The status of development of the VOC fleet in the selected years Table - shows a sharp increase in the size of the VOC fleet in Asia between and . This is related to the build-up phase of a permanent trade and shipping network in Asia to- gether with the deployment of a fleet of ships to fight the English. Yachts of all sizes (rates , and ) were almost exclusively responsible for the growth of the VOC fleet in this period. After a peak in , the size of the fleet stabilised at a slightly lower level in and . This drop was due to the VOC’s strategy of cutting costs by attempting to privatise parts of the shipping in Asia; in line with that policy, to concentrate on the shipping between Europe and Asia and leave the Asian trade to the vrijburgers. One of the first flutes (Gorcum (ID: )) that the VOC sent in the s together with some captured Portuguese fregatten (e.g. Rendez-vous (ID: ) and Nieuwe Parel (ID: )) were sold to the private traders. Also, one can observe the growth of private shipping through the so-called vrijlieden-junks that were purchased locally. At the same time, the number of ships sent from the Netherlands coming into service in Asia shows a clear low in the 's. Between and , the VOC sent vessels to Asia to build an extensive fleet that could counterbalance the fleet of the English. Between and , only vessels were sent out. The absolute low was in , when only three vessels were sent (average for ‘normal years’ was to ). In ships were sent from the Nether- Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters
