Page 95 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters
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) and the Sonne en Amsterdam four half amen ( litres) (NA .., VOC , uitrust- ing ). A more intensive method was the growing of vegetables on board (Commelin g, p.) . Often, however, these measures were not sufficient to keep the crew fit on the long voyages (NA ,., VOC , Resoluties Bantam). Some ships made the trip to Java without a stopover, although passing the Cape of Good Hope without taking on refreshments was not without risk. For instance, in January , the Wapen van Delft (ID:) arrived after a voyage of months with deaths. In May , the ship Nieuw Delft)ID left the Netherlands and passed the Cape without taking on refresh- ments. It then proceeded to sail along Madagascar and Mozambique, finally arriving in a deso- late condition on the west coast of Sumatra. people had died including the merchant, the skipper and other officers. Eventually the ship had to sail to Batavia under the command of a ‘Maleytsche’ local steersman and arrived fourteen months after its departure in July (Cool- haas , p. ). Ten years later, in , the ship Hof van Zeelandt (ID:) also suffered many losses when a storm forced them to bypass the Cape. In Mauritius twenty people were left behind who were too weak to continue the voyage, another twenty-three died (De Hullu , p. ). The normal practice was that, on most voyages between Europe and Asia, ships made a stopover. In the period examined, this system centred around one fixed staging post on the Cape of Good Hope, officially established as a colony in . The choice of seaway and the design of the rigging determined the speed and thus the dura- tion of the voyage. Most vessels sailing from the Netherlands to Asia had three masts. Gener- ally, the rigging of VOC ships was the same as was usual for large vessels on the northwest European shipping routes of the period. Mainly square sails were used on the three masts and the bowsprit. Each of the three masts was divided into a lower mast, extended with strike-able topmasts and topgallants. The system of extendable topmasts made it possible to adjust the length and the surface of the sails to the circumstances. Topmasts could be taken down during periods of strong winds or high waves, thus saving the rigging. The topgallant sails in particu- lar were useful in maintaining a minimum speed in regions of little wind. This flexible rigging had big advantages for the transatlantic crossings with changing wind and sea conditions and even the smallest VOC vessels were, therefore, capable of making the voyage to Asia. There is no evidence in either the written or the pictorial references that other rigging was in use for vessels sailing to Asia in this period. Even the smaller galjoten, sailing to Asia from around had three masts, contrary to the practice for these vessels in Europe (NA .., VOC , fol. ). Apart from the flexibility of operating the rigging under var- ious conditions, the composition of the masts in three parts offered an additional advantage. The size of the masts’ parts was limited, which made it possible to carry sufficient spare spars and made replacement during the voyage relatively easy. A vessel needed to leave for such a long intercontinental voyage substantially over-crewed to be able to buffer possible losses of crewmembers. This lesson was learnt during the period of the Voorcompagnieën, when it became clear that a crew size based on a voyage in Europe could cause serious logistical problems. The VOC sailed with twice the number of crew than was required for a European cargo carrier. In addition, the ships were also employed for the trans- port of the staff and soldiers required for the organisation in Asia. It was not unusual for these ships to have triple the number of men on board on their way to Asia than on their homeward bound voyage. For the return voyage, the VOC also had to calculate a safe number of crew- members because people that were being repatriated after serving their contract in Asia were often not willing to assist in the work. In addition, homeward-bound ships often had problems with stowaways, which could also cause problems with the provisions Consequently, the difference in the number of people on board made the cargo capacity on the homeward bound ships much bigger than on the outward sailing ships. Some of the smaller vessels were clearly unable to transport more than their own crew, enough water for a few months and food that would make them self-sufficient for a year. Larger vessels needed to be specially modified to serve as a ‘people carrier’. The transport of higher ranked personnel influ- enced the spatial layout of the ships. Staff above a certain rank had the right to be housed on the higher levels of the ship (‘above deck’). In some cases, extra temporary accommodation had to be put in to meet this requirement. In other cases, the basic design of a certain vessel type, the The shipping and logistics in operation
