Page 96 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters
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flute, had to be modified. Flutes normally sailed with small crews, some were specially modi- fied for the VOC with a more extensive superstructure in the stern. The extra deck in the hold of the ship (the so called koebrug) constructed to reinforce the larger vessels, gave adequate, although very uncomfortable, accommodation to the large numbers of soldiers sent to Asia (Witsen , p. ). Cargo and ballast of the outbound fleets The expanding organisation in Asia and developing Asian fleet required a growing amount of supplies, equipment and other goods. The new Governor-General Reynst mentioned, in , that the outward bound fleets should bring more equipment to Asia (NA .., VOC , --). He anticipated a serious shortage of sails and ropes to maintain the developing Asian fleet. Although he considered the frugality of the management in the Netherlands, why they did not send those goods in generous quantities, it soon became clear that the available cargo space on the Asian-bound fleets was the bottleneck. From around , almost every ship that left the Netherlands was fully loaded. From Asia regular requests were made to send addi- The ships sailing to Asia were consequently so packed with goods that they had problems with handling the rigging. On board of the Wapen van Hoorn (ID:), wine was stowed on the upper deck in such a way that the sailors had to climb on the barrels in order to pull the ropes (Colenbrander , p. ). The s was also the period when the VOC aimed at privatising the Asian shipping, and it was reluctant to send larger cargo carriers that could remain in Asia. This, of course, also limited the amount of goods that could be sent from the Netherlands. After , when the VOC made the final decision to keep the whole organisation in its own hands, the situation improved and flutes that were leased for the journey to the Atlantic Ocean and back in , were commissioned for intra-Asia shipping (Colenbrander , p. ). Neverthe- less, during the whole period up to the over laden ships departing the Netherlands re- mained a matter of concern. For the skipper it sometimes came close to the point where he had to jettison the cargo in order to save his ship, which of course would have been an affront for an employee of the VOC (Colenbrander , p. ). The demands for European goods by the organisation in Asia were such that, when ships arrived in Batavia only partially laden, there was reason for complaint. For example, in the Chambers Rotterdam and Hoorn had failed to efficiently load their ships. Batavia had asked the Directors in the Netherlands to make sure that the departing ships were well packed with all the items they required in Asia. They were upset because they had already reduced their demands (the so called Indische Eysch (Indian demand)), and had not asked for items that took up a lot of space like roof tiles, bad (cheap) wine, bricks, cement, socks, hats etc and had really hoped to receive yachts, masts, planks and other timber. The ship Frederick Hendrick (ID:) that had arrived that year could have brought a schone partij deelen (a fair amount of planks) (Coolhaas , p. ). Contrary to the general belief that VOC ships departed for Batavia fairly empty (Gaastra , ) most ships were, in fact, fully laden. Illustrative in this case is that Hendrick Decker, in his research on the cargo capacity in , states that retourschepen were one or more feet lower -and therefore more heavily laden- when they left the Netherlands than when they returned (NA .., for the ballast. Without enough ballast the VOC vessels would not be stable and could not sail. This ballast consisted of various heavy materials. In the VOC bought barrels of boulders and in another barrels from Voorcompagnie ships arriving from Asia (NA tional older cargo carriers to meet local transport requirements (Colenbrander , p. ) The VOC was sometimes forced to send ships with the sole purpose of carrying equipment to Asia. Between and , a few old cargo carriers were indeed dispatched. The VOC bought these inexpensive old ships for the transport of provisions (and in the Ambassador of Persia!). These ships were not considered to serve any further purpose then one voyage to Asia after which they could be abandoned or burned (NA .., VOC , -; NA .., VOC , --). Collectie Hudde , p. ) An extra complication was that part of the cargo capacity of the ship was required to be used . Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters .
