Page 217 - Nicolaes Witsen & Shipbuilding in the Dutch Golden Age
P. 217

How Ships Are Built in Holland Today
  751⁄2 Pounds of Wax, and ⎫⎬ 50 Pounds of Tallow ⎭
Candles.
On the voyage every man needs a cask of B randy, or some other strong liquor; which every man provides for at his own cost, to his own satisfaction.
On the Dutch men- of-war the sailors are provided for as follows.
General list, of the victuals on a ship, for one hundred heads a month.
2250 Pounds of hard bread, up 5 pounds each head
per week.
40 Sacks of soft bread.
450 Pounds of cheese, is 1 pound for each head per week.
5 Tuns of Meat, is 11⁄2 pounds each man a day: and 2 days in the week.
400 Pounds of Stock sh when it is herring, if not 700 pounds are needed.
4 Tuns of Herring a month. 11⁄2 Vats of Butter a month.
51⁄2 Pipes of barley a month.
41⁄2 Narrow casks of white or green peas. 21⁄2 Narrow casks of bean, or yellow peas a
month.
1⁄2 Narrow cask of white salt a month. 1⁄2 Hogshead of Vinegar a month.
35 Barrels of Beer in winter, and 42 in Summer.
4 Fathoms of Firewood in winter, and in summer 3 fathoms. [A bundle of firewood one fathom long is a “cord.”]
For the Cabin.
1⁄4 4 2 1
1⁄4 2 2
1 3
And
Hogshead of French Wine a month.
Stopen of Spanish wine a month.
Stoop of Brandy a month.
Ham, and in summer a piece of smoked meat as well.
Dutch butter for 4 months.
Pounds of Sugar a month.
Barrels of white biscuit for the journey.
su cient water.
Enough Cumin and fresh Cheese. Furnished Spice box.
Stoop of Oil for the journey.
Enough Mustard seed.
137. Loose Implements
Many interesting facts about life on board (and on l and) can be derived from Witsen’s inventory list. The crew’s diet and eating habits could be examined as well as the ship’s medical facilities, the spare par ts needed, and so on. A good example of such research can be found in the Hollandia Compendium, which includes an inventor y list based on the resolutions of the Dutch East India Company for equipping its ships.17
However, since the current study is focused on ship- building instead of equipment, we sh all not go into the details of the in ventory such household uten sils, side arms, and victuals.
Some interestingandimpor tant conclusions about shipbuilding can, however, be dr awn from Witsen’s list. The armament of the pin as, for in stance, can be fou nd only in this inventory. The same goes for the flags and the equipment of the boat (here called boerenschuit). What is especially interesting is that the pinas carried a large oar for every gunport, “for chasing or fleeing in a calm.” These were stowed outboard below the channels.
The measures used by Witsen are of course obsolete; some of them are li sted below w ith the c ontemporary equivalent:
1 mengel = 1.225 liters (according to Van Beylen, 1.2125 liters) = 18 kilograms
1 barrel = 4 hogsheads = 931.32 liters
1 aum = 128 mengelen = 155.22 liters
1 hogshead = 11⁄2 aums = 232.83 liters 1 cask = 122.7 liters
1 sack = 83.5 liters
1 stoop = 2 mengelen = 2.45 liters
(So 1 barrel = 4 hogsheads = 6 aums = 384 stoop = 768 mengelen)
The weight of the total equipment, calculated as accu- rately as possible in modern units of measurement, would come to about 150 tons. On this ship of 600 tons, with its own weight of 300 tons, this means that its cargo capacity was about 150,000 kilogr ams. This seems a f airly small amount, relatively speaking.
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