Page 214 - Dutch Asiatic Shipping Volume 1

This could lead to complicated interchanges of names, because the ship originally named in the resolution was sometimes able to sail six months later - but under the name of its replacement.17
It will be clear from the preceding survey that the information obtained from the uitloop- boeken and ships' registers is not spread evenly over the entire period of two centuries. For the period up to 1688 the information is limited to details of the ship and the date of departure from the Republic, in certain cases augmented by details of the voyages and, thanks to the Zeeland 'Memoriaal', the names of the masters. W e are far better informed about the period after 1688 when the extensive uitloopboek ΚA 4390A begins, giving data on the voyage and an accurate account of the number of crew on departure. However, in none of the sources are the statements of lasts reliable. As already explained, the directors several times made changes in the recording of lasts, which eventually bore no relation to the actual carrying capacity of the ship.
About the return voyages these sources are extremely brief, for in most cases to the outward bound voyage are simply added the date of arrival home and, after 1688, the name of the master on the return voyage. For the short period 1741-1769 only, dates of departure from Asia are known as well, thanks to the 'Cape' lists.
Daghregisters, Generale Missiven and Overgekomen Brieven en Papieren (Journals, ge­ neral missives and letters and papers received)
Any data complementary to the sources described above have been searched for in the first instance in the various serial sources outside the VOC archives. These sources make it possible to determine the dimensions of the ships for the second half of the seventeenth century and therefore to state tonnages. Moreover they contain lists of homeward bound ships and their cargoes for the seventeenth and a large part of the eighteenth century. But the large gaps in the data on voyages and crews in particular can only be filled by consultation of what has been recorded about them in Batavia or at the Cape of Good Hope.
The Daghregisters gehouden int Gasteel Batavia vant passerende daer ter plaetse als over geheel Nederlandts-India (Journals kept in Batavia Castle of all that goes on there and in
the whole of the Dutch Indies), published between 1887 and 1931, should be considered
first. These journals contain a day to day account of events and incidents, considered by
the Hoge Regering of sufficient importance to merit recording. N o other source could more clearly demonstrate Batavia to be the VOC centre of management and shipping than these journals do. Much attention is paid to the movement of shipping in the Batavia roadstead, and letters and information carried by the ships have been included, sometimes in condensed form, sometimes in extenso. A n d of course the arrivals and departures of ships in the Europe-Asia trade were recorded. At first this was done only briefly, but after ca 1660 extensive accounts are given of the voyages of arriving ships, and name of master and deaths on board are noted down, while for the homeward bound ships name of master, value of cargo and destination are mentioned. These Daghregisters have been published for the years 1624-1682.18 In the Dutch archives only a few fragments of Batavia
17 Interchange of names took place in the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War as well, when a number of ships was brought under neutral flag.
18 J. A. van der Chijs et al. (eds.), Daghregister (Batavia - 's Gravenhage 1887-1931), 31 vols, for the years 1624-1682. Fourteen years are missing: 1630, 1635, 1638-1639, 1646, 1649-1652, 1654- 1655, 1658, 1660 and 1662.