Page 89 - Dutch Asiatic Shipping Volume 1

Losses through actual force of arms amounted to 36 in all. Two ships were captured by Dunkirk privateers in 1630 and 1631, and in the course of their four wars with the Republic the English always took a few. The French had their big chance during the Nine Years War and the War of the Spanish Succession, when they seized fifteen ships in all. No ship was lost between 1712 and 1781. In 1794/95 however nine ships were seized by the French and English. Nonetheless, taken over the whole of the VOC's existence, out of a total of more than 4700 outward voyages less than three percent (141) came to an untimely end by accident or enemy action. Hence only small amounts of out-going precious metals fell into other hands or came to rest on a beach or the bottom of the sea. The Company's salvage men and divers managed to save a good deal of this.