75 the Duyfken

The Great Circle Alfons van der Kraan Vol. 35, No. 1. to return to the Netherland. This request was granted and in November 1654 he left Batavia as Vice-Admiral of the homeward bound fleet. F.W. Stapel, Hubert Hugo, een Zeerover in dienst van de Oost-Indische Compagnie, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indie (BKI), Vol. 86, Parts III and IV. 86 Stapel, “Hubert Hugo, een Zeerover, op. cit., pp 618. 87 Ibid, pp. 618-19. 88 Stokram, Korte Beschrijvinge, pp. 33-35. 89 No information is available regarding the identities of these five black men. It is THE DUYFKEN: AN EXPLORATION OF THE ROLES OF A not certain, therefore, whether these men were disgruntled members of Captain Hugo’s crew or runaway slaves. The latter assumption is not unreasonable REPLICA SHIP because the L’Aigle Noir was heading for the West Indies where, largely on account of the rapidly expanding sugar industry, there was a big market for African slaves. On 11 January 2012, in a press release headed ‘“Little Dove’” to 90 J. A. van der Chijs (ed.), Daghregister gehouden in ‘t Casteel Batavia, 1661 return home to WA’, Western Australia’s Deputy Premier and Minister and 1663, M. Nijhoff, Den Haag, 1891, pp. 422-24. for Tourism, Kim Hames, announced that the Duyfken1606 Replica 91 Cort Verhael door de Opperhoofden van ‘t Schip Aernhem wegens haer wedervaren en verongelucken van voormelte schip, 24-6-1662, Nationaal Foundation would receive government support to bring the Duyfken Archief, Company 1239, fol. 1230. replica back to the state. The release went on to say that the support 92 If this was indeed the case, it would have been another instance of negligence would take the form of a $263,000 grant for the Duyfken to sail from because a careful and conscientious sea captain would have seen to it that all Sydney to Perth, with an additional $125,000 per annum (indexed) for vital equipment aboard his ship was in good working order before venturing out into the ocean. Cort Verhael door de Opperhoofden, op. cit., fol. 1230. 10 years for it to be home ported in Perth. Two state government staff 93 The only hint of the kind of cargo on board the Aernhem comes from Van Hal. members would also be provided to assist with managing the project.1 In his short report to company officials in Ceylon of 8 June 1662, Van Hal Dr Hames said the funding would provide the Duyfken with a permanent expresses regret that the shipwreck survivors had not been able “to salvage any home, while also creating a new tourism attraction and educational of the Company’s property, so that all the gold, jewels, rugs etc. [were lost]”. Cot Verhael door de Opperhoofden, op. cit., fol. 1230. experience for West Australians and visitors. 94 M. Witteveen, Antonio van Diemen: De Opkomst van de Company in Azie, The press release and subsequent comments from the Foundation and Pallas Publications, Den Haag, 2011, p. 189. community groups have celebrated the initiative to bring the vessel back 95 D. Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, Norton, New York, 1998, p. to the place where it was built. Not surprisingly, it has been presented as 161. 96 Bruijn and Gaastra, Dutch-Asiatic Shipping, Vol. I, p. 149. something of a victory to win the Duyfken replica back from the East, 97 Ibid, p. 81. where it had most recently been on display at the National Maritime 98 Ibid. Museum in Sydney. However, one only has to go back some eighteen 99 Ibid, p. 91. months, to mid-2010, to find evidence that getting the Duyfken replica back to Western Australia might not have been such a hard-fought victory. In June of that year an article headed ‘Duyfken looks set to sail into Port Douglas’ appeared on a local web site announcing that a final decision would be taken within the following fortnight as to whether the Duyfken 1606 replica would remain in Cairns or move its regular anchorage to Port Douglas.2 In the article the Mayor of Cairns, Val Schier, indicated that neither she nor her council would have approved 74 75 The Great Circle Howard Worth Vol. 35, No. 1. The Great Circle The Duyfken Vol. 35, No. 1. the Cairns based contract, which had been in place since 2007 when to fulfil useful roles as sail training vessels or working museum ships, the vessel was moved from its original home in Western Australia. She but it is debatable whether the benefits they provide are commensurate believed that the vessel would be better hosted at the marina in Port with the cost of their original construction and upkeep. So why do we Douglas, where it would stand a chance of generating sufficient income continue to build so many of these vessels? Raymond Ashley, President as a tourist attraction to fund itself. and CEO of the Maritime Museum of San Diego, writes: The story, which went on to deal briefly with the original Duyfken’s When we say we preserve or replicate historic or period vessels, seldom are voyage of 1606 and the importance of its place in Australia’s history, we asked or do we ask ourselves, to what end. The purpose or purposes seem inherent to the act, at least to us. Yet if we were to pause from our efforts to was not picked up by any major newspaper or broadcast news service. explain our intentions, most of them would likely have to do with education It was considered a matter of local significance only, in which two in some fashion or another. The exercise is more than academic. Ships are regional Queensland centres debated which could best (or least) afford built and sustained to serve specific purposes, and though these may change over time, clarity of purpose is a necessary ingredient of good planning and the cost of maintaining and operating the little ship. Indeed, the vessel sound preservation.5 was subsequently moved to Port Douglas until late 2011, when she was moved to the National Maritime Museum in Sydney as a replacement There is little doubt that the builders of every historic ship, whether it for the HMB Endeavour until early 2012 as that vessel circumnavigated be a replica, reconstruction or restoration, would essentially agree with the continent. Ashley’s sentiments, and most would be able to point to documentation Even before the Duyfken replica set sail for Sydney to perform for their project that identified at least one, and sometimes multiple this role, there were indications that she would not be returning to purposes for the resultant vessel. Indeed, it is common for proposals Queensland on any permanent basis, and during her time in Darling for those vessels not specifically built for experimental archaeological Harbour, negotiations were being held to find someone with the financial purposes to point to multiple roles as a way of guaranteeing their long- support and desire to provide the ‘Little Dove’ with a new home.3 term sustainability. Yet around the world, a considerable number of these Sadly, the Duyfken reflects the situation for many so-called ‘replicas’ or ships struggle to remain viable. In terms of this article, ‘viable’ is taken ‘reconstructions’ of historic sailing vessels that, initially surrounded by to mean that a particular vessel is able to meet at least the majority of its all the noise and patriotic fervour of some national celebration, so often nominated objectives on a continuing basis in a largely self-sufficient end their life looking for a home. It is therefore worthwhile exploring manner. But many of the vessels require substantial levels of financial the story of the ‘Little Dove’ in order to better understand some of the support, as well as the labour and expertise by unpaid volunteers, to key issues that have contributed to her current situation and relate them, survive. not only to her own future, but also to those of other replica ships now Most international lists of practical (operational) historic ship in Australia and those that may be built in years to come. reconstructions include five Australian vessels, ranging from HM At least the Duyfken still seems to have some kind of operational life, Bark Endeavour through to the timber-hulled paddle steamer William 6 unlike the replica of Henry Hudson’s Halve Maen (Half Moon), built the Fourth. With the latter not currently operational, this leaves just in the Netherlands in 1909 and presented to the American people to four practical ship reconstructions in Australia: HM Bark Endeavour, commemorate the 300th Anniversary of Hudson’s voyage to the New Duyfken, Lady Nelson and Enterprize, operating from Sydney, Fremantle, World. After a brief period during the celebrations in which she made Hobart and Melbourne respectively. Of these the Endeavour, completed a few trips around the harbour, the ship was shunted further and further in 1994, is undoubtedly the best known, serving as an operational up river until removed from the water altogether, becoming a sanctuary museum ship berthed at the Australian National Maritime Museum in for vagrants and vermin before being destroyed by fire in 1934.4 Sydney, from which she makes some harbour and coastal trips, as well It must be acknowledged that a number of these vessels do survive as major journeys such as the circumnavigation of Australia in 2011 and 76 77 The Great Circle Howard Worth Vol. 35, No. 1. The Great Circle The Duyfken Vol. 35, No. 1. the Cairns based contract, which had been in place since 2007 when to fulfil useful roles as sail training vessels or working museum ships, the vessel was moved from its original home in Western Australia.

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