* omslag Dutch Ships in Tropical:DEF 18-08-09 13:30 Pagina 1 dutch ships in tropical waters robert parthesius The end of the 16th century saw Dutch expansion in Asia, as the Dutch East India Company (the VOC) was fast becoming an Asian power, both political and economic. By 1669, the VOC was the richest private company the world had ever seen. This landmark study looks at perhaps the most important tool in the Company’ trading – its ships. In order to reconstruct the complete shipping activities of the VOC, the author created a unique database of the ships’ movements, including frigates and other, hitherto ignored, smaller vessels. Parthesius’s research into the routes and the types of ships in the service of the VOC proves that it was precisely the wide range of types and sizes of vessels that gave the Company the ability to sail – and continue its profitable trade – the year round. Furthermore, it appears that the VOC commanded at least twice the number of ships than earlier historians have ascertained. Combining the best of maritime and social history, this book will change our understanding of the commercial dynamics of the most successful economic organization of the period. robert parthesius Robert Parthesius is a naval historian and director of the Centre for International Heritage Activities in Leiden. dutch ships in amsterdam tropical waters studies in the dutch golden age The Development of 978 90 5356 517 9 the Dutch East India Company (voc) Amsterdam University Press Shipping Network in Asia www.aup.nl dissertation 1595-1660 Amsterdam University Press Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters The development of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) shipping network in Asia - Robert Parthesius Founded in as part of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Amsterdam (UvA), the Amsterdam Centre for the Study of the Golden Age (Amsterdams Centrum voor de Studie van de Gouden Eeuw) aims to promote the history and culture of the Dutch Republic during the ‘long’ seventeenth century (c. -). The Centre’s publications provide an insight into the lively diversity and continuing relevance of the Dutch Golden Age. They offer original studies on a wide variety of topics, ranging from Rembrandt to Vondel, from Beeldenstorm (iconoclastic fury) to Ware Vrijheid (True Freedom), and from Batavia to New Amsterdam. Politics, religion, culture, economics, expansion and warfare all come together in the Centre’s interdisciplinary setting. Editorial control is in the hands of international scholars specialised in seventeenth-century history, art and literature. For more information see www.aup.nl/goudeneeuw or http://cf.uba. uva.nl/goudeneeuw/. Cover illustration: C.P. Mooy, VOC ships at the Cape of Good Hope, Amsterdams Historisch Mu- seum. Cover design: Kok Korpershoek, Amsterdam Layout: Japes, Amsterdam ISBN e-ISBN NUR / © R. Parthesius / Amsterdam University Press, All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Table of contents Foreword Introduction Dutch ships in Asian waters Purpose of this study: ‘The missing link’ Structure of the book The database and methodology Introduction Ships in the database Ship types and rates: Classifying the ships Terminological issues The structure of the voyages Part Development of the VOC shipping network in Asia The Dutch expansion in Asia up to The Voor-Compagnieën and the VOC Searching for a suitable organisation in Asia up to Building a permanent structure in Asia up to The expansion of the VOC network up to The general development of the Asian shipping Connecting the Asian regions: The trading and shipping network in operation after Introduction The main routes in Asia Inter-regional transport: The compilation of the ‘return cargo’ in the s The development of the VOC fleet The homeward-bounder or retourschip [Rate ] Men-of-war [Rate ] Ships [Rate ] Yachts [Rate , , and ] Frigates and other small vessels [Rate ] Prefabricated vessels (Afbreekboots) [Rate ] Flutes [Rate and ] Miscellaneous small vessels [Rate ] Availability of a suitable fleet: review of the composition of the fleet to The shipping and logistics in operation Introduction The early stage of Dutch shipping in Asia Logistics of the shipping route to Asia Logistics of the shipping within Asia Loading the fleet: ballast and cargo in Asia Crewing the fleet in Asia Knitting all the threads together: The logistics of the network Batavia as the spider in the web of logistical organisation Succes of the VOC: Attuning the organisation and the various networks Part The shipping and ships in numbers An analysis of the development of VOC shipping in Asia until Development to in ten-year intervals Fleets per region Interpretation Conclusions Focus on the Dutch shipping network in Asia The Dutch shipping in Asia to The efficient Dutch system A VOC fleet for Asia Input of new vessels into the fleet Weaving it all into an efficient maritime network Notes References Primary sources Printed primary sources Secondary sources List of vessels in service by the VOC during the period - Index Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters The people that we call the Red-haired or Red Barbarians are one and the same as the Hollanders and they live on the Western Ocean. They are greedy and cunning, have ample knowledge of valuable goods, and are skilled at seeking their own advantage. For profit they do not even hesitate to jeopardise their own lives, and no place is too distant for them to try and reach it. [...] Who meets them at sea, will certainly be robbed. Thai-Wan Hoe Tsi (after Groeneveldt ) Foreword ‘How to create a monster and how to get it back in its cage’ seems to be an appropriate motto for this research project of mine. Not because the research and the work itself turned out to be monstrous but because my own ambitions and the ensuing consequences went out of hand. What started with the idea of reconstructing the shipping history of some VOC ships in the th century gradually evolved into a systematic study on the whole VOC fleet and their ship- ping activities in Asia until . I had initially hoped for my research to just shed light on an underexposed aspect of the Dutch and Asian maritime history, but found wrestling with the ever growing database of VOC ships in service and the voyages they made. Meant to support me in the analyses of the development of the shipping network in Asia it turned out to be a project and a creature in itself. To date it contains more than . records of voyages to about individual destinations. Of these, . voyages between destinations in Asian areas are relevant to this study. Of course, this monster was created voluntarily and primarily nourished by my curiosity to find out more about the maritime context the VOC ships were operating in. This interest was sparked already in the ’s during my research work for the Batavia-project, in first The Netherlands for the ‘replica’ building in Lelystad, and later also in Australia for the Western Australian Maritime Museum. Since then I have been privileged to be part of various other projects centred around the activities of VOC in Asian waters of which the Avondster project in Sri Lanka was the highlight. I feel privileged not only because I was able to work on exiting projects but above all, because it brought me in contact with wonderful colleagues many of which have become friends. Here, I would really like to pay tribute to the team members of the various projects I worked on. Together with the support of other friends and colleagues from the Western Australian Mari- time Museum and the Amsterdam Historical Museum the writing of this publication became an academic adventure rather than the synonym more often used: the lonesome quest. With so many people supporting my work it is difficult to single out some of them with a special acknowledgement. Still, there are a few that played a special role in the conception of this research. First of all, the people that inspired me to start this intellectual journey by stimu- lating me to look always for a new question behind an answer: Jeremy Green, Bas Kist and of course my supervisor Leo Noordegraaf. Then, the people who stimulated me to carry on and made it possible to fulfil this task: Isabelle Garachon, Camille Parthesius, Romain Parthesius. The support I received in that respect from Pauline Kruseman, director of the Amsterdam His- torical Museum, was essential and heart warming. Special thanks to Menno Leenstra who be- came the driving force behind the establishment of the database by continuously collecting ‘trips and ships’ and whose comments and advice were of invaluable importance to me. Het Centrum voor de studie van de Gouden Eeuw, on instigation of its director Henk van Nierop, sup- ported me financially to complete the final stage of this research. Then, there are those who just believed in this endeavour and therefore supported me im- mensely. There were many but four need to be singled out: Karen Millar, Albert van Nunen Karioen, Miranda Vos and Patricia Meehan. I also would like to thank Karina Acton, Christine van der Pijl-Ketel and Fred Lambert for reading the text and correcting ‘my English’. Although I enjoyed the whole process of this research tremendously, the real delight of the work laid in the tail end. During the last year, when the writing and deciding on the final draft of a publication can get a bit complicated, Olive Schmidenberg crossed my path to inspire and assist me.