THE VOC
"Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie"
DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY
With a fleet of hundreds of ships bristling with cannon and thousands of employees in the Netherlands, Africa and Asia,
the VOC (United East India Company) was, for a couple of hundred years from the 1500's, the most powerful commercial enterprise in the world.
Life on a VOC ship was not pleasant but that was true of life at sea in general. The drinking water, after acouple of months, was so black and foul smelling that they had to clench their teeth together to strain out the worms.
On long sea voyages, without fresh vegetables, scurvy was a major problem that led to the death of many aboard the ships. One day the cook, looking down into the hold, asked the mess steward what vegetables he could find to make a soup. The crew was gripped with fear, when the Steward shouted:
“We’ve got some big leeks down here” |
THE VOC BATAVIA
A Virtual Reconstruction of the
Batavia Shipwreck in Its Landscape
John McCarthy
Open Access paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.... We present a digital reconstruction of a shipwreck in a landscape context, illustrating the value of combining and synthesizing spatial data from a wide variety of sources to provide new insights on a heavily studied archaeological site. The shipwreck used for this case study is Batavia, one of the best known shipwrecks in the world due to its rarity as an early Dutch East Indiaman, its association with the early days of the discipline of maritime archaeology, and with the dramatic events that followed the wrecking of the ship on an isolated reef off the west coast of Australia in 1629. The digital reconstruction of this shipwreck site leverages LiDAR, ship-construction manuals, and contemporary and modern ship models with underwater photogrammetry to provide new insights on the aftermath of the wrecking, site taphonomy on the seabed, and to recreate the visual aspects of the site.
PERHAPS THE WORST, MOST EVIL VOC EVENT
Episode 1-4 documentary of The VOC ship The Batavia.
The Batavia: Episode 1 - Storms and Mutiny
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In 1628, the largest Dutch United East India Company's Returnship, 'The Batavia', was on her way to Batavia, VOC headquarters on Java in the East Indies. She had over 300 souls on board and very valuable cargo.
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The Batavia: Episode 2 - Flotsam and Jetsam
In 1628, the largest Dutch United East India Company's Returnship, 'The Batavia,' was on her way to Batavia, VOC headquarters on Java in the East Indies. She had over 300 souls on board and precious cargo. After the Captain had a falling out with the Upper Merchant, he and the Under Merchant started planning a mutiny. Then the ship ran aground...
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The Batavia: Episode 3 - Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
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In 1628, the largest Dutch United East India Company's Returnship, 'The Batavia,' was on her way to Batavia, VOC headquarters on Java in the East Indies. She had over 300 souls on board and very valuable cargo. The Upper Merchant Francisco Pelsaert reached company headquarters and hoped the Governor-General Jan Pieterszn Coen would send help.
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In the meantime, on the islands, Under Merchant Jeronimus Cornelisz plotted to take over any rescue ship once it arrived and go pirating. He was gathering mutineers, but everyone else had to go.
The Batavia: Episode 4 - Come Hell or High Water
In 1628, the largest Dutch United East India Company's Returnship, 'The Batavia', on her way to Batavia crashed on the Houtman Abrolhos Islands, off the coast of Western Australia. Help was underway, but Under Merchant Jeronimus Cornelisz plotted to take over any rescue ship once it arrived and go pirating.
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He ordered the deaths of anyone who could ruin their plans. One group of survivors were led by soldier Wiebbe Hayes, who intended to defend themselves tooth and nail against attacks from the Under Merchant.
VOC TRADING
Anything from Silk to Slaves
TRADING TREASURE
Valuable spices used in food preparation across Europe included pepper, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, saffron, anise, zedoary, cumin, and cloves.
Sacks of spices were required for royal banquets and weddings, and we know, for example, that in the 15th century, the household of the Duke of Buckingham in England went through two pounds (900 grammes) of spice every day, mostly pepper and ginger.
But the Dutch discoverd a short cut from Cape of Good Hope to the Western Australian Coastline and using the trade winds to head North they shortened the journey by 6 months.
VOC SLAVE TRADERS
An example of ‘Man’s inhumanity to man’
The VOC was not only a “merchant” company but also operated as a military power, government, and even agricultural producer. In these roles, the VOC was involved in the forced relocation of people to work on VOC projects. This was slavery, in which people lose all their God given, human rights and are treated as a commodity to use, abuse, sell or trade. Slavery, is one of the World’s oldest examples of ‘Man’s inhumanity to man’ Slavery has deep and far-reaching roots, stretching back to the beginnings of historical times in many parts of the world. For most of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Dutch were active participants and sometimes the leaders in the slave trade. It has been estimated that in the 17th-18th centuries, 600, 000 to perhaps over 1000,000 people were enslaved and forcibly transported to the territories under control of the Dutch East India Company.
Because their slave trade was relitively insignificant in monetary terms, many studies on the Dutch East India Company mention slaves, only in passing.
In the 18th century the volume of Dutch slave trade was substantially larger than in the seventeenth century, but slaves only accounted for 0.5% of the total value of company trade. This was probably because, rather than being sold to the highest bidder on the world's slave market, most slaves were kept by the VOC as their own free labour.
In the 18th century the volume of Dutch slave trade was substantially larger than in the seventeenth century, but slaves only accounted for 0.5% of the total value of company trade. This was probably because, rather than being sold to the highest bidder on the world's slave market, most slaves were kept by the VOC as their own free labour.
VOC SLAVE SHIP
The Meermin
The Meermin an 18th-century Dutch cargo ship of the hoeker type was built and owned by the Dutch East India Company. Construction began in 1759 and she was fitted out as a slave ship. But her career was cut short by a mutiny of her slave cargo of Malagasy people.
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They had been sold to Dutch East India Company officials on Madagascar, to be used as company slaves in its Cape Colony in southern Africa. Half her crew and almost 30 Malagasy lost their lives in the mutiny; the mutineers deliberately allowed the ship to drift aground off
Struisbaai, now in South Africa, in March 1766, and she broke up in situ. As of 2013, shipwreck exploresrs had not found the Meermin's remains.
Secrets of the dead: SLAVE SHIP MUTINY (Documentary)
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THE VOC FLAG
Feared by some just as much as the 'Jolly Roger'
The companies arrogance is evident in their unofficial, blasphemous motto “Jesus Christ is good, but trade is better”
I am reminded of the Titanic when, as legend has it, the arrogant Capt. Edward J. Smith, steaming at full speed said;
“Even God couldn’t sink the Titanic” ( “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” Galatians 6:7)
“Even God couldn’t sink the Titanic” ( “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” Galatians 6:7)
THE TREASURE SHIPS OF THE VOC
In their day they would be considered as cargo ships,
Today the ships and their cargo is treasure!
Over 1400 ships have been wrecked on the coast of Western Australia. Only a few of those are known to be VOC vessels.
The Gilt Dragon and others of the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC) would have looked very similar to the ship at right. They all carried cannon to protect their treasure which included chests of silver coins to pay for their purchases of silk and spices etc. |
LIFE AS A DUTCH SAILOR
On an East Indiaman bound for the East Indies (Indonesia) A 4 Part Series
On an East Indiaman bound for the East Indies (Indonesia) A 4 Part Series
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FIRE DAMAGED VOC SHIP
undergoing repairs
Email Rex Woodmore: [email protected]
#VOC #dutch #east #indiaman #Indies #company #corporation #ships #coins
#porcelain #spices
#porcelain #spices