Dutch East India Company Shipbuilding: The Archaeological Study of Batavia and Other Seventeenth-Century VOC Ships

328 Pages·2015·34.06 MB·English

by  Wendy van Duivenvoorde

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ed rachal foundation
nautical archaeology
series
In association with the
Institute of Nautical
Archaeology
and the Center for Maritime
Archaeology and Conservation

Dutch
East India
Company
Shipbuilding
   
   -
  
Wendy van Duivenvoorde
foreword by jeremy green
texas a&m university press College Station
Copyright © 2015 by Wendy van Duivenvoorde
Manufactured in the United States of America
All rights reserved
First edition
Th is paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
Binding materials have been chosen for durability.
o
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data
Van Duivenvoorde, Wendy, 1974–, author.
Dutch East India Company shipbuilding: the archaeological study of Batavia and other
seventeenth-century VOC ships / Wendy van Duivenvoorde; foreword by Jeremy Green.—First edition.
pages cm—(Ed Rachal Foundation nautical archaeology series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-1-62349-179-6 (printed case: alk. paper)—isbn 978-1-62349-231-1 (ebook) 1. Batavia (Ship)
2. Nederlandsche Oost-Indische Compagnie—History. 3. Indiamen—Netherlands. 4. Shipbuilding—
Netherlands—History—17th century. 5. Hulls (Naval architecture)—Design and construction. 6.
Shipwrecks—Australia—Western Australia. 7. Underwater archaeology—Australia—Western Australia.
I. Title. II. Series: Ed Rachal Foundation nautical archaeological series.
vm393.i64v36 2015
623.82209492(cid:2)09032—dc23
2014019853
To my parents,
Jacobus Johannes van Duivenvoorde
and
Anna Klazina Maria van Duivenvoorde- Knopjes

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Foreword, by Jeremy Green ix
Acknowledgments xi
Legend for Timber Drawings xiii
1 Introduction 1
2 From Carvel Construction to VOC Shipbuilding 8
3 Site Formation, Excavation, and Reconstruction 40
4 Hull Study and Description 73
5 Th e Archaeology of Dutch Oceangoing Ships 143
6 Double- Hull Planking and Sheathing 186
7 Timber Used in the Construction of Batavia 206
8 Analysis of Batavia’s Hull and Construction 224
9 Conclusion 235
Appendix A: VOC Ship Construction Charters 241
Appendix B: Catalog of Batavia Hull Remains 253
Appendix C: Terminology for Dendrochronological Research,
by Elsemieke Hanraets 265
Notes 267
Bibliography 291
Index 303


It is with great pleasure that I write the foreword for this book. Having spent most of
the 1970s excavating and researching the Batavia shipwreck, and then fi nally overseeing
reconstruction of the recovered surviving portion of the ship’s hull aft er a lengthy con-
servation process, I was aware that the details of hull construction had not been properly
documented. At the Fift h International Symposium on Boat and Ship Archaeology in
Amsterdam in 1988, I presented a paper on the planking-fi rst construction of Batavia’s
hull. Th is came as a bit of a shock to many of the conference participants, as it was
generally accepted that planking-fi rst, or shell-fi rst, construction had died out by the
seventeenth century. At that time, few seventeenth- century ships had been excavated
archaeologically, and no other hull structure from a Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie
(VOC) ship had been excavated. Subsequent examination of contemporary paintings
and illustrations revealed that this system was widely used, at least in the Netherlands,
and particularly by the VOC. However, the thought of documenting the Batavia hull in
great detail was for me quite daunting. What I needed was a researcher well versed in
nautical archaeology and wooden ship construction who was also capable of studying
Dutch archival material.
In June 2002, I ran into Wendy van Duivenvoorde at the Bodrum airport in Turkey.
We were both on our way to the International Symposium and Workshop on Underwater
Archaeology, hosted by Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and the Institute of Nautical Archae-
ology (INA) in Bodrum and at nearby Pabuç Burnu. Wendy and I had worked together
the previous summer at Tektaş Burnu, Turkey, on the fi nal season of INA’s Classical
shipwreck excavation and later in Galle, Sri Lanka, on the VOC Avondster project. Our
concurrent arrival in Bodrum, from opposite sides of the world, was truly serendipitous,
and I was not about to waste this opportune encounter. As we walked together through
the airport lobby, chatting casually and catching up on what we had been up to since we
last saw each other, I asked Wendy about her long- term plans. When she replied that she
was somewhat frustrated in fi nding a ship-r elated research project, I wasted no time in
making a pitch. Here was a Dutch maritime archaeologist eager for a research project,
and I had just the thing. We were still making our way through customs when I told her
of the Batavia hull remains that needed studying, as well as related materials from three
other VOC shipwrecks in the Western Australian (WA) Museum. I off ered her not only
the material for study but also a position at the museum. We collected our luggage and
headed off to the conference, all the while discussing possible research plans, specifi cs
about the archaeological material, living in Fremantle, and sundry other matters.
Upon her return to Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, Wendy developed
and submitted a formal research proposal for the project. Aft er receiving approval, she
spent the following two years conducting historical and archival research but also visited
the museum on two occasions to begin the recording and sampling program. In 2006,
Wendy fi nally relocated to Fremantle and started work as an assistant curator in the WA
Museum’s Department of Maritime Archaeology. It took another two years and count-
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