The analysis of the wreck of the Batavia sheds light on the know-how of Dutch shipyards during the Golden Age.
How were the Dutch able to dominate world trade in the 17th century? Thanks to their mastery of shipbuilding and their wood supply network. This is what the first dendrochronological analysis of the wreck of the "Batavia", the flagship of the Dutch East India Company's fleet, which ran aground off the coast of Australia in 1629, during its maiden voyage, reveals.
In the 17th century, the United Provinces (which would become the Netherlands in the 19th century) experienced a tremendous economic boom by acquiring a colonial empire in Southeast Asia largely removed from their Iberian, but also French and English competitors. Conquered in 1619, Jakarta, today the capital of Indonesia, was renamed Batavia, and became the destination of countless ocean-going ships. But how did the Dutch build these ships, even though there were virtually no forests on their territory and a shortage of oak trees on the European continent?
A study published in PLoS One, led by naval archaeologist Wendy van Duivenvoorde of Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, provides answers to these questions by analyzing a prime source: the most iconic wreck of the Dutch East India Company, the Batavia. Stranded off the coast of Australia on its maiden voyage in 1629, it offers a unique opportunity to understand the innovative construction methods and identify the sources of timber for the shipyards of this unusual company, which was the first joint stock company and is now considered the first multinational.
Analysis of the Batavia wreck highlights the expertise of Dutch shipyards during the Golden Age
As a sign of its power, the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, abbreviated to VOC) had its own shipyards build the ships it equipped. This activity became so extensive from the 17th century onwards that timber became one of the five most important import products of the Republic.
To trace this supply, researchers have a major source: the archives of the VOC. All the transactions made during the two centuries of its existence (1602-1795) have been recorded in detail. However, despite the richness of these exceptional documents, listed in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register since 2003, no mention is made of the origin of the imported wood. To shed light on what remains a mystery, one must turn to the remains of VOC ships, in this case the wreck of the Batavia, the only vessel of the company dating from the early 17th century that has been brought to the surface. Built in two and a half years, the three-masted ship took the lead of a fleet of six ships in October 1628, heading for the Dutch Indies, which it would never reach. On June 4, 1629, it ran into a reef in the Houtman Abrolhos archipelago, off the west coast of Australia.
This shipwreck gave rise to a real massacre among the survivors who had to stay on the spot while waiting for help, as evidenced by the excavations carried out in the archipelago during the 1970s. Part of the hull was reassembled and has been exhibited since 1991 at the Western Australian Shipwrecks Museum in Fremantle (Australia). It is an exceptional source of information on the new shipbuilding methods of the time.
The remains of the Batavia's hull, exposed at the Western Australian Shipwrecks Museum in Fremantle (Australia). :copyright: Western Australian Museum
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