Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T13:32:02.001Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Calamitous Voyages: the social space of shipwreck and mutiny narratives in the Dutch East India Company

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2015

Richard Guy
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article analyses four accounts of mutinies and wrecks of Dutch East India Company ships: those of the Nieuw Hoorn, Batavia, Blydorp and Nijenburg. These stories can be read as worst-case survival manuals, which support the Company’s discourse of discipline. They advise readers that the best option in the event of disaster is to obey the officers’ orders and the Company’s rules, linking this advice to moral and religious ideas of endurance and divine providence that were common in the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. The accounts also link shipboard spatial protocols with proper social order. The stories present the Indies as a dangerous physical and moral testing ground, from which the ship provides a vital protective barrier, but only if the crew acts with disciplined solidarity and shows seamanlike virtues of cohesion and perseverance. Disorder among the crew, especially the breaching of spatial boundaries between officers and men, invites the dangers of the Indies to penetrate the safe space of the ship. Such breaches threaten all the boundaries on which the lives of the ship and crew depend: between the ship and the sea, between moral and immoral behaviour, and between Europeans and the non-European world. Where spatial boundaries break down, the stories show chaos and calamity following. Where the stories have ‘happy endings’, these are brought about by the re-establishment of proper spatial and social hierarchies.

Keywords

VOCliteratureEast India Company
Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , April 2015 , pp. 117 - 140
Copyright
© 2015 Research Institute for History, Leiden University 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Richard Guy is currently a visiting assistant professor of architectural history at Binghamton University. This article was largely written while he was Crone Research Fellow at Het Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

References

Beylen, J. van. Zeilvaart lexicon: viertalig maritiem woordenboek. Weesp: De Boer Maritiem, 1985.Google Scholar
Blackmore, Josiah. Manifest Perdition: Shipwreck Narrative and the Disruption of Empire. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Bontekoe, Willem Ysbrandsz, Geyl, Pieter and Hodgkinson, C. B. Bodde. Memorable Description of the East Indian Voyage, 1618–25. London: Broadway House, 1929.Google Scholar
Bontekoe, Willem Ysbrandsz, Nijgh, Lennaert. Het journaal van Bontekoe: de gedenkwaardige beschrijving van de reis naar Oost-indië van schipper Willem Ijsbrantz. Bontekoe uit Hoorn, in de jaren 1618 tot en met 1625. Schoorl: Pirola, 1989.Google Scholar
Bontekoe, Willem Ysbrandsz, Roeper, V. D.. Iovrnael ofte gedenckwaerdige beschrijvinghe: de wonderlijke avonturen van een schipper in de oost, 1618–1625. Amsterdam: Terra Incognita, 1996.Google Scholar
Brink, Yvonne. “Figuring the Cultural Landscape: Land, Identity and Material Culture at the Cape in the Eighteenth Century.” South African Archaeological Bulletin, 52:166 (1997): 105–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brug, P. H. van der. Malaria en malaise: de VOC in Batavia in de achttiende eeuw. Amsterdam: De Bataafsche Leeuw, 1994.Google Scholar
Bruijn, J. R and van Eyck van Heslinga, E. S.. “De scheepvaart van de Oost-Indische compagnie en het verschijnsel muiterij.” In Muiterij: oproer en berechting op schepen van de VOC, edited by Jaap R. Bruijn and E. S. van Eyck van Heslinga, 9–26. Haarlem: De Boer Maritiem, 1980.Google Scholar
Bruin, G. de and van der Wal, A. J. J.. “Allons Duytsche Broeders.” In Muiterij: oproer en berechting op schepen van de VOC, edited by Jaap R. Bruijn and E. S. van Eyck van Heslinga, 67–83. Haarlem: De Boer Maritiem, 1980.Google Scholar
Camstrup, Nicolaas Jansz and Blaauwhuysen, Haye. Rampspoedige reys-beschryving ofte journaal van ’s ed. Oostindische compagnies schip Blydorp: zijnde gestrand op de Guineese kust in Afrika, ’s nagts tusschen den 7 en 8 Augustus, Anno 1733. Amsterdam, 1735.Google Scholar
Chaudhuri, K. N.Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean: An Economic History From the Rise of Islam to 1750. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crimineele procedures by, mitsgaders voor en ten overstaan van de Hogen Scheeps Krygsraad in Texel gehouden, tegens sommige der muitelingen van het O. I. Schip Neyenburg, in den voorleeden jaare 1763, uit Texel naar Batavia uitgevaren. Amsterdam, 1764.Google Scholar
Dam, Pieter van, Willem Stapel, Frederik and Carel Wessel Theodorus van Boetzelaer van Asperen en Dubbeldam. Beschrijvinge van de Oostindische compagnie, 4 vols. ’s-Gravenhage: Nijhoff, 1927.Google Scholar
Dash, Mike. Batavia’s Graveyard. New York: Crown Publishers, 2002.Google Scholar
Dennis, G. T. “Perils of the Deep.” In Novum Millennium: Studies in Byzantine History and Culture: Dedicated to Paul Speck, 19 December 1999, edited by Claudia Sode, Sarolta A. Takács and Paul Speck, 81–88. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001.Google Scholar
Dewey, Colin. In Deep Water: The Oceanic in the British Imaginary, 1666–1805. Unpublished Diss. Cornell University, 2011.Google Scholar
Durkheim, Émile. The Division of Labor in Society. New York: Free Press of Glencoe, 1964.Google Scholar
Eijnatten, Joris van. “War, Piracy and Religion: Godfried Udemans’ ‘Spiritual Helm’ (1638).” In Property, Piracy and Punishment: Hugo Grotius on War and Booty in De Iure Praedae: Concepts and Contexts. Hans W. Blom, 192–214. Leiden: Brill, 2009.Google Scholar
Foucault, M.“Of Other Spaces”. Diacritics, 16 (1986): 22–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gelder, Roelof van. Het Oost-Indisch avontuur: Duitsers in dienst van de VOC (1600–1800). Nijmegen: SUN, 1997.Google Scholar
Gennep, Arnold van. The Rites of Passage. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960.Google Scholar
Goedde, Lawrence O.“Convention, Realism, and the Interpretation of Dutch and Flemish Tempest Painting.” Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art 16:2/3 (1986): 139–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groot, S. J. de. “De ‘Groote Christelycke Zee-vaert’ en ‘De God-vreezende Zeeman,’ hun meer dan driehonderdjarige rol als toeverlaat voor de zeevarenden.” Mededelingen van de Nederlandse Vereniging voor Zeegeschiedenis 34 (1977): 5–18.Google Scholar
Grotius, Hugo, Van Deman Magoffin, Ralph, Scott, James Brown. The Freedom of the Seas; or, The Right Which Belongs to the Dutch to Take Part in the East Indian Trade. New York: Oxford University Press, 1916.Google Scholar
Heiden, F. J. van der. Vervarelyke Schip-breuk van ‘T Oost-Indisch Jacht Ter Schelling: Onder het landt van Bengale…. Utrecht: Uitgevers Maatschapij, 1944.Google Scholar
Herbert, Thurston. “Symbolism.” In The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church, edited by Charles George Herbermann. New York, 1907.Google Scholar
Hoogenberk, Hendrik. De rechtsvoorschriften voor de vaart op Oost-Indië, 1595–1620. Utrecht: Kemink en zoon, 1940.Google Scholar
Horace and Sidney, Alexander. The Complete Odes and Satires of Horace. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Hullu, J. de, Bruijn, J. R. and Lucassen, J.. Op de schepen der Oost-Indische Compagnie. Groningen: Wolters-Noordhoff, 1980.Google Scholar
Janeway, James, Ryther, John. Mr. James Janeway’s Legacy to his Friends Containing Twenty-seven Famous Instances of God’s Providences in and About Sea Dangers and Deliverances…. London, 1674.Google Scholar
Jonge, Nienke de, Kuijk, Leonoor and Oskamp, Liesbeth. Echt relaas van de muiterij op het Oostindisch Compagnieschip Nijenburg: voor het eerst vershenen in 1764. Amsterdam: Terra Incognita, 1992.Google Scholar
Journaal van het Oost-Indische schip Blydorp, uitgevaren na Batavia. Amsterdam. 1734. KB 16951.Google Scholar
Ketel, Jacob. Echt journal van het voorgevallene op de reize met het Oostindische Compagnie-schip Nyenburg. Amsterdam, 1763.Google Scholar
Ketel, Jacob. Eerste vervolg van het echt relaas en dagverhaal, wegens het afloopen van ’t Oost-Indisch Compagnie-schip Nyenburg…. Amsterdam, 1764.Google Scholar
Ketting, Herman. Leven, werk en rebellie aan boord van Oost-Indiëvaarders (1595–±1650). Amsterdam: Aksant, 2002.Google Scholar
Lach, Donald F. and Van Kley, Edwin J.. Asia in the making of Europe: A Century of Adventure: Trade Missions and Literature, vol. III, book I. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Lamb, Jonathan. Preserving the Self in the South Seas, 1680–1840. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Landwehr, John and van der Krogt, P. C. J.. VOC: A Bibliography of Publications Relating to the Dutch East India Company, 1602–1800. Utrecht: HES Publishers, 1991.Google Scholar
Lincoln, Margarette. “Shipwreck Narratives of the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century: Indicators of Culture and Identity”. British Journal for Eighteenth Century Studies 20:2 (1997): 155–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linebaugh, Peter and Rediker, Marcus. The Many-headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic. Boston: Beacon Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Lucassen, Jan. “A Multinational and its Labor Force: The Dutch East India Company, 1595–1795”. International Labor and Working-Class History 66:1 (2004): 12–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maat, Marieke de. De rampspoedige reys-beschryving: het journaal van het Oostindisch Compagnieschip Blydorp. Unpublished Diss. University of Amsterdam, 2003.Google Scholar
Mentz, Steve. At the Bottom of Shakespeare’s Ocean. London: Continuum, 2009.Google Scholar
Oostindie, Gert and Paasman, Bert. “Dutch Attitudes Towards Colonial Empires, Indigenous Cultures, and Slaves.” Eighteenth-Century Studies 31:3 (1998): 349–355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pelsaert, F. and van Huystee, Marit. The Batavia Journal of Francois Pelsaert (NA VOC 1098 QQ II, fol. 232–316), edited and translated by Marit van Huystee. Report: Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Maritime Museum No. 136, 1994.Google Scholar
Pelsaert, Francisco and van Vliet, Jeremias. Ongeluckige voyagie, van ’t schip Batavia, nae Oost-Indien: uytgevaren onder den E. Francois Pelsaert gebleven op de Abrolhos van Frederick Houtman. Amsterdam, 1647. Available online at: http://www.kb.nl/en/digitized-books/barren-regions/batavia-pelsaert-1629. Accessed 21 Jan, 2014.Google Scholar
Plato, and Jowett, Benjamin. Plato’s The Republic, book 4. New York: The Modern Library, 1941. Available online at http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.7.vi.html. Accessed November 3rd 2013.Google Scholar
Raben, Remco. Batavia and Colombo: The Ethnic and Spatial Order of Two Colonial Cities 1600–1800. Unpublished Diss. University of Leiden, 1996.Google Scholar
Rediker, Marcus. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates, and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700–1750. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.Google Scholar
Rediker, Marcus. The Slave Ship: A Human History. New York: Viking, 2007.Google Scholar
Roeper, Vibeke. “Schipbreuk, moord en muiterij. De reis van de Batavia in 1628–1629.” In De Batavia te water, edited by Vibeke Roeper, Robert Parthesius, Lodewijk Wagenaar and Mans Kuipers. Amsterdam: De Bataafsche Leeuw, 1995.Google Scholar
Roeper, Vibeke. Journalen ter zee ende reysen te lande: de produktie van gedrukte teksten over reizen naar Oost-Indië: 1596–1700. Unpublished Diss. University of Amsterdam, 1992.Google Scholar
Rossum, M. van. “De intra-Aziatische vaart: schepen, ‘de Aziatische zeeman’ en de ondergang van de VOC?” Tijdschrift voor sociale en economische geschiedenis 8:3 (2011): 32–69.Google Scholar
Rynders, H.Gekroond Batavia, zynde verciert met de voornaemste liederen, die hedendaags gezongen werden. Amsterdam, 1700.Google Scholar
Scammell, Geoffrey Vaughn. “European Exiles, Renegades and Outlaws and the Maritime Economy of Asia c. 1500–1750.” Modern Asian Studies, 26: 4 (1992): 641–661.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scammell, Geoffrey Vaughn. The World Encompassed: The First European Maritime Empires, c. 800–1650. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.Google Scholar
Schenkeveld-Van der Dussen, Maria A.Dutch Literature in the Age of Rembrandt: Themes and Ideas. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins, 1991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, Benjamin. Innocence Abroad: The Dutch Imagination and the New World, 1570–1670. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Scott, William Henry. Boat Building and Seamanship in Classic Philippine Society. Manila: National Museum, 1981.Google Scholar
Shell, R. C. H. “Immigration: The Forgotten Factor in Cape Colonial Frontier Expansion, 1658–1817”. Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Comparative Studies 6:2 (2005): 1–38. Available online at http://newhistory.co.za/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Shell-Immigration1.pdf Accessed 23 January 2014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stern, Philip J.“Politics and Ideology in the Early East India Company-State: The Case of St Helena, 1673–1709.” The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 35:1 (2007): 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevin, Simon. “‘Castrametatio,’ dat is legermeting.” In The Principal Works of Simon Stevin, vol. 4. edited by Ernst Crone, et al., 247–398. Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger, 1964. Available online at http://www.dwc.knaw.nl/pub/bronnen/Simon_Stevin-%5BIV%5D_The_Principal_Works_of_Simon_Stevin,_The_Art_of_War.pdf. Accessed 23 January 2014.Google Scholar
Thompson, Carl. Romantic-era Shipwreck Narratives: An Anthology. Nottingham: Trent Editions, 2007.Google Scholar
Thompson, Carl. The Suffering Traveller and the Romantic Imagination. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Titlestad, Michael. “‘Dead to the World, and Almost to Ourselves’: William Mackay’s Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Juno (1798).” South African Historical Journal 61:4 (2009): 788–801.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Udemans, Godefridus. ’t Geestelyck roer van ’t coopmans schip, dat is: trouwbericht hoe dat een coopman en coopvaerder hem selven dragen moet. Dordrecht, 1640.Google Scholar
Udemans, Godefridus. ’t Geestelick compas dat is, nut en nootwendigh bericht voor alle zee-varende ende reysende luyden…. Dordrecht, 1637.Google Scholar
Vink, M. “A Work of Compassion? Dutch Slavery and Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean in the Seventeenth Century.” Paper presented at Seascapes, Littoral Cultures, and Trans-Oceanic Exchanges. Library of Congress, Washington D.C., February 12–15, 2003. Available online at http://archive.is/6dWQJ Accessed 23 January 2014.Google Scholar
VOC-Sea-voyagers Online Database of VOC Personnel Records, a joint initiative of the Netherlands National Archives, the Municipal Archives of Delft, the Municipal Archives of Rotterdam, the Zeeland Archive, the Archives of West Friesland (Hoorn and Enkhuizen), the City Archives of Amsterdam and the history faculties of the University of Leiden and the University of Gent. Available online at http://vocopvarenden.nationaalarchief.nl Last accessed on 9/24/2014.Google Scholar
Westerman, Adam. Groote christelijcke zee-vaert, in XXVI predicatien, in maniere van een zee-postille. Amsterdam, 1664.Google Scholar
Whitman, J. Q.“The Moral Menace of Roman Law and the Making of Commerce: Some Dutch Evidence.” Yale Law Journal 105:7 (1996): 1841–1890.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zimmermann, Peter Carl, van Gelder, Roelof and Camstrup, Nicolaas Jansz. Reise nach Ost- und West-Indien (1771). New York: Scholars’ Facsimiles & Reprints, 1999.Google Scholar