While other countries faced shortages of wood for the construction of their ships, the Dutch Republic had plenty of wood. And now we better understand why.

One of the most famous VOC ships from the glorious 17th century is without a doubt the Batavia. This Dutch showpiece was built between 1627 and 1628 on the Peperwerf in Amsterdam. But the ship did not last long. On its maiden voyage, in June 1629, the Batavia was wrecked on Morning Reef, off Australia’s west coast. Researchers have become involved a new study bent over the wrecked ship. Because the wood with which this ship was built about three hundred years ago, provides interesting information about Dutch maritime domination.

More about the sinking of the Batavia
The VOC ship Batavia was wrecked in 1629 on a coral reef about 40 miles off the coast of Western Australia. More than 200 people survived the shipwreck and reached several small coral islands. During the absence of the chief merchant, who had left for help, a mutiny broke out among the survivors. Over the next three months, more than 100 men, women and children were killed. Many have been thrown into the sea. About 80 victims were buried on the island called Batavia’s Kerkhof, now known as Beacon Island.

In the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) grew into the first multinational trading company. This led to the rise of the stock market and modern capitalism. “The Dutch economy flourished in the 17th century thanks to trade and ships were the pillars on which this trade was based,” says researcher Marta Domínguez Delmás in an interview with Scientias.nl. In total, no fewer than 706 ships were built in the shipyards in the Dutch Republic in the 17th century. 75 of them were eventually shipwrecked, while 23 were captured by enemy troops or pirates.

Question mark

A big question mark, however, is how the Netherlands, a small country without many domestic resources, managed to grow into such a major protagonist in international shipping. “The use of wind-powered sawmills became commonplace in the Dutch Republic around the middle of the 17th century,” says researcher Wendy van Duivenvoorde. “This enabled the Dutch to build unprecedented numbers of seagoing vessels for their long voyages and inter-regional trade in Asia. But how did they organize the supply of such an intensive shipbuilding activity? The Republic certainly lacked its own wood.”

Wood shortage

It means that little is actually known about the types of wood that enabled the Dutch to build their sea-going vessels and dominate international trade compared to competitors in France, Portugal and continental Europe, all of which were struggling with wood shortages. Oak wood was preferred for the construction of ships. But the seafaring nations struggled to ensure sufficient supplies to meet their needs and maintain their ever-expanding fleets. “In the 17th century, all the great maritime nations – think England, Spain and Portugal – struggled to get wood to build their ships with,” explains Domínguez Delmás. “None of them had domestic supplies, so they imported wood from forested areas from Scandinavia, Poland and the present-day Baltic republics. The Portuguese and Spaniards even started building their ships in their colonies. The VOC never did that; they built their ships only at the Dutch shipyards.”

Batavia

To find out how the Dutch managed to cope with this problem so successfully, the researchers turned to the famous Batavia ship in their study. According to the team, this ship is the epitome of 17th-century Dutch East Indies shipbuilding. “The Batavia was built between 1626-28; a time of European trans-oceanic expansion and colonialism,” emphasizes Domínguez Delmás. “The Dutch also started to settle overseas. Such long sea voyages required strong ships that could also carry large loads. VOC shipbuilders understood this and started building ships with two thick layers of hull planks, plus an extra layer of pine and copper. Because the Batavia ship is one of the few ships that has been recovered, it gives us an exceptional glimpse into the construction – which required huge amounts of wood – and into the delivery of the materials used to build it.”

samples

The remains of the Batavia were excavated in 1970 and exhibited in the Western Australian Shipwrecks Museum, located in the Australian port city of Fremantle. This enabled the team to sample the ship’s timbers. “Because the Batavia sank on its maiden voyage to Indonesia, the ship did not undergo repairs before it sank,” says Domínguez Delmás. “This means that all the woodwork is part of the original construction, making this a very special shipwreck.” The thorough sampling of the wood of the Batavia’s hull provides a piece of the puzzle of early Netherlandish 17th-century shipbuilding and global seafaring that was missing.

The real Batavia. Image: Patrick E. Baker, Western Australian Museum

European rivals

The research leads to an interesting discovery about how the Dutch outsmarted their European rivals. “The European trade networks of the Dutch had been established centuries ago, when they took part in the Hanseatic trade,” says Domínguez Delmás when asked. “Then they started trading independently, meaning they decided for themselves where to trade which products. Such an excellent trade network enabled the Dutch to access the timber they needed and thus cope with the scarcity of domestic timber.”

Wood stocks

It means that the Dutch had good trade relations with different areas. And that’s how they got access to their wood supplies. “The VOC bought the wood in two different regions,” says Domínguez Delmás. “A specific selection of oaks was imported from northwestern Germany. This wood was used to build the ship’s frame. Oak from the area around the Baltic Sea and around the German city of Lübeck was then used for the planks. The Dutch therefore bought the wood in places and markets where they knew that the specific types of wood they needed were available there.”

The preference for specific wood products from selected regions shows that the choice of wood was thus far from arbitrary. The results thus illustrate the variety of wood sources that supplied the VOC shipyard in Amsterdam in 1620 and demonstrate the careful selection of wood and the craftsmanship of the builders. “We have now provided evidence of the strategies used by the VOC,” Domínguez Delmás says. “And that takes us one step further in our understanding of the success of the Dutch economy in the 17th century.”