Batavia (7 page)

From Lucretia’s early childhood growing up in a grand mansion on the
Herenstraat
in Amsterdam’s bustling metropolis, always surrounded by a forest of ship masts, she has fervently hoped that she would one day journey somewhere exotic, across a hundred horizons to a land unknown. And yet, not even in her wildest fancy did she think she would be heading right out to the very edges of the known world, a place that can only be reached after approximately nine months of sailing and that has become the foundation stone of the Dutch Empire in the East Indies: Batavia.

As her childhood transformed into adolescence, she always imagined that she would be accompanied on her adventure by the one true love of her life. In fact, she is going to join her husband, Boudewijn van der Mijlen, who is pining for her – she hopes – in Batavia, where for the last two years he has been working as an
Onderkoopman
, Under-Merchant, for the VOC. They have suffered through tough times together since their marriage ten years earlier, when she was only 17, including the loss of all three of their children in infancy, and some financial setbacks, yet
still she wants to be with him
.

If the reality doesn’t
quite
match the dream in every detail, then still it is close enough that Lucretia feels as wonderful as she ever has in her life, as the last of the tall spires of Amsterdam start to merge with the rest of the receding buildings standing on the shores of myriad canals. And all around the foreshores of the
Zuyder Zee
as her
kaag
proceeds, she can see glorious new constructions of stone and brick where once were rickety wooden buildings only – imposing town halls, enormous warehouses, bustling shipyards and sparkling new homes of the suddenly prosperous merchants – all of which have sprung up in just her lifetime. It is amazing how much things have changed, with Amsterdam’s population having doubled in size for each of the nearly three decades of her life, to the point that there are now nearly 30,000 people living there and it has surpassed Venice to become, some say, the richest city in the world.

The day passes pleasantly enough as they continue along the foreshores, until finally here before them is proof positive of just how prosperous the Dutch Republic has become: the mighty, sparkling ship
Batavia
herself, with her towering three masts and shining sails. The closer they get, the more enormous the ship becomes, her hull bursting from the water and towering so far above all in the
kaag
that they have to crane their necks skywards to take it all in.

Around and about the ship, half-a-dozen smaller craft are playing tiny cygnets to her glorious mother swan, with dozens upon dozens of men scurrying up and down rope ladders as they unload their wares into the bowels of the massive ship, as sailors haul on pulleys to lift loads from one ship to another even as others high up in the rigging are proudly unfurling the
Batavia
’s sails. There is a frenzy of activity about this ship, an enormous sense that a long and grand voyage is soon to begin and there remains so much to do in so little time.

As busy as the nigh-on 200-strong crew are, however, there are many sailors and no few of the embarking soldiers who take pause as this handsome blonde Dutchwoman boards the vessel for the first time. Something in her regal yet achingly sensual bearing is nothing less than intoxicating, and they watch closely as she is hoisted onto the ship’s deck courtesy of a ‘bosun’s chair’ – a plank with four holes to allow for lines attached to a pulley suspended from the mainstay.

She is closely followed by her buxom maid, who is obvious by her black dress, white lace cap and apron atop heavy clogs, and by the fact that, unlike her mistress, this ’un must climb one of the steep ladders going from the
kaag
to the mighty
retourschip
. And with them both come some grand and ornately designed sea chests, undoubtedly containing all of this beautiful lady’s jewels and finery.

Such luggage is in strict contrast to that of the crew, who have come aboard in recent weeks with little more than their humble chests containing only their plate, mug, knife, tobacco, pipes, tinderbox for making a flame, a hammock or mattress filled with horsehair, rough pillow . . . and the stinking rags they happened to be wearing at the time they were recruited.

Yes, they are rough, but she is fine. She is likely, many of them reflect, the most beautiful woman they have ever seen, which fits well with the fact that she is coming aboard such a beautiful vessel.

But to work, lads, and keep loading!

28 October 1628, Texel

All through the next day come the last of the supplies onto the ship, destined for her copious storerooms, including 3000 pounds of cheese, 20 tons of hardtack (a long-lasting type of biscuit), 34 tons of meat in tight barrels, 27 tons of herring, eight and a half tons of butter, 37 tons of dried peas, 17 tons of dried beans, three and a half tons of salt and 250 barrels of beer – the basic provisions required to see the soldiers, sailors, crew and passengers through their nine-month voyage. Enormous barrels of fresh water are stored in the hold, each one containing over 65 gallons. There are supplies of other foodstuffs, plus yet more barrels of wine, beer and spirits, making many hundreds of barrels in all, but these latter are not for the consumption of those on the ship; rather, they are supplies that the settlement at Batavia is in urgent need of.

Make way, make way, I say, for these pieces of finely crafted furniture destined for the hold! These are intended to help furnish the ever-increasing number of houses in the new settlement, as well as these boxes of gold and silver plates for its finest pantries, and whole bales of the most delicate fabrics and lace to dress both its women and other important ladies throughout the Indies. There are additional bales of the finest wool, velvet and linen, with trimmings of gold and silver lace, all of it purely for trading in India. (Even though the settlement of Batavia is a lot further from Amsterdam than India, the ship will not be stopping in India, for the Javanese outpost is the hub of this vast trading empire, and everything – ships, people and goods, imports and exports – must pass through it first.)

As it has long been established that ships are faster and more stable when they are well balanced and trimmed, the heaviest cargo is stored in the hold. This includes the spare cannons and anchors, the cannonballs, the 137 disassembled stones of a massive portico that is to stand at the entrance to Batavia citadel, the spare timbers for repairs to the ship and thousands of yellow ballast bricks, small paving stones that, upon arrival, will help to pave the streets of the settlement. The heaviest thing of all, ingots of lead, for the roofs of Batavia, are also stored there. As to just where in the hold to place this particularly heavy cargo, that is part art, part science. Too high and the ship risks keeling over in heavy weather. Too low and the ship becomes ‘laboursome’, hard to move through the water. Long maritime experience has taught that the heaviest cargo is best placed somewhere just below the most central part of the ship, and to that effect the carpenters have built a great deal of scaffolding to hold it there tightly.

Beyond that, there are many
objets d’art
and precious jewels to flatter potentates in their trading regions, along with baubles of various descriptions, including elaborately designed crockery and mirrors to impress those who are a little lower down on the trading scale but still important to the Company. Oh, and not to forget, the muskets and their ammunition must also come aboard, as must tons of neatly bundled wood to keep the stove in the galley going for the next few months. Much of this has been carefully loaded into the ship over the previous weeks, and they are now adding the last bits and pieces.

But at noon on this, the day before departure, comes the most important cargo of all, unloaded from the wharf onto the ship under armed guard.

Terug, ga terug, zeg ik.
Back! Get back, I say!

It is 12 money chests, each one filled with around 8000 silver coins worth some 250,000 guilders and tipping the scales at 500 pounds of dead weight. These coins are intended as a means of trade for
all
of the VOC’s many activities throughout their entire East Indies empire, stretching from India’s Bay of Bengal, along the coast of Java, through all of the Spice Islands and all the way to Japan.

This, the most valuable piece of cargo ever sent from the shores of the Dutch Republic, is way too precious to be stored in the hold and is instead held in the Great Cabin – the virtual nerve centre of the entire ship. Here, the
Batavia
’s commercial and maritime officers will eat, meet and make all of the key decisions affecting the course of their venture – all of it entirely sealed off and secured from the rest of the ship by an armed guard. The Great Cabin also provides sleeping quarters for Skipper Ariaen Jacobsz.

Happily, to help both safely transport and defend such a tempting treasure on board the
Batavia
, there is a collection of 190 ship’s officers and seamen – far more than are needed to run the ship over 24 hours, but they expect to have a few die along the way – together with 100 mercenary soldiers in direct employ of the VOC.

And that is the last of the soldiers streaming aboard this very afternoon. They are bound for a tour of duty in the colonies, where their job will be to defend the citadel in Batavia and put down whatever native insurrections might occur throughout the East Indies. Their presence, of course, means they can also protect the ship’s cargo and enforce the iron rule of the Company during the long voyage.

Finally making up the ship’s complement are some 50 passengers, including a few
Vrijburgers
, the free settlers looking to make a new life in the East Indies. Some of them are accompanied by their families, while others are women and children travelling solo to Batavia, where the father of the family is seeing service. All up, there are 341 souls aboard the
Batavia
, of whom 22 are women and 16 are babies or children, all of the non-crew members staying well clear as the final arrangements are put in place. By dusk, the loading is finally complete and all is secured. Everything is in readiness for departure the following morning, provided the fair winds blow.

29 October 1628, Texel

And so they do! With the morning breeze coming from the required north-east – the usual wind is from the south-west – and the tide going out from the
Zuyder Zee
to the North Sea, the
Batavia
makes ready to move off from Texel at just after nine o’clock.

At a nod from the skipper, the
opperstuurman
, upper-steersman, Claas Gerritsz utters the words all the sailors have been waiting for, words that sound like a nautical prayer. ‘We have a strong, fair breeze,’ he announces. ‘Drop the foresail, drop the main and main topsail, unleash the mizzen and let it hang in clews, also the spitsail and the mizzen topsail, unleash the sprit topsail, also the fore and main topgallant sail, unleash the fore tack,
heave the sheets
. . .’

With each order, the sailors scamper up the rigging and across the spars, unfurling sails, pulling lines and attending to the tasks that the first mate keeps doling out. And, sure enough, from the moment the anchors are hauled up and the sails are set to the wind, the mighty ship, at first tentatively and then with increasing confidence, begins to move off. Within minutes, she is heading towards the entrance to the North Sea at a rate of three knots. It is a sight to behold.

From all three of her mighty masts fly the red, white and blue flags with the large, black VOC symbol embossed in the middle, indicating that this is the flagship of the fleet. All of the flags flap brightly in the reflected light from the pristine sails as yet unsullied by long contact with sea air. From the gay wash of her blunt-nosed bow hurtles the carved figure of a magnificent scarlet Lion of Holland, leaping out at all those who would dare get in her mighty way.

And, appropriately on this glorious autumnal day, all the other craft on the
Zuyder Zee
do indeed fall back in fear and awe, as this wondrous ship heads out towards the open sea on her maiden voyage. Yes, the
Batavia
has four mighty anchors strapped to the sides of her blunt bow, but they seem superfluous, for this looks to be a ship made for travelling fast, not for stopping.

The more experienced of the mariners on those lesser craft admire both her size and her contours as she begins to rhythmically ply the waters, this acme of Dutch maritime design setting to sea. From the long and complicated construction of her beakhead – the small platform that extends out over her bow, a fifth of the length of the body of the ship – the lines elegantly step down to her midships and then all the way back up again to her towering stern, some 40 feet above the waterline, with exclusive cabin space dedicated to the elite officers and passengers just beneath the curved poop deck.

All of that upper superstructure on the stern is ornately painted in pale green, with red and gold ochre trimmings all over. From bow to stern, around the entire ship on both sides, intricately carved gargoyles with grotesque expressions and bulging eyes – all of them based on the beliefs of the ancient Batavians – keep the evil spirits at bay. Her complicated rigging, though a baffling spiderweb to the uninitiated, is nothing less than a masterpiece of logic to true mariners. There is not one more line than necessary, and not one less. This is a powerful ship in every sense of the word; she carries a total of 30 cannons, 12 heavy guns a side on her lower deck, ranging in size from eight-up to 24-pounders and individually up to two tons in weight, and if that weren’t sufficient three either side on her upper deck. No, it is not just those who gaze upon her from afar who are impressed.

Skipper Ariaen Jacobsz, on his quarterdeck, is surveying his new ship and the whole scene with great satisfaction. Notwithstanding the bitter,
bitter
cold on this choppy sea of late October, with winter fast approaching, he always feels at his best at this very moment – when a ship under his command is once again heading out to sea and he can look forward to long uninterrupted months on the oceans. And this is far and away the finest ship he has ever skippered.