Dutch-Asiatic Shipping in the 17th and 18th centuries

This database presents the voyages of the direct shipping carried out by the Dutch East India Company and its pre-companies between the Netherlands and Asia from 1595 to 1795.

Overview

The database Dutch-Asiatic Shipping in the 17th and 18th centuries shows the ships that sailed between the Netherlands and Asia in the period between 1595 and 1795. In total that included more than 8100 ships: over 4700 went from the Netherlands to Asia and over 3400 undertook the journey back. From 1602, they did so under the authority of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), which was founded that year. Before 1602, the ships sailed under the authority of the so-called voorcompagnieën (pre-companies). These two centuries of shipping, the basis for Dutch trade between Europe and Asia, are presented in a systematic overview in Dutch-Asiatic Shipping.

This digital version is based on the 1979 and 1987 paper editions. The paper version consists of three parts. Part 1 provides an introduction with an analysis of various aspects of shipping by the VOC, such as the construction and type of the ships, the duration and risks of the voyage and recruitment and fate of the crew. Part 2 lists the outbound voyages from the Netherlands to Asia, and part 3 lists the return voyages. The database makes all voyages from volume 2 and 3 digitally accessible in a systematic way. The key data are included as complete as possible for each voyage and show the names of the ship and skipper, the tonnage (carrying capacity) of the ship, the year and yard of construction, the VOC chambeer for which the ship sailed, dates of departure, stopover (at the Cape of Good Hope) and arrival, and the value of the return cargo. Additionally, information on the crew (split into various categories, such as the number of people who were on board during departure and arrival, the number of people who left the ship at the Cape og Good Hope or who died during the voyage) is included, as well as details of the voyage, such as a woman who has entered service as a man, black people who were on board, or whether there had been mutiny or shipwreck.

How to use this resource

There are two entrances to the database: there's an overview of voyages and there's a search engine.

The overview of voyages can be downloaded as CSV file. The data can be downloaded as 'voyages with details', or 'voyages with details and data on the number of people on board'. The download button can be found beneath the table on both the 'voyages' and 'search' pages.

The tables closely follow the material presented in the major sources: the 'Uitloopboeken van schepen' (in English 'Register of ships') and the 'OBP'(Overgekomen Brieven en Papieren, in English 'Received Letters and Papers'). Since these sources are not uniform over a period of almost two centuries, the level of completeness of the information given for each voyage also varies.

Volume 1 of the original publication has been made available online and can be found by clicking 'digital publication'.

Learn

  • See also the more elaborate English introduction to this database.
  • For the purpose of research into VOC archives, a general VOC- Glossarium has been compiled, based on the individual glossaries that accompanied the publications on the VOC in the Rijks Geschiedkundige Publicatiën (RGP), which can be consulted here. It is an explanatory overview of particular VOC terms.

Mentions

Mbeki, L. and M. van Rossum, 'Private slave trade in the Duthc Indian Ocean world: a study into the networkd and backgrounds of the slavers and the enslaved in South Asia and South Africa', in Slavery & Abolition 38, no. 1 (2017), 95-116. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144039X.2016.1159004

The Huygens Institute, Studio Bertels and Studio Louter collaborated to offer VOC data to the general public in the form of a user-friendly and engaging data experience installation that was shown in different locations, among which the Scheepvaartmuseum, the National Archives in The Hague and the Maritime Museum in Rotterdam. The visitor could choose between different data visualisations created around the lives of 100.000 seamen and military personnel who travelled to Asia in the eighteenth century, that are shown to them using augmented reality. The data used for the experience was taken from three datasets: VOC: Persons on board, Dutch-Asiatic Shipping and Bookkeeper-General Batavia. See the website and video to find out more about the data experience.