Batavia Ship Research Proposal 2003

Nearly 150 years before James Cook discovered Australia, the Dutch were already engaged in seafaring activities on the Australian coast and sailed in Australian waters on a regular basis with their large East Indiamen. My research focuses on the archaeological remains of such a Dutch East Indiaman, Batavia, which sank off the coast of Western Australia on its maiden voyage to the East Indies in 1629. Its remains were discovered in 1963 and subsequently excavated by a team of archaeologists from the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle. To date, Batavia represents the only excavated early seventeenth-century Dutch East Indiaman that has been raised and conserved in a manner permitting a comprehensive study. This is of the greatest significance since there are no construction plans, lines drawings, and building records for any East Indiamen of this early period.

The study of Dutch East Indiamen built in the early seventeenth century has been based, thus far, only on iconographic evidence, archival records, and contemporary general documentation on shipbuilding. In fact, a full-scale replica of Batavia built in the Netherlands in the 1980s was based entirely on secondary sources. The research of Batavia’s actual archaeological remains will, therefore, yield a considerable body of new information about early seventeenth-century Dutch naval architecture and shipbuilding methods. Moreover, it will provide data complementing contemporary iconography and written sources, and may reveal the overall concept of Dutch shipbuilding practices of the time. Such practices promoted the Dutch to the rank of premier shipbuilders and ship suppliers of their time until the British superseded them in the later seventeenth century. The conservation of the Batavia timbers has now been completed and they offer a unique opportunity to conduct a detailed study.

Dr. Jeremy Green, the archaeologist responsible for the excavation and conservation of Batavia, has invited me to undertake a comprehensive study of the ship's remains. The end result will contribute to my Ph.D. dissertation at Texas A&M University as well as to the final publication of Batavia by the Western Australian Maritime Museum.

The short-term objective of my research is the detailed documentation of the planks, frames, and other hull timbers of Batavia. As such documentation has yet to be undertaken, it is imperative that it be made available to the nautical community in a timely manner. My primary objective is to determine Batavia’s construction sequence and assembly details, a process that will culminate in the reconstruction of Batavia’s original design and appearance. The study will be based primarily on the existing hull remains and supplemented by contemporary archival material. The reconstruction will be presented in the form of detailed timber drawings, perspective and lines drawings, and construction plans detailing the hull assembly. As the key components of the original hull such as the bow and the keel no longer exist, reconstruction of the ship will partly involve conjecture based on shipwrightery practices of the period.

In addition to studying shipbuilding methods, all the major timbers will be sampled for dendrochronological dating in order to determine when the wood of the Batavia was felled, and also for spectrographic analyses to establish the source of the wood. The latter will reveal where in Europe the wood was obtained, which, in turn, will have economic implications on the procurement of valuable wood resources used in early Dutch shipbuilding.

The final objective of my study will involve a thorough evaluation of the ship within a broader historical context, including the comparative study of similar shipwrecks of the Dutch Golden Age, such as Wasa and Mauritius, and an examination of the development of naval architecture in the seventeenth century. The study of Batavia’s timbers and construction sequence will be based primarily on the existing hull remains, but contemporary archival material, shipbuilding treatises, and other documentation will supplement the study.

Archival material and contemporary documentation supporting my comparative study will include all early Dutch works, manuscripts and treatises concerned with Dutch shipbuilding, ship journals, and administrative documents from the Dutch East India Company. These works form the foundation of my theoretical research and are of the greatest significance. In particular, the works of Nicholaes Witsen (1671) and Cornelius van IJk (1697) are essential sources for the study of seventeenth-century Dutch shipbuilding, as they represent the earliest and sole examples of Dutch manuscripts from this period.

I am presently engaged in archival and library research essential to my Ph.D. dissertation. Already, I have developed new insights on Dutch shipbuilding of the early seventeenth century and completed a significant part of my background research. As my archival and library research progresses, it is becoming obvious how essential the field research of the archaeological remains of a ship, such as Batavia, is to our comprehension of early seventeenth-century shipbuilding. For example, it appears that the majority of Dutch East Indiamen dating to the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries were built with two layers of hull planking. Archaeological remains of Dutch ships dating to this period, specifically, the Mauritius (1609), Batavia (1629), and Scheurrak SOl (AD 1580 or later), have revealed the use of double-planked hulls. Even so, this practice has been interpreted to be an ‘experimental’ phase in Dutch shipbuilding. Yet, my research of Dutch archival material from the early seventeenth century demonstrates convincingly that the practice of double planking the hull was not experimental, but a standard practice in constructing Dutch East Indiamen during the first half of the seventeenth century. Such a practice enabled the Dutch to make the long perilous journeys to Southeast Asia without significant damage to the ship’s hull.

In February 2003, I visited the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle to initiate and prepare a time-line for my study. The proposed field research will take place in the Western Australia Maritime Museum in Fremantle where the remains of Batavia are permanently housed. The function and assembly of the different hull elements and their construction sequence will have to be studied there. The museum houses extensive photographic documentation, drawings of most timbers, and excavation records of Batavia, all of which will be placed at my disposal for study. I will be conducting full-time research and documentation in the museum from December to March 2005.

Following the completion of my research period in Australia, I will conduct library and archival research in the Netherlands. All the data collected in Australia and the Netherlands will be incorporated to my dissertation and used in generating construction drawings at the Nautical Archaeology Program of Texas A&M University in the United States. The proposed completion date of my dissertation is May 2006.

The Batavia shipwreck, a part of the world’s underwater cultural heritage, is an integral component of the cultural heritage of humanity and a particularly important element in the history of discovery, peoples, and their relations with one another. As promoted best by UNESCO*: “Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritages are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration. They are our touchstones, points of reference, and our identity." The Batavia shipwreck is a significant part of that cultural heritage, and its study and full comprehension contributes to society not only in the understanding of our identity, but also benefits it as a rare legacy handed from the past to be passed on to our future. The study of Batavia’s archaeological remains and its comparison with contemporary historic documentation promises significant new information not only on Dutch shipbuilding practices and naval architecture, but also on the economy and socio-political climate of the early seventeenth century.