East India Company Ship Research Articles

Navigational Equipment from 't Vliegend Hart (1735)

The Dutch United East-India Company ship ‘t Vliegend Hart sank in the mouth of the River Scheldt in 1735. With archival sources the wreck was located in 1979, and in the following years researched and excavated, a process still continuing. This article gives a brief historical introduction on the ship, followed by a paragraph on the art of navigation and navigational instruments at the time of ‘t Vliegend Hart's sailing. Thereafter this is compared with the navigational artefacts retrieved from the wreck. In the final paragraph the exploration of the ‘t Vliegend Hart wreck is briefly dealt with. © 2006 The Authors

Book Review: Catalogue of East India Company Ships' Journals and Logs 1600–1834, A Biographical Index of East India Company Maritime Service Officers 1600–1834

Book Review: Catalogue of East India Company Ships' Journals and Logs 1600–1834, A Biographical Index of East India Company Maritime Service Officers 1600–1834

Of Paper and Men: A Note on the Archives of the VOC as a Source for the History of Madagascar

In July 1752, two days after their arrival at a roadstead in Saint Augustine's Bay on the south-western coast of Madagascar, ‘theGreat Island’, two junior merchants of the Dutch East India Company ship Schuylenburch headed for the residence of king Ratsimandresy (Ramanrasse in the Dutch sources). They were Philip Boomgaard and Dirk Westerhoff, responsible for commercial affairs and on a trade mission for the Company. On the way to the king's residence, about two miles inland from ‘Toulier’ (Toliara), they were welcomed by Ramanrasse's son, ‘crovmprince Revenoe’, and they offered him a few gifts they had brought along. However, upon taking a closer look at the presents Revenoe disdainfully threw astring of beads on the ground replying ‘that the Dutch were nothing more than traffickers, and that he expected them upon their arrival to present him with proper gifts just like the British and French traders that frequented his father's court were accustomed to do’.

South Atlantic winds and weather during and following the little ice age ? A pilot study of English East India Company (EEIC) ship logs

The times taken by ships of the English East India Company (EEIC) to sail from the Cape of Good Hope to St. Helena Island during the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries represent proxy measures of the strength and steadiness of the Southeast Trades which are compared with present-day data from the Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (COADS). Both wind speed and steadiness appear to have reached maxima in the 1760s and increased again, from lower values in the following decade, to the 1820s. These changes need to be further substantiated with the available log entries concerning winds, weather, and rates of progress. A similar fleshing out of fragmentary preinstrumental pre-standardized records with current climatic characteristics is suggested for the routes fanning out east of the Cape towards Arabia, India, China, Indonesia, and Australia.

A plinian eruption in the Indian Ocean 1648

Abstract Two seamen were killed by objects falling from the sky on board a Dutch East India Company (VOC) ship, the Malacca, on her way to Java at an unknown date in 1648. The event was published 1667 in a Swedish travel account by Olof Eriksson Willman. A scrutiny of Will‐man's 1667 description of his own voyage to Java by VOC's ship the De Olifant has revealed that the ship passed fairly close to a volcanic eruption of probably plinian character and size in the south of the Indian Ocean on 16 June 1648. No large eruption (>VEI:4) from the southern hemisphere in the 17th century has been reported earlier and no eruption at all is known from the 17th century in the south Indian Ocean. Future study might reveal whether or not the Malacca passed the same volcano, possibly situated among the Prince Edward or Crozet Islands. Laufeld, S., 1994: A plinian eruption in the Indian Ocean 1648. GFF, Vol. 116 (Pt. 2, June), pp. 109–111. Stockholm. ISSN 1103–5897.

The second destruction of the Geldermalsen

This review of C. J. A. Jorg’s book on the Chinese porcelain from the Dutch East India Company ship Geldermalsen, which sank in 1752, addresses some broader questions involved in the destruction of shipwreck sites for commercial profit. These questions grew out of the issue of what relationship scholars should have with those who destroy sites and acquire objects from them. The first part of the article is a review of Jorg’s book, followed by a commentary on the problems that collecting from looted sites raise.

The Dutch East India Company's ships' armament in the 17th and 18th centuries: an overview

The Dutch East India Company's ships' armament in the 17th and 18th centuries: an overview

The survey and identification of the English East India Company ship Trial (1622)

International Journal of Nautical ArchaeologyVolume 15, Issue 3 p. 195-204 The survey and identification of the English East India Company ship Trial (1622) Jeremy Green, Jeremy Green Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Maritime Museum, Cliff Street, Fremantle. Western Australia 6160Search for more papers by this author Jeremy Green, Jeremy Green Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Maritime Museum, Cliff Street, Fremantle. Western Australia 6160Search for more papers by this author First published: August 1986 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-9270.1986.tb00577.xCitations: 3AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume15, Issue3August 1986Pages 195-204 RelatedInformation

Analysis of Chinese Porcelains and Ceramics

ABSTRACT Trace and minor components in fragnzen~~ of northern Chinese porcelains and the poorly-known southern Chinese porcellun- eous ware from e.ucavatiom in the south-western Cape were determined non-desrmctively by PIXE in the glazes und in the body material. Correspondence analysis of the analytical riata showed that the Clzine.se glazes, though different from that of Englkh specimens, could not be dzferentiated. The analysis of the body material enabled the no~hem porceluins and some of the southern ceramics to be distinguished, but somp southern porcel- laneous ware could not be grouped separutel?. * Manuscript received September 1985. Originally read at the 2nd International Symposium on Analytical Chemistry in the Exploitation, Mining and Processing of Materials, Pretoria. April 15-19, 1985. Introduction Cape Town served as an important halfway station for the Dutch East India Company ships trading between their homeland and the Far East.

4. Notes on the Comet, accompanied by a Pencil Sketch, by Captain Hopkins, commanding the East India Company's Ship, Seringapatam, on a voyage from the Cape of Good Hope. Communicated by Sir John Herschel

4. Notes on the Comet, accompanied by a Pencil Sketch, by Captain Hopkins, commanding the East India Company's Ship, Seringapatam, on a voyage from the Cape of Good Hope. Communicated by Sir John Herschel

On the secondary deflections produced in a magnetized needle by an iron shell, in consequence of an unequal distribution of magnetism in its two branches. First noticed by Captain J. P. Wilson, of the Honourable East India Company's Ship Hythe

Captain Wilson being engaged in the prosecution of Mr. Barlow’s inquiries as to the laws of the deflection of a needle by an iron shell, had remarked, while in China, that when a magnetic needle was placed in the equator of an iron shell, though no deviation arose when the compass was in its natural state, yet when one end of the needle was deteriorated, by touching- it with the pole, of its own name, of a magnet, a deviation then arose; and communicating the facts to Mr. Barlow, he proceeded to investigate the laws and amount of the deviation so arising. He distinguishes the action into three several cases:— 1st. When the needle is on any part of the magnetic meridian of the ball. In this case there is no deviation caused by the primary of the shell, nor any secondary deflection produced by deteriorating one pole of the needle.

XVIII. On the secondary deflections produced in a magnetized needle by an iron shell, in consequence of an unequal distribution of magnetism in its two branches. First noticed by Captain J. P. Wilson, of the Honourable East India Company's Ship Hythe. By Peter Barlow, Esq. F. R. S. Mem. Imp. Sc. Petrop

Captain Wilson, in a very early stage of my magnetic experiments, took considerable interest, not only in their application to the purposes of navigation, but in the fundamental laws on which that application was founded; and in pursuit of his own particular views he undertook, in his last voyage, to decide, by actual experiment, some of the points which were not in the beginning universally admitted; amongst which one of the most important, was that relating to the change of position of the ideal magnetic sphere which I had imagined for the purpose of magnetical reference, and for the convenience of reducing the laws of action to their most simple and general form. According to the results which I had obtained, it was presumed, but not confidently asserted, (see page 65, 1st edition “Essay on Magnetic Attractions") that this sphere, in different parts of the world, would take up different positions with regard to the horizon, following in all cases the changes of position of the dipping needle. Captain Wilson proposed to repeat these experiments at different places, where he might have an opportunity, on his outward and homeward voyages; viz. at St.Helena, Bengal, and in China; and he had the satisfaction of finding the sphere nearly inverted in his different experiments, the law in all cases strictly following those which had been predicted from my first series of results. The confirmation however of this fact is now of but secondary interest, because it has been demonstrated, and admitted by all who have taken any part in the enquiry; I shall therefore pass over these experiments, and mention only the curious observations alluded to in the title of this Paper.