Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Tables
- List of Illustrations
- Glossary
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Dutch Whaling and Sealing in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
- Chapter 2 King Willem I and the Premium System (1815-1855)
- Chapter 3 Nineteenth-Century Dutch Whaling in the South Seas (1827-1849)
- Chapter 4 Nineteenth-Century Dutch Whaling and Sealing in the Arctic (1815-1885)
- Chapter 5 Ships and men. Driving and Floating Forces
- Chapter 6 Clients, Commodities, and Distribution
- Chapter 7 Profitability of Dutch Involvement in the Whaling and Sealing Industries
- Summaries
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Curriculum vitae
- Index
Chapter 5 - Ships and men. Driving and Floating Forces
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 January 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Tables
- List of Illustrations
- Glossary
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Dutch Whaling and Sealing in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
- Chapter 2 King Willem I and the Premium System (1815-1855)
- Chapter 3 Nineteenth-Century Dutch Whaling in the South Seas (1827-1849)
- Chapter 4 Nineteenth-Century Dutch Whaling and Sealing in the Arctic (1815-1885)
- Chapter 5 Ships and men. Driving and Floating Forces
- Chapter 6 Clients, Commodities, and Distribution
- Chapter 7 Profitability of Dutch Involvement in the Whaling and Sealing Industries
- Summaries
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Curriculum vitae
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Ships and men – and the interaction between these two components in working and living conditions on board – are the two most important elements in any maritime endeavour. In 1817, the Dutch government through the Minister of Foreign Affairs commented on the possibilities and difficulties of the resumption of whaling by stating,
“Het ontbreekt … aan die vaart aan geschikte commandeurs en zeelieden en aan kundige bouwlieden van sloepen, welke laatste geheel nieuw moeten worden aangeschaft en groote kosten vereischen”
(“In this maritime industry [whaling] there is a lack of suitable masters and sailors and knowledgeable craftsmen of sloops, which need to be newly acquired and, hence, ask for considerable investments”).
Twenty-six years later, in his essay on the history of whaling (1843), Captain C. Brandligt reiterated the critical perception of the Dutch government regarding Dutch whaleships and whalemen. He mentioned two elements that are worth scrutiny. First, he referred to the lack of shipbuilding programs in the Netherlands during the first decades of the nineteenth century. Secondly, he questioned the level of sophistication among Dutch whalemen.
In this chapter, the focus will be on the state of the art regarding ships and crews. As was done in previous chapters, a division will be made between South Seas whaling and Arctic whaling. Subsections will deal with the crews of whaleships under the Dutch flag but nineteenth-century data concerning the numbers of crew on board Dutch whaleships – or the compositions of whaleship crews – are scarce. Similarly, figures concerning the wages of whalemen involved in South Seas or Arctic enterprises are scarce. In his many tables regarding Dutch whaling in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, De Jong used 42 hands as a standard size for crews, based on data for the year 1748. De Jong frankly stated that one must be careful in using this figure, as the size of the crew was often determined by the size of the vessel. De Jong's figure may account for the first half of the eighteenth century. In the seventeenth century and also during the first half of the eighteenth century, the ‘standard figure’ may have been quite different than 42, as seventeenth-century whaleships were generally smaller and ships sailing for the Arctic under the Dutch flag after about 1750 were generally larger than the ones used during the first half of the eighteenth century.
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- Trying OutAn Anatomy of Dutch Whaling and Sealing in the Nineteenth Century, 1815–1885, pp. 157 - 216Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2008