Secrets of Batavia's Timbers

Shipbuilding had been going on for centuries in the Netherlands before construction of Batavia began in 1628. This knowledge begs a number of questions. It takes an awful lot of timber to build a vessel as substantial as Batavia, and the Dutch were building several such vessels per year. So, in a country with as few natural resources as the Netherlands, where did all the timber, and fittings, come from?

The answer lies in the fact that the Vereenigde Oostindische Companie (VOC) was the world’s first multinational company. With a strong financial base, the entrepreneurial nature of its merchant venturers, and the European expansion into the ‘New World’, the company grew, very quickly, and accumulated a vast amount of wealth, very quickly. Seafarers, administrators and adventurers came from all over Europe to work for the VOC and businesses from all over Europe offered their products, at a price.

The fact that such a substantial amount of the vessel could survive underwater, on a reef, being pounded by surf, for 350 years is little short of a miracle. Once the timbers were ashore and into preservation, the archaeologists began a study of them. Studies revealed that the timber was European Oak, which had only been felled and seasoned in the early 1600s. What was a surprise was where it came from, which turned out to be Poland. So, the origin of Batavia’s timbers are a clear indication of the influence of the VOC right across Europe at a time known in the Netherlands as ‘The Golden Age’.