An important vellum manuscript chart of the Dutch East India Company

An important vellum manuscript chart
of the Dutch East India Company
“Indische Zee - Gelykgradige Paskaart”
[ “Indian Sea - Plane Navigation Chart” ]
Leen Helmink
Antique Maps & Atlases

Illustration 1: Overview of the VOC chart

A CARTOGRAPHICAL RARISSIMA OF THE DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY
by Prof. Dr. Günter Schilder
Chart of the Indian Ocean with the coasts of East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula,
Persian Gulf, India, South East Asia up to the western part of Java, part of the
west coast of Australia and the islands in the Indian Ocean. Middelburg:
Abraham Anias, ca. 1730.
Manuscript on vellum (calf), ink and various colors, c. 62.5 x 84 cm;
Duijtsche Mijlen 15 voor een Graedt [100=67 mm] (ill. 1).
A strip of the left and of the lower margin has been cut off because the chart has
once been used as a bookbinding.
Manuscript charts of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) are very rare. That a chart of the
Indian Ocean by Abraham Anias from the VOC Zeeland Chamber appears on the market may
be considered a truly exceptional event. This is all the more remarkable because so many of
the VOC’s original charts have either been lost or have long formed part of various public
map collections.
Despite being an anonymous chart, the characteristic depiction of the compass rose and the
style of the drawing and the lettering are unique for the work of Abraham Anias (1694-1750),
official examiner of the steersmen and chart-maker of the Zeeland Chamber of the VOC
(Nederlandse Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, i.e. Dutch United East India Company).
As proof serves a chart of the Ari-atol in the Maldives Islands, kept in the Amsterdam
University Library. That map is essential in the attribution of this chart to the cartographer,
because it combines this compass rose with the name of Abraham Anias (ill. 2).
.
The Zeeland Chamber was the second most important chamber in the VOC, after the
Amsterdam Chamber. In 1720 the Chamber of Zeeland appointed Anias as examiner of their
steersmen, a position he held for thirty years until his death in 1750. His instructions that were
issued on September 12, 1720 give insight in his responsibilities. .
Anias’ expertise and cartographical knowledge were highly respected by his contemporaries,
as demonstrated by a judgment of the famous chart-maker Johannes (II) van Keulen, who
attributed the large overview map in the fifth part of his Zee-Fakkel (Sea-Torch, 1728) to
Anias ‘tot een teeken van agting’ (‘as a sign of high esteem’), (ill. 3).
On October 1, 1731 the Zeeland Chamber officially appointed Abraham Anias as her official
chart-maker responsible to supply her ships with charts, books and navigational instruments
as specified in the new equipment list laid down in an official resolution by the Gentlemen
Seventeen (Heren XVII) on March 28, 1731, the “Lijste van de Kaarten en Stuurmansgereetschappen”.

Illustration 2: Attribution to Abraham Anias

The Gentlemen Seventeen, the highest authority board of the VOC, were careful that the maps
and navigational equipment issued to navigation officers sent to the East Indies were returned
and not discarded or sold to outsiders. In order to better exercise control over these tools,
experts in the field of navigation compiled lists of the necessary charts and instruments.
The lists (first handwritten, later printed) include a detailed overview of the instruments and
cartographical material that were allocated, followed by the price of each item as determined
by the Company.
Each of the navigational officers (skipper, first steersman, and two second steersmen) had to
sign the inventory upon receipt and was required to return all the material upon completing
the journey to Batavia. In the event of missing or mishandled charts, they were fined an
amount equal to twice the list price of the item in question.
These lists were drawn up for the first time in 1655, and were regularly revised and adapted to
navigational developments. Thus, for example, the lists of 1675, 1731 and 1747 were all
improved. As of 1663 the lists were printed in order to avoid their frequent copying, so that
only the names of the ship, ship’s officer and the date had to be filled in by hand.
The printed list for the Zeeland Chamber that specifies the books, charts and nautical
instruments gives us a detailed insight of the equipment on board of an East Indiaman of that
period (ill. 4). Today these lists are invaluable sources for our knowledge and understanding
of the navigational equipment used by VOC vessels in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, and they allow us to reconstruct the kind and number of charts used. Thus, we now
know that three or four sets of charts were used for navigating from Zeeland to Batavia.
While the list of 1675 refers almost exclusively to manuscript charts, the revised list of 1731
includes the first mention of the printed charts which Johannes (II) van Keulen had only
recently been permitted to supply to VOC ships. The much more expensive manuscript charts
were usually drawn on vellum, a sturdy material which was less prone to damage from
climate and moisture as well as wear and tear. These charts were never folded, after use they
were rolled up and stored in large tin containers.
The contract between the Zeeland Chamber and Abraham Anias formalised that he had to
supply all East Indiamen of the Chamber with the necessary books, charts and nautical
instruments, as far as they were not in local stock with the Company. In the first half of the
18th century, the majority of manuscript charts on vellum was produced by the Amsterdam
Chamber, i.e. Isaac de Graaf (1705-43) and his assistants. The Amsterdam Chamber also
equipped the other five chambers with vellum charts. Zeeland was the only other Chamber
with a chart-making workshop. It was the responsibility of Abraham Anias to provide for
charts that were lacking at the Zeeland Chamber, by drawing them in his own hand. Whereas
worldwide eight vellum charts of the Indian Ocean are known by Isaac de Graaf, only one
single other example has come to us from the hand of Abraham Anias (The Hague National
Archives). This fact emphasizes the great significance and rarity of the item offered here.
Closer inspection of the 1731 list of charts reveals that two different groups of charts can be
distinguished. One group consists of small-scale charts that cover large parts of the area
between Texel and Batavia, whereas the other group contains the large-scale charts of small
regions that are essential to navigate the difficult waters around Holland, the English Channel,
the treacherous coasts around the Cape, and the navigation of the waters near Australia and
the Indonesian Archipelago.

Illustration 3: Johannes (II) van Keulen - dedication to Abraham Anias

The chart here belongs to the first group and is specified on the list as ‘Indische zee
gelijkgradige van de Caap tot de Straat Sunda’ [Plane chart of the Indian Ocean, from the
Cape to Sunda Straits], for a price of six guilders and ten stuivers (halfpennies). The chart
plays a key role for the crossing and navigation of the Indian Ocean. After a compulsory
period of rest at the Cape of Good Hope, the VOC ships were required to follow a prescribed
route (sailing instructions or sailing orders) for the journey from the Cape to the Sunda Strait.
The course first had to be set due south to the regions with continuous blowing westerns
winds. With these advantageous sailing winds one had to sail 850 miles to the east and then
steer the bow north towards Sunda Strait.
Because determining longitude on the open sea was of great difficulty in those days, the
crossing of the Indian Ocean was a hazardous journey. By changing eastern to northern course
too late, some VOC ships unexpectedly ran aground on the reefs and shoals of the west coast
of Australia and sank, especially in darkness. A famous fatality is the 1727 shipwreck of the
Zeewijck, a 70 tonnes vessel equipped by the Chamber of Zeeland.
Part of the west coast of Australia is visible on this chart (ill. 5). Despite the fact that the outer
corner has been cut off (because of the later use as book binding), the Australian coast is
visible under the name [Land van] den Eendragt, a name originating from the oldest Dutch
contact with this coast by the ship Eendracht in 1616. On our chart this is also testified by the
name Dirck Hartogs Rhee.
A remarkable feature of this chart is the reference to the 1727 calamity of the Zeewijck:
Zee[wijck] geble[ven] (Zee[wijck] lost here). On June 9, 1727, this 145 foot ship ran aground
on one of the coral reefs (Half Moon Reef) of the Houtman Abrolhos. Part of the castaways
could survive on nearby Gun Island and after many miseries they succeeded to build a small
sloop from the wreck of the Zeewijck. After ten months, approximately 90 men (of the crew
of 208 that had sailed from Zeeland) managed to leave Gun Island. Incredibly, they managed
to reach Sunda Strait and arrived in Batavia in April 30, 1728.
The reference to the wreckage of the Zeewijck has not been recorded on any other known
VOC vellum chart of the Indian Ocean, the fact that it is recorded here is a further
confirmation that this chart was produced in Middelburg. In the waters between the Australian
coast and Java a few islands can be seen. The name Trials Rudsen reminds the loss of the
English ship Trial in 1622, and the name Monij (today’s Christmas Island) goes back to the
visit of the fleet of Willem de Vlamingh in 1697.
Our chart shows hundreds of toponyms along the coasts. Although the majority is in Portuguese,
we also see Dutch names along the west coast of Sumatra (Cocos Eijlanden, ’t Verkens Eijland,
Goefortuijn, Nassou); on Sumatra (gebroken Hoek, vlacke Hoek); in Sunda Strait (t Prince
Eijland). Remarkable in Malacca is the reference to Straet Sincapura. In Bengal the
Timmerswerf (carpenter’s wharf) is mentioned. On the Orissa coast is a reference to the 1643
disaster of another VOC ship: Neptunus verongeluckt (Neptunus lost).
The plane chart f the Indian Ocean did not only serve for the crossing to Sunda Strait, but also for
the journey to Ceylon. After approximately 700 miles east of the Cape, the course is changed
north, as is testified on our chart by faint traces of a plotted track in pencil (of which
unfortunately only the number 14 is decipherable, tracks were drawn in pencil and erased later).

Illustration 4: 1731 VOC list of instruments and charts for Chamber Zeeland

The fact that not all ships followed the prescribed sailing instructions, is demonstrated by the
1726 disaster of the Ravensteyn. Against Company regulations, this Zeeland Chamber ship
sailed along the west side of the Maldives and ran aground on an outer reef of the Ari-atol.
This catastrophe is mentioned on our chart: Ravensteyn gebleven (Ravensteyn lost here). This
reference is only present on our chart – as is the case with the loss of the Zeewijck. Being chartmaker
of the Zeeland Chamber, Abraham Anias gave full attention to this Zeeland calamity, as a
matter of fact he even drew a detailed chart of the Ari-atol in 1728 (see ill.2).
The wide-spread trading network of the VOC also stretched into the northwestern corner of
the Indian Ocean, where the Company had trading-posts in Suratte, in the Persian Gulf and in
Mocha. From Suratte the VOC ships sailed via Strait Hormus to Gamron in the north of the
Persian Gulf and to Basra on the Shatt-al-Arab. The southern part shows the ‘Isola de Barein’
(Bahrain). While the Gulf was significant for the silk trade, later the trade in gold was more
important.
Literature:
Destombes, M., Cartes Hollandaises. La Cartographie de la Compagnie des Indes
Orientales, 1593-1743. Saigon 1941.
De VOC in de kaart gekeken. Cartografie en navigatie van de Verenigde Oostindische
Compagnie, 1602-1799. ’s-Gravenhage, SDU uitgeverij, 1988.
Gaastra, F. De geschiedenis van de VOC. Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2002.
Paesi, R. Het VOC-retourschip Ravesteyn, Nijmegen, 1999.
Schilder, G.,‘Organization and Evolution of the Dutch East India Company’s Hydrographic
Office in the Seventeenth Century’. In: Imago Mundi 28 (1976).
Sigmond, J.P., Zuiderbaan, L.H., Dutch Discoveries of Australia, 1979, Australia.

Illustration 5: [Land van] den Eendragt, Dirck Hartogs Rhee, and Zee[wijck] geble[ven]