The East India Company (VOC) carried out a total of 2957 round trips and 2369 home trips during the eighteenth century. At least 1200 different skippers commanded two or more times on a round trip. In this book, full attention is paid to those skippers. They were men charged with the ultimate responsibility for ships with a precious cargo of Asian products and several hundred people on board on tours that lasted an average of eight months, both back and forth.
In Part I, the living and living environment of the skipper at home on the shore is at the centre of attention, so is also his social background. In Part II we follow the skipper in the pursuit of his profession on board and of course also in difficult circumstances.
The Rede van Texel, formerly Reede van Texel, was a roadstead, or sheltered anchorage off the Dutch Island of Texel. It was of considerable importance to Dutch long distance shipping between roughly 1500 and 1800. The Rede van Texel was located off the east side of the island, near the town of Oudeschild. Texel played an important role in the trade voyages of the VOC: the ships moored before departure on the Rede where they were supplied and waited for good weather.
The Dutch East India Company existed for almost two hundred years. During that time, thousands of VOC ships anchored on the Rede, and hundreds of Texel people made a voyage to the East in the service of the Company. Although few traces refer to the VOC on Texel, there is much to say about the relationship between the island and the Company. This book contains stories about well-known subjects (the Wezenputten, the execution of the mutineers of the 'Nijenburg'), current topics (ship archaeology on the Rede, the discovery of the letters of Aagje Luijtsen) and the personal histories of Texel people who worked for the VOC. Moreover, the data of more than a hundred Texel VOC servants is particularly valuable. This book is the result of a fruitful collaboration between VOC historians and local historians, who each conducted new research in their own field. It resulted in a versatile book, which fills in all kinds of unknown aspects of Texel VOC history and at the same time, offers many opportunities for further research.
