THE VOCHS MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

THE VOCHS MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
Official monthly newsletter of the VOC Historical Society Incorporated, Perth, Western Australia.
Affiliate Member of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society Inc.
VOLUME 1 ISSUE 6
http://www.vochistory.org.au
Facebook: VOC Historical Society
OCTOBER 2015
THIS MONTH IN VOC HISTORY:
All verses from the song written in the
early 1900s by GV Portus of the
University of Sydney.
Peter Nasser made me
I hung in his shop in Amsterdam
With dozens of others just like me,
And the rays of the sun across the canal
Would shine through the window and strike
me.
Others were sold, but I remained,
No Dutchman ever sought me.
Till I caught the eye of a tough old salt,
And Dirck Hartogh bought me.
Dirck Hartogh bought me
In the cabin of his good ship Eendracht,
Bound east from Amsterdam
I dizzily swung from a hook in the wall
And I sometimes fell with a slam.
They filled me with pork and Java spice,
They scraped me, and scoured me, and
shook me,
And then one day on an unknown coast
Dirck Hartogh took me.
Dirck Hartogh took me
He scratched his name on my polished face
In letters that could be seen,
And added the ship’s and some of the crew
And ‘October 1616’.
He lowered away the Captain’s boat
And then to the coast he sailed me.
And there, on a post by the shore of an isle,
Dirck Hartogh nailed me.
Dirck Hartogh nailed me.
So long I hung that the birds in the bush
And the animals ceased to heed me.
The shy kangaroos would peer in my
face
As if they were trying to read me.
For four-score winters I clung to my
post
And the wild winds whistled around me,
Till at last in sixteen-ninety-seven
Willem de Vlamingh found me.
Willem de Vlamingh found me.
‘Why here is a good Dutch dish,’ quoth
he,
‘With good Dutch writing on it.’
So he wrenched me down from my
rotting post
And scoured me clean with his bonnet.
Then he packed me tight in a wooden
box
Where the rain could no longer spot me,
And carried me on to Batavia,
And so the Company got me.
And so the Company got me.
I was turned around in fat white hands.
Reports were written about me.
And back I was sent to Amsterdam
Lest the good Mynheers might doubt
me.
And here I am in a snug glass case
Where all the world can see me.
But I’d willingly go on my travels again
If Dirck would come and free me.
Contact details:
Editor:
Henny Crijns-Coenen
[email protected]
www.vochistory.org.au
VOC Historical Society
Website:
Facebook:
Disclaimer:
The views in ‘The VOCHS newsletter’ are those of the writers and not necessarily
those of the Committee or the Editor.
Privacy Act:
The VOC Historical Society Incorporated ensures that the privacy of the members
details are maintained at all times. Neither disclosed nor sold to any other
organisation.
1
On 26 October 1616 Captain Dirck
Hartogh set foot on what is now
known as Dirk Hartog Island, just
North of Shark Bay in Western
Australia. It was the second recorded
landing of a European on Australian
soil. The first was Willem Janszoon
(see pages 3-5) in the VOC ship
Duyfken in 1606. Hartogh's ship was
the Eendracht, a 200 tonne vessel
with 32 guns and a crew of 200, and it
was on the way to the East Indies
(now called Indonesia) from the
Netherlands..
He recorded his position, now called
"Cape Inscription", and left a pewter
plate nailed to a post standing upright
in a rock cleft on top of the cliff,
inscribed with the details of the date,
ship and crew. That plate, now held in
the Rijksmuseurn in Amsterdam, is
the oldest known written record of a
European landing in Australia Australia’s first known piece of
writing. The plate was to be found 81
years later by another Dutch mariner
Willem de Vlamingh.
Hartogh sailed North up the coast
charting the shore line to North West
Cape thereby starting the process of
‘unveiling’ the mysterious coast of a
new land. He called that part of the
Southland's coast "t'Landt van
d'Eendracht" or 'Eendracht's Land".
Dirck Hartogh's discovery had a
major effect on world mapping and
soon
afterwards
"t'Landt
van
Eendracht" started to appear on world
maps, replacing the names for the
mythical southern continent from
Terra Australis, Nova Hollandia or
New Holland and South Land.
Dirck Hartogh 1580-1621
THE VOCHS MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
A little slice of heaven in the west:
In the January/February 2012 edition of the Holland Focus I wrote about a vacation that I had in Shark Bay in Western
Australia. The region fascinated me that much and along with my fascination of Dutch/Australian history I decided that
perhaps I could write a little more about this ‘little slice of heaven’.
Just in case you may have forgotten, Shark Bay is situated on the west coast of Australia approximately 24-27 degrees
south of the equator. It is roughly 800 kilometres north of the City of Perth which is the capital of Western Australia. It is
comprised of two large shallow bays, numerous islands and a coast around 1500 kilometres long.
Aboriginal people have inhabited the area for thousands of years and
evidence of this can still be seen in numerous cave shelters & shell
middens around the Peron Peninsula. And, they were probably among
Henny Crijns-Coenen
the first Australian Aboriginals who had contact with Europeans – and
at Monkey Mia
that was most likely the ‘Dutch’ to begin with.
The first recorded landing on Western Australian soil by a European
Shark Bay
was in October 1616 when the Dutch Captain of the Dutch East Indies
Company (VOC) Dirk Hartog landed at Cape Inscription on the island
that now bears his name; he was the one who left behind an engraved
pewter plate to show that he had landed there, the name of his ship, crew,
and date and where he was headed.
Anyway, there is of course more Dutch history connected to the region
and as you are aware by now plans are a foot to organize big celebrations
to commemorate this in October next year – its 400th anniversary!
Hamelin Pool in Shark Bay is a Marine Nature Reserve and is only one
of two in the world where living marine stromatolites are known to be.
These can be very easily seen from the shore.
Monkey Mia, very well known, is approximately 27 km NE of Denham. This is where you will find the ‘Bottle Nosed
Dolphins’ and they have been coming to the area for about 3 generations – they come to the bay and delight all the visitors
and of course researchers from around the world. At certain times of the day you are able to watch the dolphins and also to
feed them. Of course if you want to participate you must understand ‘how to meet the Dolphins’ and that would be
explained to you at the Dolphin Information Centre.
Cruise boats also operate out of Monkey Mia and it is sheer heaven to be out on one of the catamarans on the still clear blue
waters of this bay. You get to see dugongs (sea cows), manta rays, turtles and of course dolphins and sharks.
Dirk Hartog Island is amongst the world’s best fishing spots – pink snapper, mackerel, yellow-finned tuna or sailfish. Off
the beaches of Dirk Hartog Island you will also see
those famous dolphins, manta rays, dugongs, turtles and
also humpback whales. One can only imagine that the
snorkelling would be just out of this world. It is possible
to visit this historic island on a day trip from the town of
Denham – even camp overnight.
Denham is the main town in the Shark Bay World
Heritage area – the town locals are very proud of their
‘little slice of heaven’ and everyone knows of its history,
who’s who, written a short story, had a family member
in the town’s annals of history. Some of the locals even
say they have Dutch ancestry from hundreds of years
ago??? Everyone is very friendly and it is a delight to
walk down the main street on any fine day.
I’ll be going back via caravan in 2016 to enjoy all and
more of the wonders of Shark Bay.
Eagle Bluff in Shark Bay
If you are planning a trip to WA put Shark Bay on your
agenda. It is a little off the beaten track but well worth
the effort with a good sealed road now, there are no problems—only beautiful landscapes and much more to see on the
drive in from the Overlander Roadhouse which is on the West Coastal Highway.
By Henny Crijns-Coenen & some information gleaned from the internet.
2
THE VOCHS MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
Willem Janszoon and the tragic cost of discovery
by Monica de Knecht
Willem Janszoon was a Dutch navigator and colonial governor. He also served
in the Netherlands East Indies, including his term as Governor of Fort
Henricus on the island of Solor. This versatile and gifted man also served as
admiral of the Dutch Defense fleet and for this was awarded a gold chain
worth 1000 guilders in 1619 for his mighty feat of capturing four ships of the
British East India Company near Tiku on West Sumatra. These ships having
aided the Japanese in their defense of Jakarta against the Dutch. (Wikipedia)
In 1606 the Dutch East India Company (VOC) sent him in the little ship
Duyfken, to search for "south and east lands" beyond the furthest reaches of
their known world. Leaving from Banda (Indonesia), Duyfken reached the
Cape York Peninsula and charted 300km of the coast. This is the first
historically recorded voyage to Australia and so he became the first European
to actually set foot on Australian soil, when he made landfall at the
Pennefather River on the western shore of Cape York on 26th February, 1606.
(Mutch)
Willem Janszoon
It was while investigating and charting this new land that the first tragic
episode took place, when one of Janszoon’s crewmen was killed by “the
missiles of savages” Now this horde of natives were unfriendly from the start as they made violent noises and aimed their
spears and were indeed not ready
to parley, but determined on
wounding or killing. Janszoon
ordered his men to ‘fire one or two
shots to frighten them’ (Mutch) .
One of the natives was hit, but the
others retired into the sand dunes.
The Dutchmen searched their huts,
but found nothing but assegais,
stones and human bones with
which they made their weapons.
(Mutch)
They sailed further along and put
up a building at Cape Keerweer.
Here they had an entirely different
reception from the natives of these
parts, according to a book written
by members of the Wik-Mungkan
people, who today live in
outstations and in the Aurukun
Mission station.
This account of the Europeans’ landing has been passed down in Aboriginal oral history.
According to this narrative, the natives were friendly to the Dutch, at first.
In it is recorded:
A crowd of Keerweer people saw their boat sail up and went to talk with them.
They said they wanted to put up a city. Well, the Keerweer people said that was all right.
They allowed them to sink a well and put up huts. They were at first happy there and worked together.
The Europeans gave them tobacco. They carried off the tobacco. They gave them flour; they threw that away.
They gave them soap and they threw away the soap.
The Keerweer people kept to their own bush tucker. (Roberts et al)
3
THE VOCHS MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
Willem Janszoon and the tragic cost of discovery continued….
Then, according to this story, the Dutch started to misbehave and carried some of the Aboriginal women away and forced
their men to hunt for them. This, naturally, incensed the Aborigines and a fight broke out, leading the local natives to kill
some of the Dutch and burn some of their boats. The Dutch retaliated by shooting dead many of the Keerweer people
before escaping.
This version is not compatible with the records of the Dutch, as in their annals all that is written is
that Janszoon found “that vast regions were for the greater part
uncultivated and certain parts inhabited by savage cruel black
barbarians who slew some of our sailors, so that no information
was obtained touching the exact situation of the country and
regarding the commodities obtainable and in demand there....”
Naturally Janszoon would not record any misbehavior by his
men to the VOC.
In any case, even if he had, I doubt that they would have cared
much. The VOC cared, not for lives lost, even of their own
countrymen, in the case of the Batavia, they only cared for the
company’s stock. They certainly would not have cared about
the deaths of what they called ‘black savages’.
These can’t have been the only cases of confrontation between
the native peoples and the European ‘invaders’, as it is recorded
that there were a number of killings on various shore expeditions and Janszoon found the land ‘to be swampy and
infertile......’ ‘ and so he decided to leave the place ‘where his party had its greatest conflict with aboriginals’.
Janszoon called it Cape Keerweer which is Dutch for Cape Turnagain. (Mutch)
It is curious, in my opinion, that the first episode at Pennefather River on the shores of Cape York does not appear to have
been caused by any arguments, but overt hostility from the start on the part of the natives. Also they kept human bones to
make weapons, which does not seem to have been the case of the people of Cape Keerweer.
Headhunting was practiced by most of the peoples of Melanesia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, so it is possible
that these people may have been descendants of Torres Strait Islanders, instead of native inland Aborigines; as across from
Cape York lies the
Torres Strait. A
missionary once
found 10000 skulls
on Goaribari Island
(off Papua New
Guinea). All the
islanders were
skilled boatmen and
it would have been
nothing to have
rowed across to
Australia from New
Guinea and settle
there. They would
have brought all
their traditions with
them.
There is no other
record of Europeans
being killed by
Australian
Aborigines, without
just cause. For
Human skulls in a tribal village New Guinea mainland 1885.
instance, the
4
THE VOCHS MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
Willem Janszoon and the tragic cost of discovery continued….
Keerweer episode begins with friendliness and because of
mistreatment, the natives became hostile.
However in the Pennefather River narrative, the natives were
aggressive from the start.
So, it is my theory that they were more likely to be descendants of the
Torres Strait Islanders than Australian Aborigines who were not
known to be headhunters or naturally hostile.
Some images of the Aurukun
people.
The first recorded contact between Europeans and
Aboriginals was near Aurukun on the Janszoon
voyage of 1605-1606
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCE
(Wikipedia)
Mutch, T.D., The First Discovery of Australia (as read before the Royal Australian Historical Society on
May 26, 1942).
Roberts, Parsons, Russell, The Mapoon Story, according to the invaders: Church Mission, Queensland Government,
published by International Development Action, 1975
Duyfken.com
Images from the internet HC…..
5
VOC Historical Society
AGM 2015-2016
NOMINATION FORM:
For 26th October 2015 AGM
VOC Historical Society Incorporated
Please take notice that:
I, ___________________________________am prepared to stand for election to the committee
as _____________________________________ of the VOC Historical Society Incorporated.
(Must be financial Member)
Signed
Dated
Seconder: (Must be financial Member)
Signed
Print, scan and return this form via email: [email protected]
or
Post to: Secretary Henny Crijns
VOC Historical Society Incorporated
39 Walker Crescent
HIGH WYCOMBE W.A. 6057
6
Dated
NOMINATIONS FORM FOR ELECTION OF OFFICER BEARERS FOR
THE VOC HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC.
VOC Historical Society
AGM 2015-2016
I ……………………………………………………………………………… (Member of the VOC Historical Society Incorporated)
Wish to nominate the following members standing for election:
YES or NO
Chairperson
Rotating
Vice Chair
Pending
Secretary
Henny Crijns-Coenen
Ret’d Prison Officer/Writer/Researcher
Treasurer
Louella Zitman
Business Woman
Committee
Harry Crijns
Ret’d Police Officer/Technical Advisor
Committee
Sietske Haring
Committee
Pending
Committee
Pending
Committee
Pending
Webmaster
Georgina van der Kuil
Landgate Employee/Student
Public Relations Officer
Bill Zitman
Business man
I understand and give consent that my vote can be read out and accepted at the Annual General Meeting being held on the
26th of October 2015.
……………………………………………………………….
(Please print your name)
……………………………………………………………….
(Your signature)
Print, scan and return this form via email: [email protected]
or
Post to: Secretary Henny Crijns
VOC Historical Society Incorporated
39 Walker Crescent
7
THE VOCHS MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
Johan van Oldenbarneveldt—A great man persecuted
for his religious tolerance
by Monica de Knecht
You would have thought that because the Dutch had been so persecuted by the intolerant
Spanish inquisition, they would have learned to be more tolerant when they achieved the
upper hand and threw off the Spanish yoke, which had been most especially imposed, under
Philip ll’s right hand man, the Duke of Alba who instituted the Council of Troubles to
punish rebellious heretics. The Dutch, themselves called it the Court of Blood.)
To be fair, the Dutch were tolerant, under William l of Orange (William the Silent), but
when he was assassinated for his eclectic religious tolerance by the French Catholic,
Balthasar Gerard; the Dutch Protestants started to become very hard-line and, in all things,
especially trade, they would only accept absolute Calvinism.
So it was that Johan van Oldenbarneveldt met his end. He
who had been such a staunch and loyal adviser to William,
because he dared to defy the new Stadthouder, Prince
Maurits, in his ‘dyed in the wool’ Protestantism.
Johan van Oldenbarneveldt was born in Amersfoort, Spanish
Netherlands on 14th September, 1547. He was a lawyer, a
statesman and, after William the Silent, the second founding
father of the independent Netherlands. He mobilised Dutch forces under William’s half
brother, Maurits and devised the anti-Spanish triple alliance with France and England (1596).
In the Twelve year’s Truce (1609), he reaffirmed Holland’s dominant role in the Dutch
republic.
In 1586, two years after William’s assassination, Oldenbarneveldt accepted the appointment
by the States of Holland as the province’s landsadvocaat (chief minister) and in this office
he followed to the letter William the Silent’s policies. At first, he was in close collaboration
with Prince Maurits and, while, Maurits was in charge of actual warfare, it was Oldenbarneveldt who mobilised and coordinated the country’s available energy and resources, making the actual warfare possible.
One of his activities was to take an active part in the founding of the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) and so he
was a most valuable man and one who enabled the Dutch to become so paramount in trade overseas.
However religious conflict with the House of Orange led to van Oldenbarnevelt’s downfall.
It was all because of a man named Jakob Hermanszoon (his latinised name was Jacobus
Arminius). Arminius was a Professor of Theology at the University of Leiden and he wrote
an enormous amount of books and treatises on theology. His views became the basis of
Arminianism and what became known as the Dutch Remonstrant movement.
After his death, because he dared to challenge the ‘set in stone’ Reformed standard, the
Belgic Confession the Synod of Dort crafted the five points of Calvinism in reaction to
Arminius’s teaching.
Both van Oldenbarneveldt and Hugo de Groot (Latinised name Grotius) (attorney-general of
the Provinces of Holland), followed Arminius’s tolerant stand and conflict began in the form
of a struggle between the Gomarists who were the strict Calvinists, headed by Prince
Maurits and van Oldenbarneveldt and Grotius who followed the line created by their great
leader William the Silent of religious toleration.
The Arminians became known as the
Remonstrants and the followers of the strict Calvinism as espoused by the Dutch Reformed
Church were the Counter Remonstrants.
The basic tenet, according to the writings by Grotius on the Church and the State; was that
only the existence of God and his providence ought to be enforced by the Church, while
minor differences on obscure theological doctrines should be left to everyone’s private conscience.
Johan van Oldenbarneveldt had first of all ‘blotted his copybook’ with the Stadthouder, in 1609; when he and the urban
oligarchies of Holland developed another peace treaty in order to prevent any renewed hostilities with Spain once the
Treaty of Antwerp expired in 1621. This was in direct opposition to Maurits of Nassau, who with a faction of nobles that
supported renewing hostilities with Spain. In my opinion that could have been because the Spanish treasure ships (note*)
with gold, silver, riches and spices aplenty were being attacked by English privateers and, if the Dutch were at peace with
8
THE VOCHS MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
Johan van Oldenbarneveldt—A great man persecuted
for his religious tolerance continued...
Spain, they would not be able to legitimately confront those galleons.
After all
they needed huge incomes to finance the building and expansion of the VOC, still
in its infancy.
Van Oldenbarneveldt really became a ‘thorn in the side’ of the Stadthouder, when
he failed in maintaining unity on his freedom of conscience policy in the States of
Holland as Amsterdam opposed him. This weakened the hegemonic position of
Holland in the Republic as a whole. Secondly though the States were in favour
of the Remonstrants, as, being in a minority, they were in danger of being driven
out of the Dutch Reformed Church; the Counter-Remonstrants were still in great
strength among the schoolmasters and dominees (clergy) and, therefore,
indirectly among the common people. The social turbulence resulted in
deteriorating economic conditions for the staunchly unbending Calvinist exFlemish labourers who, of course, followed the Counter Remonstrants – leading to
the destabilisation of the State in 1617-18. Mob violence then took place with
frightening regularity.
The Remonstrant regents now felt so menaced that they resorted, in desperation,
to the ‘Sharp Resolution’ of the States of Holland of 4th August 1617, which
authorised city governments to raise mercenary troops (known as waardgelders)
outside of the official army, in order to maintain order.
Maurits and the other provinces asserted, on Constitutional grounds, that the
Union of Utrecht prohibited the raising of troops or militia by individual cities,
without consent from the States General. The ‘Sharp Resolution’ had been so
threatening to federal supremacy because it asserted that units in the Federal
Army owed their primary allegiance to the province, not to the States-General, as
the old Constitution was that the provinces were each supremely sovereign and the Union no more than a confederation of
these provinces. Whereas Prince Maurits and all the other provinces (excepting Utrecht) now claimed that the States-
9
THE VOCHS MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
Johan van Oldenbarneveldt—A great man persecuted
for his religious tolerance continued...
General possessed an overriding sovereignty in matters of common defence and foreign policy.
Perceiving that resistance was useless, Oldenbarneveldt and his Remonstrant allies now capitulated. Leiden disbanded its
waardgelders voluntarily in August, and Oldenbarneveldt and Grotius acquiesced in the convening of a National Synod to
arbitrate the Arminian controversy.
However, in 1618, Maurits, using his military powers in a coup d’ état, ordered the arrest of the Arminian leaders; van
Oldenbarneveldt and his chief supporters, Hugo Grotius, Gilles van Ledenberg, Rombout Hogerbeets and Jacob Kircksz de
Graeff, were arrested or lost their positions in government.
After a ‘kangaroo court’ or ad hoc tribunal of primarily enemies of the accused, Johan van Oldenbarneveldt was executed
for high treason and Grotius was sentenced to life imprisonment in the fortress of Loevestein. (Note **)
It has been alleged by some historians that the Dutch East India Company wanted gold, riches, spices and souls for their
thoroughly ‘Protestant Jehovah’. (Manning Clark) It is ironic that one of the main founding fathers of the VOC, a man of
tolerance and justice should have been destroyed by the inflexibility of this narrow creed. In other words, the VOC
should only be led by ‘good Protestant trade’.
NOTES
*The Spanish treasure fleet, also called silver fleet, plate fleet (from the Spanish plata meaning "silver"), or West Indies
Fleet from Spanish Flota de Indias, was a convoy system adopted by the Spanish Empire from 1566 to 1790. The convoys
were general purpose cargo fleets used for transporting a wide variety of items, including agricultural goods, lumber,
various metal resources, luxuries, silver, gold, gems, pearls, spices, sugar, tobacco, silk, and other exotic goods from the
Spanish Empire in the Americas to Spain. Passengers and goods such as textiles, books and tools were transported in the
opposite direction
** In 1621, with the aid of his wife, Grotius made a dramatic escape from the castle by hiding in a chest of books. He fled
to Antwerp and finally to Paris, where he stayed until 1631 under the patronage of Louis XVlll
Manning Clark, ‘A Short History of Australia’, Penguin Books, 1992.
Wikipedia, 80 Years war, Hugo Grotius, Prince Maurits, the Spanish Treasure Fleet
Encyclopedia Britannica, Hugo Grotius, Arminius
Engraving depicting Van Oldenbarnevelt's execution.
10
THE VOCHS MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
Dutch shipwrecks on our coast:
Yes—I have written a little about the Dutch shipwrecks on our Western Australian coast before but now that
there are plans afoot to celebrate the anniversary of some of these various wrecks I thought it would be good to
write just a little bit more. Starting with the oldest known wrecking first:
The Batavia was a ship of the VOC, built in 1628 and armed. with cannons and guns. The Batavia, on her
maiden voyage, was shipwrecked on the 4th June 1629—on a reef near Beacon Island which is a part of the
Houtman Abrolhos’ off the WA coast. This shipwrecking was made famous particularly for the mutiny and
massacre that took place amongst the survivors—Australia’s first maritime mutiny!
The Vergulde Draeck (Gilt Dragon) was also a ship of the VOC of the 17th century. She was carrying trade
goods and eight chest of silver worth a lot of money. On the 28th April 1656 The ship was wrecked just south
of Ledge Point which is approx 107 kms north of Perth in WA.
The Zuytdorp was a trading ship of the VOC in the 18th century. It is a part of known history that she was sent
from The Netherlands to Batavia Indonesia bearing a load of freshly minted silver coins. The Zuytdorp never
arrived at its destination. Not until the 20th century was any trace found of her. From evidence now found plus
historical records it has been estimated that the Zuytdorp was wrecked sometime in June of 1712—coins and
other relics were discovered in the vicinity of the area between Kalbarri & Shark Bay on the WA coast. This
very rugged section of the coast is now known as the Zuytdorp Cliffs. The story of the Zuytdorp is extremely
interesting.
The Zeewijk (or Zeewyk) was an 18th century East Indiaman of the VOC. Built in 1725, it carried 36 guns and
6 swivel guns. Another ship just on her maiden voyage to Batavia. However this particular ship did not
accidently come upon our coast. We were already known. The skipper wished to call into Western Australia
ignoring the orders of the company. At 7.30pm on the 9th June 1727 the ship crashed heavily into Half Moon
Reef on the western edge of the Pelsaert Group of the Houtman Abrolhos. This lies at approx 60kms west of
Geraldton in WA.
THE BROUWER ROUTE:
If you have been reading our newsletter and Journals on a regular basis you will now know that the VOC known
in English as the Dutch East India Company was pretty much the major seafaring company; and for The
Netherlands the major seafaring nation of the world of those early days. The VOC made around 5,000 ocean trips
to Asia between 1602 and
1800—buying exotic spices
to sell on the
European markets.
They
became an international
powerhouse.
They built
massive fleets of ships and
carried passengers as well as
trading goods and silver
coins to purchase new cargo.
Before 1611, the common
route to Asia was to stay
close to the East African
coastline after rounding the
Cape of Good Hope. In 1610
a Hendrik Brouwer followed the westerly winds (Roaring Forties), crossing much of the southern Indian Ocean
and then heading north to Asia. This was a very good idea because it not only shortened the route but the ships
compliment arrived at their destination feeling somewhat healthier.
HC...
11
THE VOCHS MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
VOC Historical Society—AGM 2015-2016
26th October 2015
The Society will be holding its 2015-2016 Annual General Meeting on the 26th October at its office in East
Victoria Park in Western Australia beginning at 7pm sharp.
If you are a financial member and you wish to attend please advise the Secretary Henny either via email:
[email protected] or mobile: 0423 165 945.
On the Agenda will be the election of Office Bearers followed by General Business.
If you wish to add to our Agenda once again please advise the Secretary.
Positions of Office Bearers:
Chairperson: This is a rotating position shared amongst the committee members present at a meeting.
Vice Chair: Pending.
Secretary: Henny Crijns-Coenen will renominate.
Treasurer: Louella Zitman will renominate.
Committee: Harry Crijns will renominate.
Committee: Sietske Haring is nominating.
Committee: Pending.
Committee: Pending.
Committee: Pending.
As webmaster—Georgina van der Kuil. (this position is not up for election)
As Public Relations Officer—Bill Zitman. (this position is not up for election)
Henny is prepared to continue as the Editor of the society’s magazines and also as manager of the society’s
facebook page.
If you are a financial member and you wish to nominate for any of the positions once again please advise the
Secretary. Remember you must have a seconder who must also be a financial member.
A proxy vote notice and also a nomination form will be included in this newsletter (Pages 6 & 7)
Thank you for your continued support.
Henny Crijns-Coenen
MEMBERSHIP SUBSCRIPTION FORM:
The Treasurer
VOC Historical Society Inc.
72 Basildon Road
LESMURDIE WA 6076
Email: [email protected]
Date ________________
Subscription: New subscription
Renewal
NAME
ADDRESS ...........................................................................................
TOWN .................................................... STATE……..P/CODE …….
TELEPHONE .......................................................................................
EMAIL ADDRESS ............................................... @........................
You will receive a copy of our ‘The Journal’ each 3 months unless we are otherwise advised. The
newsletters are sent out monthly.
Annual Subscription of $25.00 may be paid as follows:
Cheque - made payable to VOC Historical Society Inc and forward to the above address,
OR
Direct Debit to our Westpac Bank - BSB 036 304 - Account No. 163460
(Please ensure bank includes your details for our information)
Extra donation if applicable $ …………………
Thank you….
12