Names of Ships in the VOC between 1595 and 1650

by Sara L. Uckelman
known in the SCA as Aryanhwy merch Catmael

© 2006, 2009-2010, 2011Sara L. Uckelman; all rights reserved
last updated 13Jun11

Introduction

The Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) or the Dutch East India Company was established in 1602, and remained a major trading industry until 1798. In this article we consider the names of ships making outbound (i.e., from a port in the Netherlands) journeys between 1595 and 1650. Many of the ships that went on voyages after 1650 were built in 1650 or before, but I have not included them here, because there is generally a voyage prior to 1651 where the ship is represented. These ships were primarily Dutch Eastindiamen, though there are a number of jachten (yachts), pinasen (pinnaces), and fluiten (flutes), and a few galjooten (galiots). In the tables below 'E' stands for 'Eastindiaman'. A total of 732 voyages were made. In various cases, there is not enough information to tell whether entries in different years for the same name refer to the same ship or not. In some cases, it's possible to group certain voyages under one ship entry because of the place and date of the building of the ship. When this information is partial or incomplete, I will group together voyages where the same information for the same is known. As a result, it's impossible to state for sure how many distinct ships there were. Therefore, the numbers in the groupings below are approximate.

The main part of the article will be a study of the names themselves. In the future I also intend to do some statistical surveys in terms of name patterns broken down by decade, as well as studies of the ship names by place of construction (where known).

My source says:

It should be noted that especially in the seventeenth century ships' names were frequently provided with additions which were not used in a consistent fashion. The AMSTERDAM (0431) was sometimes called NIEUWAMSTERDAM, the WITTE OLIFANT (0533) the OLIFANT. The most frequent name is given in the tables (viii).

A uniform spelling has also been chosen for the names in the tables, but there is little doubt that this uniform spelling is appropriate for the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries.

I would like to thank Paul Van Den Dool who helped me identify many of the names I couldn't figure out, as well as corrected me in some of my errors.

Names grouped by type of name

• Ships named for cities & regions in the Netherlands - 179
• Ships named for foreign countries & cities - 16
• Ships named for animals, fish, & birds - 99
• Ships named for astronomical & atmospherical features - 21
• Ships named after people - 15
• Ships named with religious or virtue references - 32
• Miscellaneous names - 29
• Unidentifed names - 14

There is also a table of frequency of names types by decade of voyage.

Ships Named for Cities & Regions in the Netherlands

Ships Named for Foreign Countries & Cities

Ships Named for Animals, Fish & Birds

Ships Named for Astronomical & Atmospheric Features

Ships Named After People

Ships Named With Religious or Virtue References

Miscellaneous Names

Unidentified Names

Frequency of name types by decade of voyagevoyage

Source

Bruijn, J.R., F.S. Gaastra, & I. Schöffer, with assist. from A.C.J. Vermeulen. Dutch-Asiatic shipping in the 17th and 18th centuries, vol. 2, (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1979).