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stepping stones of maritime history

History

The pinas Hasselt was built at the end of 1656 at the VOC shipyard in Amsterdam. The ship's construction decree explicitly stated that it would be used to transport slaves.*

The Hasselt left from Het Vlie on 10-4-1657. She arrived at the Cape on August 16, 1657. The Hasselt now had 271 enslaved people bought in Guinea and Angola on board. By the time they arrived at the Cape, 43 slaves had died. Of the 228 survivors, 128 remained at the Cape

The rest of these enslaved people sailed on to Batavia. Subsequently, the Hasselt was mainly used for the transport of slaves bought by the VOC in the kingdom Arakan (Myanmar). Between 1659 and 1664 the yacht delivered a group of enslaved people to Batavia four times.

Last voyage
De Hasselt, together with Ter Veer, left Batavia for Arakan on September 18, 1664 to buy rice and slaves.

In early November the two ships were caught by storm in the Bay of Bengal. After cutting down the main mast, the Ter Veer managed to reach Narsapur on the east coast of India. De Hasselt was never heard from again. Given the place and date of Ter Veer's arrival, the ships must have already been quite deep in the Bay of Bengal.

One of the most famous passengers on the Hasselt was Wouter Schouten. He was a chief surgeon in the service of the VOC. He made a journey of almost a year on the Hasselt through, among others, the Moluccas and Arakan. He wrote a travelogue The East Indian Voyage

* sources Hasselt

Description

Built: 1656 VOC yard in Amsterdam

SkipperMoocker, Jakob Hendriksz.
Length120.1 Amsterdam feet (34 m)
Width26.5 Amsterdam feet (7.5 m)

References

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