Yacht in the service of the WIC

The Kat was a yacht in the service of the Dutch West India Company (WIC) and it is mentioned several times in the 17th-century standard work on the WIC, Historie ofte Iaerlijck Verhael by J. de Laet. This type of yacht was often used for reconnaissance, the deployment of news and for military operations. It is not clear what became of the ship after the last reference in 1633.

Rijksmuseum

Yard: Amsterdam
Owner: WIC chamber Amsterdam
Tonnage: 90 last
Crew: 52 sailors, 21 soldiers (1629); 40 sailors, 48 soldiers (1633)

Armament: 14 iron cannon in 1629, 16 in 1633

Possible slave trade

According to Slavevoyages.org, a WIC vessel named the Kat made a voyage with enslaved people from Accra to Pernambuco in 1643. Of the 231 people taken on board, 197 survived the voyage.

• Laet, J. de (1644)
  Historie ofte iaerlijck verhael van de verrichtinghen der geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagnie, zedert haer begin, tot het eynde van 't jaer sesthien-hondert ses-en-dertich; begrepen in derthien boecken
  pp 320
• Slavevoyages.org
  Slave Voyages