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and had lived in Nijmegen since at least 1500. The family had produced several members of the knighthood of Gelderland, as well as a number of well-respected military officers of the rank of colonel and above. The name Gsbert was common in the family, but neither the Batavia mutineer nor his brother, Olivier, can be identified in the surviving genealogy. It is possible that the two Van Welderens were bastard sons who had been forced to seek their fortunes in the Indies. Van Welderen collection, Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie, The Hague; verdict on Olivier van Welderen, JFP 30 Nov 1629 [DB 245].

Soldiers and seamen Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire, pp. 69–73; Van Gelder, op. cit., pp. 148–55.

Hammocks Although they were not yet in widespread use, at least some of the Batavia’s men had hammocks, including the High Boatswain, Jan Evertsz, and several of the soldiers. Confession of Allert Janssen, JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 195].

Pelsaert’s flotilla Bruijn et al., pp. 2, 60–3.

The distance from the Texel to Batavia Bruijn, “Between Batavia and the Cape,” p. 259. This calculation takes account of the fact that Dutch ships never sailed the shortest possible route between the two points, in order to take full advantage of favorable winds.

Record passages See Bruijn et al., Dutch-Asiatic Shipping, I, 56 and F. J. Tickner and V. C. Medvei, “Scurvy and the Health of European Crews in the Indian Ocean in the Seventeenth Century,” Medical History 2 (1958): 41.

Unlucky voyages For the Westfriesland, see A. J. C. Vermeulen, “Onrust Ende Wederspannigheyt: Vijf Muiterijen in de Zeventiende Eeuw,” pp. 33–4, in Jaap Bruijn and E. S. van Eyck van Heslinga (eds.), Muiterij, Oproer en Berechting op de Schepen van de VOC (Haarlem: De Boer Maritiem, 1980). For the Zuytdorp, see Phillip Playford, Carpet of Silver: the Wreck of the Zuytdorp (Nedlands, WA: University of Western Australia Press, 1996), pp. 45–55.

Cargo and cargo capacity Stern cabins were also used to stow the most valuable cargo on the voyage home. Kristoff Glamann, Dutch-Asiatic Trade 1620–1740 (Copenhagen: Danish Science Press, 1958), p. 24, notes that one VOC constable had to share his tiny cabin with a chest of nutmeg cakes, two small cases of birds’ nests, a pot of civet, and 15 bales of tea. See also H. N. Kamer, Het VOC-retourschip: Een Panorama van de 17de- and 18-de-Eeuwse Scheepsbouw (Amsterdam: De Bataafsche Leeuw, 1995), pp. 24–30; Bruijn et al., Dutch-Asiatic Shipping, I, pp. 43, 179–87; list of retrieved cash and goods from the wreck, ARA VOC 1098, fol. 529, published by V. D. Roeper (ed.), De Schipbreuk van de Batavia, 1629 (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1994), pp. 218–9; Marit van Huystee, The Lost Gateway of Jakarta (Fremantle: Western Australian Maritime Museum, 1994). Some authorities estimate the cargo capacity of a retourschip of the Batavia’s size as high as 1,000 tons.

Seasickness M. Barend-van Haeften, Op Reis met de VOC: De Openhartige Dagboeken van de Zusters Lammens en Swellengrebel (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1996), p. 53.

Seasickness in pigs Pablo Pérez-Mallaína, Spain’s Men of the Sea: Daily Life on the Indies Fleets in the Sixteenth Century (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins: University Press, 1998), p. 132.

Latrines Bruijn et al., Dutch-Asiatic Shipping, I, 161; Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600–1800, p. 76; Van Gelder, op. cit., p. 159; on the layer of filth in the bilges, see Philip Tyler, “The Batavia Mutineers: Evidence of an Anabaptist ‘Fifth Column’ within 17th century Dutch Colonialism?” Westerly (December 1970): p. 44.

Smells Van Gelder, op. cit., p. 159; N. A. M. Rodger, The Safeguard of the Sea (London: HarperCollins, 1997), p. 408; J. J. Keevil, C. S. Lloyd, and J. L. S. Coulter, Medicine and the Navy, 1200–1900 (4 vols., Edinburgh, 1957–1963), I, p. 183; M. Barend-van Haeften and A. J. Gelderblom (eds.), Buyten Gaets: Twee Burleske Reisbieven van Aernout van Overbeke (Hilversum: Verloren, 1998), p. 94.

“Fuming like hell . . .” Pérez-Mallaína, op. cit., p. 140.

Tedium Cf. Barend-van Haeften, op. cit., pp. 35, 61, 66.

Food It has been said that