DUTCH WAR SHIP

These ships were used during the war between the Dutch and the Portuguese in the Straits of Melaka. The Dutch was aware that trade and war is not separable and therefore, their trading vessels were armed to served as war ships from the outset.

In 1606, 11 large Dutch war ships and six smaller ones, carrying 1357 soldiers, attacked Melaka. Later in June 1640, twelve large Dutch war ships and six smaller ones together with forty ships sent by Johor attacked Melaka again and in the following year, the Portuguese were defeated.

In August 1729, the Board of Directors of the VOC (the Dutch East India Company) decreed that in armed conflicts, Dutch vessels measuring one hundred and sixty feet in length must be equipped with thirty-eight large cannons and ten smaller ones for combat at close range. Ships of shorter length of one hundred and forty-five feet were to be equipped with thirty-six large and eight small cannons. At the height of its power in 1669, the VOC had forty warships, one hundred and fifty trading vessels, and nearly ten thousands soldiers.