VOC
Deckhand in the 17th century
During the Golden Age, four hundred years ago, the Netherlands had thousands of ships. We were the largest trading nation in the world.
You could sail along from the mere age of 11, as cabin boy. With 350 men to Indonesia. They took along food to last for many months.
23,000 kg bread, 11,000 kg meat, 1,500 pounds of bacon, 1,800 kg butter and 700 cheeses…
But of course, it was no picnic. They travelled to become rich and to gather treasures from distant lands.
Thousands of kilos of tea, 40,000 Chinese porcelain cups, hundreds of gold ingots and expensive spices. Such a cargo today would be worth hundreds of millions of euros in today’s money…