Importance of the Spice Trade & The Dutch East Indies Company

The Little Dove was originally bought by the Dutch East Indies Company in 1598. The VOC was set up by the Dutch government to assist with the development of trade in the Indonesian Archipelago. The company was effectively charged with the task of colonising the region, something it did with great success. The administration lasted over 300 years and saw many generations of Dutch make the long journey to take up their posting in some of the most remote islands on earth.

Amongst these were the fabled Spice Islands. Nutmeg and Mace were more valuable than gold in the 17th century and a single ship load returning to Holland was worth millions of dollars in today's terms. At one stage, the Spice Trade apparently constituted as much as 30% of Holland's entire income.

It was the might of the Dutch Empire's fleet of ships and the skills of her skippers and crew that enabled them to gain and maintain such power for so long. These same sailing skills will need to be learned once more as the crew of the Little Dove set out on the long voyage ahead.


Sailing the ship

Having gone through the painstaking process of learning how to build a 16th century tall ship, the crew are now having to learn how to sail her. The ship's captain Peter Manthorpe will be a key character on the modern day voyage. He honed his tall ship sailing skills as First Mate on the HMAV Bounty, a full rigged, full size replica of the eighteenth century ship. Again he will take to the seas, along with other highly experienced crew.

With a crew of nine and some eight passengers including the film crew, scientists and historians, this compliment of people will be learning to work, sail and live together over the coming four months.

The Little Dove, when under full sail can maintain a 5 knot (10kph) cruising speed. She is a three mast ship with a shallow draught and good manoeuvrability, a trait that gave her a special role in the Dutch fleet, particularly in battles.


The Forts of Trade

The Little Dove will sail back in time as she heads for the port of the island of Solor in the eastern reaches of the Nusa Tengarra.

The busy docks are teaming with huge wooden traders owned by the famous Makassarese, Mandar and Bugis sea farers. Their stunning timber sailing ships, with their proud bows have changed little in design since the days of the original Little Dove’s voyages.

These seafarers have travelled the archipelago since the earliest times carrying cargo from as far away as Papua New Guinea to the Middle East. We will meet more of these infamous sailors as we travel on towards Australia, hopefully as friend rather than foe as the Bugis are best known as pirates. Piracy is a very real danger in the waters ahead, especially for a tall ship under sail.


Sailing through Wallacae

In the late 1800's Alfred Wallace, a botanist and naturalist did extensive work throughout the archipelago. Most significantly, he is credited with generating a short essay on the 'theory of natural selection' that he sent to his friend Charles Darwin. Darwin took the essay to the Linnean Society in London and the concept that changed humanities entire understanding of the natural world was named the 'Darwin-Wallace Theory of Natural Selection'.

His theory was supported by the discovery of the unique distinction in flora and fauna between the islands of Bali and Lombok that are less than 20km apart. This was later named the Wallace Line and marks the point between Australasia and Asia; between hoofed mammals and macropod marsupials; Kangaroos and Tigers.

On board the Little Dove will be a Naturalist who will explain the Wallace Line and its significance. She will also be on a mission to study the changes that have occurred to the environment since the Little Dove originally sailed through the region.


Banda Island

From Solor the Little Dove will head north to the once famous Banda Island.

This small, beautiful island in the middle of the Molucca was formally the centre of the world's spice trade. It has seen much bloodshed, battle and misery as the Dutch, British and Spanish fought over this precious, tiny outpost. In the 16th century the indigenous population were the greatest trading fraternity in the Spice Islands but in order for the Dutch to create a monopoly, under the rule of the infamous Governor Coen, they wiped out the native population, decimating their numbers from 15,000 to 600 in a matter of months.

In 1607 the Little Dove was part of a Dutch fleet which confronted a Portuguese fleet in the bay at Banda. We will re-visit this battle through spectacular dramatic realisations as we draw a picture of the bay as it was in the early 1600's. It was recorded that during this battle the Little Dove managed to outrun the Portuguese ships and make it to Ambon to raise the alert. In the five hour battle over eighty cannon shots were fired at her without causing any damage.


Run for Manhattan

Significantly, the small island of Run, close by Banda Island, was also in the Dutch sights. But rather than engaging in more sea battles they managed to strike a deal with the British whereby they swapped this tiny island for an apparently worthless island that the Dutch owned in North America... Manhattan.


Below the Waterline

Whilst Banda has been the home of a wild and tumultuous history, it is also home to one of the most exquisite marine environments in the world.

On the board the Little Dove will be a Marine Biologist who will take us diving to discover the stunning world below. She will be on a quest to understand more about the changes that may have occurred since the Little Dove’s original voyage. Searching for clues in the marine life on the seabed will also lead part of our dive team towards another important mission.


Searching for the Ghost of the Little Dove

Nearby on the island of Ternate, we will conduct an exploratory dive in search of the wreck of the original Little Dove. In 1608 the Little Dove was involved in another sea battle, this time with the Spanish just off this island near Makian. The battle was won but the Little Dove was in need of repairs and was taken inside the reef at Ternate.

There it was severely damaged by a 'tsunami' (tidal wave) along with dozens of other vessels. It is hoped that this modern day voyage will find some evidence of the original ship, or at least remnants of other ships of the period.


The Final Frontier - Michael Rockerfeller's last stand

After sailing from Banda Island the Little Dove will visit the islands of Kei and Aru, the remotest islands in Indonesia with beaches of unsurpassed beauty and exquisite Birds of Paradise inhabiting the thick jungles.

From here the Little Dove will venture forth to the Digul River in Irian Jaya. At a distance, the mouth of the river is difficult to pick amongst the miles of mangrove lined coast. Whilst nondescript visually, this river holds a dark past as this is where adventurer Michael Rockefeller allegedly disappeared in mysterious circumstances in 1961.

With the help of the Asmat people of this area, we will attempt to trace the final days and weeks of Michael Rockefeller, a billionaire's son, filmmaker, collector and true adventurer. The river is treacherous as strong currents and a bewildering maze of tributaries make navigation extremely difficult.


Life at Sea

At this stage in the voyage the crew and passengers will have been at sea for over five months. It will be timely to reflect on times aboard this tiny wooden vessel 400 years earlier.

A sailor's life was a hard one and minute details of his life on board will be conveyed as we watch their modern day counterparts at work.

Conditions were extremely tough then and even sailing through such plentiful waters didn't stop the curses of scurvy and dysentery. Added to these physical hardships was the need for the sailors to double up as soldiers for the VOC to protect these waters from the British, Portuguese and Spanish and the sea battles were often fierce and bloody.

The sailors were also ambassadors in new lands. This role was a particularly difficult one, given the beliefs and attitudes of the time. This often led to violent confrontations with local people through misunderstandings, racism or abuse on the part of the sailors.

A violent and fatal confrontation was exactly what the crew of the Duyfken met with, when they struck upon the coast of 'the great southern land'.


Sent Forth a Dove

The Little Dove will now turn south for the most significant leg of its journey. Through coral reefs, shallow waters and unpredictable winds, our little ship will make her way to the place that marks one of the greatest feats of navigation of the 17th century, the discovery of Australia.

Several very special passengers will be on board for this final leg. The people of Yupungati Tribe have lived in this region for tens of thousands of years, living in isolation from both PNG and the relentlessly developing Asian region. It is believed that it was during the last Ice Age (around 10,000 BC) that the final wave of migrants came south across a land bridge to Australia and since then, the continent has been cut off from Indonesia and the world.

It is through the Yupungati people that we will hear first hand an old mythological story, one that has a very familiar ring to it. When Captain Janszoon hit the west coast of the Cape York Peninsula he believed that he had found a southern section of the 'Nova Guinea' (PNG) coast. Whilst the ship had provisions that enabled them to sail for weeks, if not months on end without needing fresh supplies of food, they still needed water and timber for cooking.

Hence, the ship's boat was launched and made its way to shore where they intended to dig a well and cut timber. When they reached Arukun, just north of Pennyfather River they made their first landing and met with a number of people from the Yupungati Tribe.


The Mythology of the Yupungati

On board the Little Dove one of the elders will recount the famous myth where a Dutch ship moored off shore and sent a party in to fetch water. This quote is taken from a research trip by marine archaeologist Graham Henderson where he recorded the elder Francis Yunkaporta recounting the tale;

'My people saw the first Dutch ship north of the mouth of this river in 1606. They saw a big mob of logs that were huge, very big with lots of devils in them. The devils looked strange. Their skin looked different and they were white. My people wanted to know why they had come' (from 'Sent Forth a Dove. Discovery of the Duyfken' by James Henderson)

According to Dutch records, two men were lost in a single battle with the Aborigines in a dispute that arose after two women had been taken to the ship and not returned. The similarity of the story told by the Yupungati People and the account from the Dutch records makes it almost indisputable that they are one in the same.


Epilogue

The Little Dove returned to the Banda Islands and continued to serve for the VOC for another two years. Our Little Dove will instead sail around the Cape York Peninsula and head south to Brisbane where she will make her way up the winding river that leads to the city. There, huge celebrations and thousands of people will greet the ship and commemorate it's place in the history books of the 'Great Age of Discovery'.

Our crew will be exhausted but elated and the Little Dove will no doubt be in need of a good rest. Having spent four months on board, travelling the length and breadth of the Indonesian archipelago we will now understand more about the history of the region, the marine ecology, flora and fauna, environment and people and their ancient migratory paths as well as the modern ones. We will have lived through the battles that won the archipelago for the Dutch and seen the remnants of WWII that won independence for the Indonesians.

We will have been on an adventure of epic scale, experiencing with the crew something of the life of a seaman of the 17th century and have recreated the voyage of the discovery of the 'Great South Land'. We will also have shared in the rewriting of Australia's history.