Sinds enkele dagen staat een nieuwe database met circa 250 scheepsreizen naar Nieuw Nederland (1609-1664) online, gelanceerd door @nyfamilyhistory. Een stukje Nederlandse maritieme geschiedenis in Amerika! Meer informatie
About the Project
Between 1609 and 1664, more than 150 ships undertook roughly 250 voyages between the Dutch Republic and the colony of New Netherland. These ships crucially connected colonial nodes across the North Atlantic Ocean, transporting administrators and colonists, delivering provisions, supplies, and essentials, and conveying missives and other correspondence as the only means of communication. Far from simply cogs in the wheel of imperial expansion, these ships were the link between the Dutch Republic and its overseas holdings. Surprisingly, while the activities of ships made up a substantial component of the colonial narrative, the impact of ships’ activities is rarely addressed in the cause and effect relationships of colonial histories. Anything but interlopers, ships were a recurrent, familiar, quotidian presence for the seventeenth-century Dutch, touching every aspect of life. Viewing history through the lens of ships adds a critical component to understanding the rich and complex Dutch North Atlantic colonial network, whose very existence depended on maritime support.
This project produces a database of voyages to New Netherland that aims to integrate the activities of ships into the larger story of the colony. It provides an extensive resource for the reconstruction of maritime activity at the foundation of, and essential to, the development of New Netherland.