Amsterdam: VOC shipyard – ‘t Oost Indische magazyn, en scheeps-timmer-werf

An iconic building

Seafarers from the Dutch Republic colored the opening of he world in the seventeenth century.

Central to this was the Dutch East India Company (VOC), a joint stock company which received monopoly rights to trade with and in the East. The success of this venture was enhanced by efficient logistics. The first shipyard was built on the Rapenburg manmade island in the east of the city. A few decades later built a new shipyard was constructed on the nearby artificial island Oostenburg. The East India Zeemagazijn was completed around 1660 on design of Daniel Stalpaert.

It was 177 meters long and 20 meters wide. All supplies for the equipment of the ships were housed; even a facility for sails and a slaughterhouse. Imports from Asia were also stocked here. In 1822, the building collapsed. It is estimated that the Amsterdam Chamber delivered here about 730 ships between 1602 and 1794.

Commelin was a respected clergy-man in Amsterdam and had free access to the Amsterdam city archives, enabling him in completing this work and therefore it also contains much more reliable sources and official documents than the works by Dapper and Van Domselaar. Commelin died in 1693, his work was first published posthumously in 1693-1694.