Gebruiker:Sldownard/Leusden
This is a draft of the translation of https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leusden_(schip,_1719)
Leusden
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Cross-section of a slave schip, which shows how the slaves were forced to lie as cargo.
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The Leusden was an 18th century Slave ship that belonged to the Dutch_west_india_company. On 1 January 1738, the ship crashed on the mouth of the Maroni (river) in Suriname, causing 664 of the onboard African slaves to drown in the worst shipwreck at the hands of Dutch slavehandling.
History[bewerken | brontekst bewerken]
On 25 October 1718, the Dutch West India Company decided to build a new slave ship.[1] The contract was awarded to the lowest bidder; ship's carpenter Jan Gerbrandse Slegt from the De Eendracht shipyards in Kattenburg in Amsterdam. The ship's construction took about eight months, and the total costs were 53.094 gulden to build an empty ship. To reinforce and double-hull the ship, extra costs were charged.[2] The double-hulling was required because the wood was enormously damaged by long stays in tropical waters.
The name of the ship was probably bestowed by Cornelis Bors van Waveren, director of the Society of Suriname (1694-1722), who had been granted by the Dutch West India Company authority over the build of the Leusden. Bors van Waveren was the lord of the Leusden parcel in Eemsland, and likely named the ship after it.[3]
During its ninety-year existence, the Leusden made ten trips between West Africa and America, as part of the Atlantic_slave_trade. The Leusden transported 6,565 Africans to become slaves, of which nearly one quarter did not survive transportation.[4] This was due to the pathetic conditions on board: the bad food, the outbreaks of illness among the prisoners, and the tightly close quarters.
Final trip[bewerken | brontekst bewerken]
The Leusden had arrived on 11 May 1737 in Elmina, but there were too few prisoners on the Leusden to be listed as 'cargo'. In the end, it took six months before there were enough prisoners aboard.[5] On 19 November 1737, the Leusden departed under the captaincy of Jochem Outjes, leaving Africa for Suriname with approximately 700 prisoners on board. During the trip, approximately 20 prisoners died. After a passage of only 44 days, the Leusden reached the coast of French Guyana on 31 December 1737, in unusually bad weather. Due to heavy rains and mist, the captain lost sight of land, and decided to try to maneuver closer to the coast. He made a crucial navigational mistake: in assuming that he was near the Suriname river, he tried to enter the Maroni river. Midday, the Leusden ran into a sandbar on 1 January 1738.[6]
The prisoners, who had been brought on deck to eat at the time of shipwreck, were driven back below to the slave deck. 16 prisoners stayed on the top deck, and the reason they were not driven below is unknown. At that time, the ship began to leak and slowly to sink. The prisoners tried to escape the space as it filled with water by climbing abovedecks, but the crew were afraid they would be overtaken by the prisoners and decided to blockade the decks. The crew climbed higher on the wreck and believed they would be safe. The 664 slaves trapped belowdecks drowned.[6]
The next day, the 73 crewmembers, alongside the 16 prisoners who were abovedecks, left in a sloop and a boat to reach Paramaribo, where they were met on 4 January. The 16 surviving prisoners were sold.[7]
A few months later, the managers of the Dutch West India Company heard news of the Leusden. The meeting of the Amsterdam Chamber on 20 May 1738 concerned the wreck of the Leusden, but for the Lords of the company, the wreck was ordinary business risk and a "serious injury to the Company." Of the 664 people who died, no word was spoken.[8] The Netherlands continued to participate in the slave trade until 1863.
Monument[bewerken | brontekst bewerken]
In 2010, a proposal was made to place a monument to the disaster in Suriname.[9]
Exhibitions[bewerken | brontekst bewerken]
From 27 June 2013 until 31 August 2014, the Maritime Museum of Amsterdam had an exhibit over the final trip of the Leusden, entitled The Unseen Victims [Het Zwarte Bladzijde]. In the exhibit, visitors could acquaint themselves with the living conditions below- or abovedecks, and could discover more about the economic background information of the slave trade and slavery. From 1 november 2013 until 31 January 2014, in Fort Zeelandia of Paramaribo, an adaptation of the exhibition was open to visitors, under the name Grief of a Slave Ship: Disaster on the Maroni [Smart van een slavenschip – Scheepsramp op de Marowijne].
Zie ook[bewerken | brontekst bewerken]
Bronnen[bewerken | brontekst bewerken]
Bronnen, noten en/of referenties
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Bibliografie[bewerken | brontekst bewerken]
- Johannes Postma, The Dutch in the Atlantic Slave Trade 1600-1815 (Cambridge 1990).
- Leo Balai, Het slavenschip Leusden. Slavenschepen en de West-Indische Compagnie, 1720-1738 (Zutphen 2011).
- Leo Balai, ‘De laatste reis van het slavenschip Leusden. Verslag van de grootste verzwegen moordpartij op een Nederlands slavenschip’, in: R. Daalder e.a. (red), Slaven en Schepen in het Atlantisch gebied (Leiden 2013).
Categorie:Geschiedenis van Suriname voor 1975 Categorie:Scheepsramp Categorie:Nederlandse slavenhandel Categorie:Zeilschip op naam Categorie:Schip op naam