Why are so many nautical words in Danish the same as in Dutch? Who taught the shipwrights in the Royal Danish Shipyard in Copenhagen to build carvel planked ships? How did the first Danish ships find their way to the riches of the East Indies? These questions and many more are meet in this Ph.D. dissertation, which circles around the maritime relationships between especially the seaward provinces of the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries. In the early renaissance Dutch maritime technology was imported by the Danish king, who recruited craftsmen and bough ships in the Netherlands and later on the Royal Danish Navy was profoundly influenced by Dutch master shipbuilders and naval officers. But it was not only maritime experts and mariners who travelled to the North, but also ordinary Scandinavian sailors, who migrated the other way and took a part in Dutch shipping to all parts of the world. This labour migration has been known amongst Dutch scholars for some time, but is almost unknown in Scandinavian historical circles.
For the first time data from the Amsterdam City archive has made it possible to get closer to the individual sailors, who hailed from the coastal districts of Norway, the Southwest coast of Denmark and for a lesser part the West coast of Sweden and their participation in the Dutch shipping industry has been analysed showing, that they learned important maritime skills onboard. Coming back to Scandinavia these sailors were the backbone of the navies and merchant fleets of the Scandinavian countries especially in the eighteenth century.
This study of maritime labour migration will be of interest for scholars of maritime-, migration and technology history but also for anyone, who likes to read about the life’s and work of ordinary sailors in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Preface
1 Introduction
1.1. Research Overview
1.1.1. Denmark
1.1.2. Norway
1.1.3. Sweden
1.1.4. Germany
1.1.5. The Netherlands
1.2. Conclusion
1.3. The composition of the dissertation
1.4. Theory
1.4.1. Situated learning
1.4.2. Practice communities
1.4.3. Peripheral, legitimate participation
1.4.4. Change of identity and community of practice
1.4.5. Objectification of the community of practice
1.5. Conclusion
1.6. Sources and Methods
1.6.1. Time- and Area delimitations
1.6.2. The Dutch in the Danish conglomerate state
1.6.3. The acquisition of Dutch and Scandinavian sailors by the Royal Danish Navy during the Scanian War
1.6.4. Scandinavian seamen in the Netherlands
1.6.5. The Notarial archives in GAS (Gemeente Amsterdam Stadsarchief (the city archives of Amsterdam))
1.6.6. Muster rolls for the flagship of Admiral Cornelis Tromp
1.6.7. The Waterschout Archive in GAS
1.6.8. The Waterschout Archive in GAS. All nations in the spring of 1780
1.6.9. Autobiographies
1.6.10. Ships lists
2. Historical Background
2.1. The shipping industries in the realms of the Danish king and in the Netherlands
2.1.1. Shipping in the Danish conglomerate state
2.1.2. The shipping industry of the Netherlands
2.2. Conclusion
2.3. Migration to the Netherlands
2.3.1. Push/pull factors as a background for migration
2.3.2. Other motives for migration
2.3.3. Mobility in the early modern period
2.3.4. Circular migration
2.3.5. Chain migration
2.3.6. Career migration
2.4. Conclusion
3. Dutch experts in Denmark-Norway and the Duchies
3.1. Shipbuilders and shipwrights
3.2. Dutch sailors in the Royal Danish Navy
3.2.1. Dutch naval officers and navigators in the Royal Danish Navy
3.2.2. Ordinary Dutch seamen and petty officers
3.3. Dutch sailors and navigators on Danish and Norwegian merchant ships
3.4. Other Dutch experts in the maritime sector
3.5. Conclusion
4. Import of Dutch maritime technology and practice
4.1. The particular Dutch art of shipbuilding and the types of vessels of the Netherlands
4.2. Rigging
4.3. Import of Dutch vessels into the realms of the Danish king
4.3.1. Import to Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein
4.3.2. Import of Dutch vessels to Norway
4.3.3. The Royal Danish Navy
4.4. Marine archaeological finds
4.5. Navigational aids
4.6. The sailor’s craft, seamanship
4.7. The maritime vocabulary
4.8. Identity
4.9. Conclusion
5. Scandinavian seamen on Dutch ships in the 17th and 18th centuries
5.1. Scandinavian seamen in the international Amsterdam maritime labour market in the years 1772, 1780 and 1787
5.1.1. The background for the labour migration
5.1.2. A snapshot of the composition of crews on ships from Amsterdam
5.1.3. The origins of the Scandinavian sailors
5.2. Position on board and wages
5.2.1. The various positions on board
5.2.2. Where did they come from?
5.2.3. Size of wages
5.3. Destinations
5.3.1. German and Dutch sailors in Amsterdam shipping
5.4. Scandinavian sailors’ participation in the different trades
5.4.1. The Archangelsk trade
5.4.2. The Trade to Western Spain
5.4.3. The trade to North and West France
5.4.4. The Mediterranean trade
5.4.5. The Baltic trade
5.4.6. The timber trade to Norway
5.4.7. The trade to Britain
5.4.8. Local shipping in the Netherlands
5.4.9. The trade to North Africa
5.4.10. The Atlantic trade
5.4.11. Whaling
5.4.12. Slavery
5.4.13. The North American trade
5.4.14. The East India trade
5.4.15. ‘Op Aventuuer’
5.4.16. Scandinavian sailors on ships from the Admiralty of Amsterdam
5.4.17. Scandinavian sailors, more than one year in the Waterschout Archive
5.5. Conclusion on the sailing patterns of the Scandinavian sailors in Amsterdam
5.6. Scandinavian sailors in the Dutch international maritime labour market in the 17th century
5.6.1. Conclusion on Scandinavian seamen in the 17th and 18th centuries
5.7. Conclusion
6. The networks of Scandinavian sailors aboard and ashore
6.1. Duration of the passages and time spent ashore
6.1.1. The time in Amsterdam
6.2. The networks of the Scandinavian sailors on board and ashore
6.2.1. Sailors’ inns
6.2.2. The conditions in the inns
6.2.3. The location of the Scandinavian sailors’ inns
6.2.4. The location of the Dutch sailors’ inns
6.2.5. Networks based on origin or personal relations
6.2.6. Social Network Analysis
6.2.7. With whom did the sailors live in Amsterdam?
6.2.8. With whom did they sail?
6.2.9. Skippers’ network
6.2.10. Networks based on the sailors’ inns
6.2.11. With whom did they sail based on SNA-analysis
6.2.12. Dutch and German sailors
7. Conclusion
7.1. How did the maritime communities in the Danish conglomerate state incorporate Dutch maritime technology, knowledge and practice?
7.1.1. Dutch experts recruited to the realms of the Danish king
7.1.2. Import of Dutch maritime technology and culture
7.1.3. Scandinavian sailors aboard Dutch ships in the 17th and 18th centuries
7.1.4. The networks employed by Scandinavian seamen to secure a berth on a ship or a bed in an inn.
7.2. Recruitment from the maritime core areas to Copenhagen
7.2.1. The recruitment of the Royal Danish Navy
7.2.2. The recruitment of other parties
7.3. The share of migrant sailors in the shipping industry of the Danish conglomerate state
7.4. In a larger perspective
Asger Nørlund Christensen is a Danish historian, who did his master at Aarhus University in 2013 and successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation in September 2019 at the University of Southern Denmark. In his early carrier he sailed as a deckhand and later as mate and skipper on several traditional sailing ships, just as he has worked with the restoration of traditional craft.
Amongst his publications are:
2005. Skibsbygmester E.C. Benzon og hans skibe. The Danish Maritime Museum. Falcon, Copenhagen 2005
2014. Flådens udlandsmobilisering. Rekruttering af skandinaviske søfolk i Amsterdam under Skånske Krig. Fra krig og fred. Dansk militærhistorisk kommissions tidsskrift 2014/1. Page 11 – 57.
2015. Professional Seamen. A strategic resource during the Scanian War.” International Journal of Maritime History. Vol 27, nr. 2. 2015. Page 192 – 207.
2018. Förändringens förtrupp? -Skandinaviska sjömän i Nederländerne Örlogsstäder – innovationer, varv och vrak. Marinmuseum Karlskrona. 2018. Page 132 – 142.
