Almost 400 twelvemonth ago , the Dutch shipBataviasank on its inaugural ocean trip . Now scientists have studied the ring in the ship ’s woodland to explicate a mystery story of seventeenth - century ship building . They had to invent fresh proficiency in forest sample to do this , ask 15 years of piece of work to plan and implement , but their result could be used to decide other historical mysteries .
Despite being much smaller and imagination - poor than its contender , the Netherlands became a major maritime power with colonies from the Americas to South East Asia . Some of the fixings of their succeeder , such as their early adoption of wind might , are intimate to historians , but other secrets have been mislay .
Shipwreck detectiveDr Wendy van Duivenvoordeof Flinders University precede the squad , which has used the destiny of one of the less successful Dutch vessels to solve one mystery inPLOS ONE .
Europe ’s subjugation of the worldly concern look on fleets that could not be made of just any honest-to-god wood . Access to suitable timber was lively . The Netherlands did n’t have enough of their own to build up the 706 ships the Dutch East India Company produced in the 17th 100 alone , leaving historians wondering the rootage of their wood .
Van Duivenvoorde severalize IFLScience ; “ We make love the Netherlands ran a market for tone from around Europe , but the vendue records do n’t start until about 1650 . home archives are lack a destiny of unveiling before then . ” van Duivenvoorde severalise IFLScience .
seafaring was a grievous business at the time , and the Company ’s ship theBataviasank off Australia ’s Morning Reef on its agency to the port after which it was named ( now called Jakarta ) . In the seventies parts were regain and display at Fremantle’sShipwrecks Museum . van Duivenvoorde and co - authors realized this presented a rarefied opportunity to consider the Natalie Wood from which the Dutch ships were made and distinguish where it came from .
“ The favored material for ship - construction was oak tree , ” van Duivenvoorde enjoin IFLScience . “ Below the waterline this was finely - granulate slow - grow oak . We find this come from the Baltic region , where tree usually grow neat , making the wood more workable . ” TheBatavia ’s frames were built with more corrupt oak tree from downhearted Saxony . Other persona used pine tree , whose origins have not been make . “ The preference for specific woodland Cartesian product from selected regions demonstrates that the choice of timber was far from arbitrary , ” first authorDr Aoife Dalyof the University of Copenhagen said in astatement .
Van Duivenvoorde explained to IFLScience that identifying the blood of theBatavia ’s wood involve two challenges . The first is that wood that has spent hundred underwater is ordinarily in such misfortunate term it is impossible to take the gist need , rein out most Dutch East India Company ships for work even when theirresting blank space is known . Even with theBataviaon dry land , the team take years to install a way to protect the wood while amass core .
Having finagle this , the team scanned databases of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree ring collected from oaks of known blood line used for buildings . These closed chain have been studied extensively , since they provide a record of Europe ’s mood over the last millennium , helping to reveal how anomalous the last 50 years have been . The database created in the mental process provided an priceless resource for the paper ’s author , who could find the exact succession of good and bad increase matching each part of theBatavia ’s to identify the forest from which the wood came , and the age in which it develop , uncover the last few yr ’s increase was removed for greater resiliency .
find the Mrs. Henry Wood was only half the shipmakers ' challenge . The Dutch use of wind - power sawmills and serious Isaac Hull design allowed them to create the mankind ’s largest pelagic fleet .
