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Friday, 25 April 2014

Keel laid down at Middelburg, Netherlands of the Dutch frigate ship Prins Maurits according to the Dutch newspaper Middelburgsche Courant dated 23 July 1840

An item dated Middelburg, Netherlands the 22nd reported that the same day at the shipyard of the Commercie Compagnie at Middelburg the keel was laid down of the frigate ship Prins Maurits of 600 Java-lasten. (1) She was built for account of G.C. Bosch Reitz at Amsterdam, Netherlands for the trade shipping towards the Dutch East Indies.

Note
1. In 1826 was the standard to calculate the cargo capacity of a ship the so-called roggelast (rogge=rye) of 2.075 kilo’s. In 1827 made the Nederlandsche Handels Maatschappij a list of all colonial products with their weights corresponding with the space needed for one roggelast. This became known as the Java last. For instance the weight of a Java last tea was 1.000 kilo, of pepper 1.600, of rice 2.000 and of coffee 1.500 kilo (in the practice in fact 1.800).