[Sidenote: II 148]
[Sidenote: III 19]
The _Vlieboot_ (flyboat), which is found as far back as 1600, is very
bulging and has a narrowed deck. From this type is derived the “Fluit”
(flute) which bulges still more in order to profit by the way in which
boats used to be gauged in Denmark.
An ordinary “flute” was 130 feet long, 26½ feet beam and 13 feet 5
inches deep. It had no beakhead at first, but the larger flutes, built
later on, had one in imitation of the square sterned ships.
These vessels were used for various purposes and underwent many changes
on this account. It is for this reason that the “East Indian flute”
was more strongly built than the one which traded in the ports of the
Baltic Sea. Let it be said, among other things, that the iron futtocks
of the channels are doubled in order to reinforce the rigging, while
their projections aft are made larger so as to obtain more spacious
staterooms. In the matter of this enlargement, they were strengthened
from the inside by means of iron ribs and bands (~Witsen~, p. 159). In
the beginning of the XVIIth century and until 1640, these vessels and
generally all East Indian ships were built open forward and without
quarters for the crew, whose bunks and hammocks were placed on either
side of the ship.
The flutes were known as good sailers. Their slender construction
gave little hold for the wind; they carried three masts and the well
known rigging of the XVIIth century. Those which went for grain in
the Baltic Sea, were rather smaller than the others; they were called
“Oostvaerders” or “Oostervaerder”. Their dimensions were: length, 125
feet; beam, 25 feet; depth, 12 feet; or else: 115, 23½ and 11½ feet; or
again 100, 22 and 11 feet; and carried cargoes respectively of 200, 150
or 100 “lasts.” (1 last = 2 metric tons). Most of them had no beakhead.
Some idea of the importance of our traffic with the Baltic Sea can be
formed when it is stated that, in 1604, 400 “Oostvaerders” were lying
at the same time in front of Amsterdam. In less than a fortnight they
were unloaded, reloaded and ready to retake the sea. (~Witsen~, p. 448.)
The “Noordvaerders” or “Noortsvaerders” were also flutes, but two
feet deeper than the “Oostvaerders”, because more space was needed
for loading the wood (~Witsen~, p. 160) which they had gone to seek
in Norway. Their beam was, as a rule, one-fifth of their length. They
were massive and solid like the “Oostvaerders”. (~Witsen~, p. 53.) but
had no beakhead. When the continual wars are considered, the vessels
trading with the Baltic Sea had smaller crews than those trading with
the West. (~Witsen~, p. 160.)