Captain Bontekoe's cabin boy

Captain Bontekoe's cabin boys (original title: De Scheepsjongens van Bontekoe ) is a book for young people by the Dutch writer Johan Fabricius , which was first published in 1924. It was inspired by the first part of the ship's journal by Captain Willem Ysbrandszoon Bontekoe . The last part of the voyage (after the ship exploded) is very different from the ship's journal. In addition, Bontekoe's further trips after arriving in India do not appear in the book for young people.

At the end of the 1950s, a comic based on the book appeared in the daily newspaper Het Vrije Volk . The pictures were drawn by Piet Wijn; the text was by Hans Jacobs. Ten years later the book was read aloud on television nightly. The episodes of about 15 minutes each were performed by the actor Coen Flink.

The full text (in Dutch, with illustrations) is freely available on the Internet.

action

Hajo and Rolf are hired as cabin boys on the "Nieuw-Hoorn", a ship that is to sail to Java for the Dutch East India Company . Padde, Hajo's bosom friend, takes part in the voyage against his will because he takes a nap on board and does not notice the ship leaving.

The three boys stay together in close friendship because the older sailors try to take advantage of them as unskilled workers and are always joking with them. Padde in particular as a good-natured, naive fat man is a popular destination, but so is Rolf, who can read and write while the sailors are illiterate. Padde becomes Bottlersmaat, the bottler's assistant (drinks manager on the ship) because he actually wants to work in his uncle's brewery (“You know what you have” is his saying).

Padde unfortunately causes a fire on the ship by dropping a burning candle wick into a brandy barrel. Because the burning liquid leaks, it creates a bigger fire. Despite the extreme efforts of the entire team, the fire cannot be extinguished and reaches the powder chamber. This then causes the ship to explode. Seventy of the more than two hundred people on board survived, including the three cabin boys, and sailed to Sumatra in two boats .

There Padde, Hajo, Rolf and the cook's mate Harmen are separated from the rest of the crew after arguments with the natives. The four boys are captured but secretly freed by the local girl Dolimah. They then make their way to Bantam. On the way, Harmen is captured, but is freed again by the others. Padde kills a local who attacked him. Dolimah then joins them and followed the four. She fled her tribe for fear of punishment for freeing the four. When Padde becomes seriously ill, Dolimah calls a medicine man who heals the boy. Over time, however, Dolimah gets very homesick and one night goes back to her village without saying goodbye, because she wanted to spare the boys the dilemma of taking or leaving them.

They get to Java with a self-built raft and are taken on board by the "Nieuw Zeeland". Rolf stays in East Asia with his uncle Bontekoe. Hajo, Padde and Harmen travel back on the "Nieuw-Zeeland" and arrive in Vlissingen in December 1620 after a successful voyage .

The last part leads via Dordrecht to Hoorn . Hajo brings the wages of Lijsken, who died of scurvy , to his mother along with the sad news.

Matches with history

Bontekoe was captain of the ship "Nieuw Horn" of the United East India Company.
Kaufmann Rol was also on board at the time.
The ship left Texel on December 28, 1618.
Until the ship explodes, the trip description corresponds to the actual voyage: the ship anchors at some islands off the Brazilian coast, it passes the Cape of Good Hope , but cannot replenish supplies there due to a storm, so the crew goes ashore on Réunion and Madagascar .
On November 19, 1619, near Sumatra , the bottlers mate Kelemeyn accidentally caused a misfortune by igniting the brandy with a candle . The crew begins to throw the gunpowder overboard, but the remaining gunpowder eventually explodes.
Bontekoe stayed on the ship until the explosion, while Kaufmann Rol was the first to board a lifeboat. Bontekoe and 15-year-old Harmen van Kniphuyzen survive the explosion.
The number of survivors is 46 in the sloop and 26 in the dinghy, a total of 72. Sails are sewn from shirts.
After a while, the crew changes from one ship to the other.
On land, Bontekoe and four others go upriver in a canoe and buy a buffalo. He goes back alone, the four of them are supposed to follow with the buffalo. Then locals attack the seafarers, killing some Dutch. The four are left behind on the run.

differences

Bottlersmaat Kelemeyn's first name is Padde. Two other cabin boys are Peter Hajo and Rolf, a nephew of Bontekoe.
The four left behind are Hajo, Rolf, Padde, and Harmen. They are captured, but freed by the native girl Dolimah, and make their way on foot. (In reality, the four were likely killed.)

Historical details

Fabricius used some historical details with freedom as a writer: Coffee was only grown in Java at the end of the 17th century , and then coffee consumption in Europe reached the lower classes; however, the plot of the book takes place in 1619. Padde's misfortune with the coffee grinder that fell into the water could not have happened until a hundred years later. The sextant was not developed until 1730. The fog horn was only invented in 1851 and gradually replaced the fog bell in the second half of the 19th century, which was far too difficult to hear. Ships in a bottle have only been around for about 300 years. A Tjalk is a Dutch sailor for the Wadden Sea. The name “tjalk” first appeared in a Frisian document in 1673. The Geneverschnaps is also only called since about 1650 that way.

filming

In 2007 the book was directed by Steven de Jong filmed . It is noteworthy that the 19-year-old cook-mate Harmen from Enkhuizen is portrayed in the film by Thomas Acda, who is over 40 years old. Otherwise, the film differs significantly from the book.

In the film, the ship departs directly from Hoorn , with a stopover in Texel ; in the book the ship departs from Texel, the boys get there by boat.

In the film they drive along the west coast of Africa instead of a more western route along the easternmost point of Brazil . At the Cape of Good Hope , they take provisions on board and then sail directly into the vicinity of Sumatra instead of going ashore in Madagascar and Réunion , as in the book . After the explosion of the ship, seven people in the film save themselves in a boat, unlike in the book (72 in two boats).

The impending execution of Padde on Java does not appear in the book.

In the film, Bontekoe goes back on a new ship, and Hajo, Rolf and Padde with him. In the book, Bontekoe and Rolf stay in Asia, and Hajo, Padde and Harmen go back on another ship.

On the return journey, the ship arrives directly in Hoorn, the home town. In the book, the returning ship only goes to Vlissingen . This is followed by a multi-day trip to Hoorn in the book: by boat, by sledge (pulled by ice-skaters) and by horse and cart .

Sculptures

In Hoorn there are statues of the three cabin boys on the quay wall by the main tower (Hoofdtoren), peering over the water. Not far from there is a half-length portrait of Captain Bontekoe.