Empty Cases, What Are We Living For? A Close Look into the Cartridge Cases of the VOC Ship Amsterdam

In this thesis, I answer the question of whether or not the cartridge cases found in the shipwreck of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) ship Amsterdam can be considered representative of the standard equipment of the time. In order to answer this, I first address some sub questions and provide historical context on the VOC and the Military Revolution, which outlines why this equipment was standard at all. The first sub question was how the cartridge cases were made and also addressed any potential differences in this process over the years. The second question went into the use of the cartridge case, and who would have used them. They were used by the VOC’s musketeers and grenadiers. The third sub question sought to compare cartridge cases to other forms of equipped ammunition storage and found that cartridge cases make the process of firing more efficient by streamlining the loading sequence. For the next chapter, I turned to measurements. Here was measured the average size of a...Show moreIn this thesis, I answer the question of whether or not the cartridge cases found in the shipwreck of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) ship Amsterdam can be considered representative of the standard equipment of the time. In order to answer this, I first address some sub questions and provide historical context on the VOC and the Military Revolution, which outlines why this equipment was standard at all. The first sub question was how the cartridge cases were made and also addressed any potential differences in this process over the years. The second question went into the use of the cartridge case, and who would have used them. They were used by the VOC’s musketeers and grenadiers. The third sub question sought to compare cartridge cases to other forms of equipped ammunition storage and found that cartridge cases make the process of firing more efficient by streamlining the loading sequence. For the next chapter, I turned to measurements. Here was measured the average size of a typical cartridge case of the Amsterdam, thirty-four of which I was able to personally measure. The average sizes of the cartridge cases from ships other than the Amsterdam that sank around the first half of the 18th century were also calculated. At the end of the chapter, these were compared to those of the Amsterdam. In the research of this chapter, I encountered some difficulty with a lack of uniformity in the way the measurements were taken, and the lack of photographs for a lot of the national database’s entries. Because of this, the most useful comparison was that of the backside height, which was a factor in favour of the Amsterdam’s cases indeed being typical of the standard equipment. In this vein, the conclusion of this thesis is that the Amsterdam’s cartridge cases are representative of the standard of the time.Show less

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Empty Cases, What Are We Living For? A Close Look into the Cartridge Cases of the VOC Ship Amsterdam