Ship Movement Database HeritageLab

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The ship movement database is a record of Dutch East India Company (VOC) ship movements during the 16th and 17th centuries. This extensive voyage dataset contains information on ship names, arrival and departure dates and places of over 56 000 journeys of 1350 vessels in the service of the VOC and its predecessors (Voorcompagnieën) before 1680 CE.

Originally the database was set up to study the development of VOC shipping within Asiatic waters, but data for shipping to and from the Netherlands has been recently added. The additions serve two primary functions: Firstly, adding these datasets enables users to study the full career of the ships, and secondly, the arbitrary boundary for voyages within Asia, and those between Asia and Africa, America and Europe and voyages to and from the Netherlands is avoided.

The ship movement database is an important tool for researchers investigating cultural connections, historic landscapes, shipping and European expansion and global activities. The database is an important tool for understanding the rise of globalism, colonialism and the dominance of western economies in the second half of the first millennium.