This, from Jette, is interesting, but a 100 years too early I think:
https://natmus.dk/historisk-viden/verden/asien/indien/tranquebar/de...
The first Danish sea voyage south of Africa
Table Mountain, Cape Town. From the arrival of the Galathea3 expedition in 2006. Photo: Esther Fihl. The National Museum
Table Mountain, Cape Town. From the arrival of the Galathea3 expedition in 2006. Photo: Esther Fihl. The National Museum
The report on the first Danish sea voyage south of Africa is called "List of everything that happened on this Indian voyage, from the beginning on the 14th of November 1618 until the 4th of March 1622. It was written by the young nobleman Ove Geidde and submitted to King Chr. IV, who sent him off at the head of a large expedition of over 400 men. The goal of the journey south of Africa was to establish a colony on Ceylon, so that the Danes themselves could bring home the coveted East Indian spices and textiles without having to buy them expensively through Dutch and English merchants.
Denmark's first limited liability company
Chr equips for the journey. IV. a fleet consisting of two merchant ships, a warship, an admiral's ship and a smaller provision ship as well as the smaller provision ship "The Dutch Flute", which was supposed to accompany some of the journey. The trading ships were called "Christian" and "Copenhagen" and were owned by the Ostindiske Handelskompagni, which was founded in 1618 with the aim of getting a Danish overseas trade going, and which also became
Denmark's first limited liability company. The leave ship called "David" was made available by the navy, while the admiral ship "Elefanten" was equipped at the king's own expense. Along for the trip was a distinguished Dutch envoy, Boshouwer, with his family and all his servants. This envoy had, before leaving Copenhagen, on behalf of the Emperor of Ceylon, entered into a contract with Chr. IV to help drive the Portuguese away from the island in exchange for exclusive rights to the overseas trade here. Admiral Giedde stayed on the "Elephant", whose main task was to protect the merchant ships from attack on the long voyage.
Danish noblemen, German mercenary troops and Dutch maritime and commercial experts
The crew on board the ships was also mixed, with some mainly serving the king and others the company. There were also national differences. Only very few Danish sailors in the 17th century had experience of sailing on the great oceans, which is why most of the helmsmen, sailors and tradesmen were Dutch. The approx. 300 land troops, which according to the treaty with the Emperor of Ceylon were to be placed at his disposal, were predominantly German mercenaries under the command of half a dozen Danish noblemen. Famous names among these were Thyge Stygge, Hans Lindenow and Erik Gruppe. It was thus an extremely composed crowd that set out here on the first Danish sea voyage south of Africa. During the long sea voyage, the antagonism also grew between the commanding Danish nobles and the relatively large number of civic-minded Dutchmen who had the greatest knowledge of navigation and commerce.
Pirates of Cape Verde
On 29 November 1618, the fleet left Copenhagen, and Giedde's report states that the journey went through the English Channel, where the ships made a short stop in England. Already here, Giedde got a taste of the disciplinary problems he risked along the way with the diverse crew, and how difficult it could be to keep the fleet together, as well as the difficulties it could cause to have such a distinguished traveling companion as the imperial envoy Boshouwer with him on the expedition. Ove Giedde writes:
"1618. On December 19. This day the Dutch Skipper came with our Provision Ship and reported that the ship Christian had sailed into Norway. The Imperial Envoy and the Visitor had taken up their quarters at Newport, and I learned that a multitude of merchants, under-merchants and assistants, soldiers and seamen were here daily encouraged to swarm in the same place and to devour the Company's money. As I did not succeed in stopping this with letters and messengers, I gave orders to the fleet that no one was allowed to go ashore unless they had my special note on them. And I therefore traveled on the 23rd myself to Newport, and saw to it that the Visitor should have only one servant and one merchant with him, all the others should go on board.”
From England the voyage went down through the Atlantic to the Cap Verde Islands, where the Danish ships, in the event that they became separated from each other, had set each other up at the island of Mario. It was also decided that a cross with Chr. VI monogram and by the cross have letters buried for the Danish ships that came afterwards. Off Cape Verde, however, a challenge awaited the Danish squadron, which it obviously could not ignore. The small provision ship "The Dutch Flute" was here attacked by three privateer ships, but Ove Giedde seems to have full control of the situation:
"1619. On the 17th of February it was decided that the "Elephant" with "The Dutch Flute" should sail ahead to Cape Verde to find out if there were any Freebooters here who could cause us harm or hindrance.
On the 18th I sailed with the "Elephant" and the "Den Dutch Flute" ahead to the prescribed Cape Verde, and with the help of the "Flute" we learned that there were 6 ships in the harbor, therefore in the evening I dropped anchor 2 miles from there at a Island, to which also the other ships came to us in the night, and I commanded prescribed Dutch skippers to sail into the said ships and drop anchor a little from them.
On the 19th we saw 3 of the prescribed 6 ships had set sail to go after our "Flute", therefore I had the "Elephant's" anchor rope cut, and went with our other ships against it, and I fired a shot after them two which came nearest to me, and as they could not strike, we pursued the largest with the "Elephant" and fired a shot at it. At length its captain came overboard, where he confessed that he had indulged in robbery, and abandoned the ship."
.....
The arrival at Kap
Three months after the ships had sailed from the Cape Verde Islands, Table Mountain was finally glimpsed from the admiral ship's lookout basket. South Africa lay ahead, but at the same time they lost contact with the merchant ship "Christian" and also one of the incorporated pirate ships. In the bay at the Cape there were 8 English ships, and Giedde had anchor dropped in three fathoms deep water approx. half a mile from shore. The chief English merchant with retinue comes on board and demands that Giedde accompany the English general, but Giedde excuses himself and sends his captain instead. The English royal passport is shown and also the Danish royal passport, by which you mutually assure yourself that you are not in danger of assault. The English captain sends fresh supplies out to the crew. Ove Giedde goes ashore and selects a place where the ship's tent can be pitched for the sick. Giedde writes that at this point no less than 200 men from the expedition have been lost and of the remaining crew many are sick and debilitated and almost have to be carried ashore. Giedde is invited on board by the English admiral, and he tells how the English flag is stroked until he reaches the cabin, whereupon the English admiral showed Giedde, on behalf of his royal majesty, all honor and friendship. This gesture is reciprocated by Giedde in "The Elephant with a similar guest bid for the English."
About three weeks after arriving at the Cape of Good Hope, Ove Giedde sees to his delight towards evening that one of the missing Danish ships is entering the bay, and 3 shots are fired at each of the ships on the nest and the lanterns are set up. But the ship sails straight past without stopping. The next morning, Giedde learns that the ship has sailed directly to the ground and that the English are already in the process of looting the ship. The crew's caskets and chests are broken open and the contents are in the process of being sailed ashore, which is why Giedde immediately goes there in a boat, by which the English learned that the stranded ship belonged to the Danish fleet. The cases were then returned.
The stranded ship's crew has stood by and watched, and the ship's captain Hans Lindenow reports that the fault for the ship running aground must be attributed to the sick helmsman. Four days after the episode, a trial was held, but no verdict was passed, since the coxswain could not come to "Vedermål's Tale", since he also died of the same illness on the same day.
Towards new unknown horizons
After a month's stay in the Cape, Ove Giedde had the sick taken out to the ships again, and the next day the ships were at sea. Ove Giedde writes:
Until that time we had lost something close to 200 men from the fleet, and even had quite a lot of sick people who were carried to the ships from the country, of which the greater part later died."
Thus Danish squadrons sailed further east. In Ceylon, disappointment awaits, as this emperor with whom Chr. had entered into a treaty, partly turns out not to be emperor over the whole of Ceylon and partly in the meantime he has long since made peace with the Portuguese and thus has no need for the Danish warship as enshrined in the contract. The Dutch envoy is not there to mediate, because he has died barely after sailing from the Cape.
The Portuguese attack one of the Danish ships in the strait between Ceylon and India, and the ship runs aground on the Indian coast. The Portuguese kill two of the captured Danes, whose heads are even put on stakes on the beach. The rest of the Danish crew flee inland, but are well received by the Indian prince in the state of Tanjore. Here, in 1620, the Danes negotiate to share in the Portuguese monopoly on trade in the princely state and are allowed to build a fortress in the trading town of Tranquebar, thus paving the way for what would later become 225 years of Danish colonial rule in Tranquebar
