The schooner Dolphijn incident of 1836 — in Kreemer’s history, the plundering by Atjèhnese of the Netherlands-Indies government’s schooner Dolphijn, carrying some ƒ30,000 in specie, and the seizure of the cargo by the Sultan of Atjèh himself — was one of the principal humiliations which, in Kreemer’s account, the Dutch government endured between 1824 and 1873 rather than violate the London treaty’s guarantee of Atjèh’s integrity.
The incident and the Dutch response
Kreemer records the incident in a single passage: “Zelfs toen de Atjèhers in 1836 ‘s lands schooner Dolphijn met ƒ30.000 aan specie aan boord plunderden en het bleek, dat de Soeltan zich had meester gemaakt van de lading; toen het advies der naar Atjèh gezonden commissie luidde, nu toch ‘de eer van het Nederlandsch-Indisch Gouvernement met klem te handhaven en den Soeltan door strenge, doch passende maatregelen te dwingen om aan de dezerzijdsche billijke eischen te voldoen’, besloot men in de zaak ‘voorloopig te berusten’” — “Even when the Atjèhnese in 1836 plundered the government’s schooner Dolphijn with ƒ30,000 in specie on board, and it turned out that the Sultan had taken possession of the cargo; when the advice of the commission sent to Atjèh was, now at last, ‘to uphold the honour of the Netherlands-Indian Government with force and to compel the Sultan by strict but fitting measures to comply with the reasonable demands of this side’, it was decided in the matter ‘for the time being to acquiesce.’”
The pattern of Dutch acquiescence
The Dolphijn incident is, in Kreemer’s narrative, one of a sequence of outrages — beginning with the 1831 plundering of an American ship at Koeala Batèë and the 1833 American punitive expedition, and continuing through the 1844 plundering of two British vessels at Koeala Batèë and Koeala Meureudoe — that revealed the hollowness of the Dutch obligation, undertaken in the London treaty of 1824, to ensure the safety of shipping in Atjèhnese waters. The Dutch government’s decision to “for the time being acquiesce” — voorloopig te berusten — in the face of the Sultan’s seizure of government specie is, Kreemer implies, the most humiliating of these submissions, since the wrong was done not to a foreign merchant but to the Dutch state itself.
Significance
The Dolphijn incident is, in Kreemer’s account of the causes of the Atjèh-oorlog, a key exhibit in the case that the Dutch policy of “schipperen” — trimming — between the 1824 treaty’s twin obligations (to ensure safety in Atjèhnese waters and to respect Atjèh’s integrity) was unsustainable. The advice of the commission sent to Atjèh — that the government’s honour should now at last be upheld — is the first recorded official recommendation of a forceful policy; its rejection marks the depth of the Dutch commitment to the 1824 framework, and thus the depth of the eventual rupture when that framework was finally abandoned in 1873.
Account from Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh (1923)
The Dolphiijn affair of June 1836 was the cutting-off by her own native crew of the Dutch schooner Dolphiijn, with a money shipment of 30,000 guilders on board, between Natal and Padang — the ship brought into Atjeh and burned by the robbers, while the Sultan of Atjeh “kept the money and the guns for himself”.
The seizure
In June 1836 the Dutch schooner Dolphiijn, with a money shipment of 30,000 guilders on board, was cut off by the native crew between Natal and Padang and brought to Atjeh. Neither for the Dutch flag had the Atjehnese much awe, author Joh. Langhout observes: Baros had already much to suffer from them. An investigation brought to light that the robbers had burned the ship — “en de Soeltan van Atjeh het geld en het geschut voor zichzelf had gehouden!” (“and the Sultan of Atjeh had kept the money and the guns for himself!”).
Place in the chain of incidents
The affair stood in the series of piratical incidents — the American chastisement of Kuala Batee in 1831, the Dutch expulsion of the Atjehnese from Baros and Singkel in 1840, the English chastisement of Koeala Batië and Koeala Meureudoe in 1844, the plundering of a Neapolitan schooner in 1851 and an English merchantman in 1852 — that finally moved the Netherlands Indian Government to let General J. van Swieten conclude the Treaty of 1857 with the Sultan of Atjeh (1857), in which “all claims on account of former facts would lapse”.
See Also
- Acheh
- Sultan of Atjeh
- Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824
- Causes of the Atjèh-oorlog (Kreemer’s account)
- Aceh War
- Kuala Bathee
- Kuala Meureudu
- 1836
- Sea robbery on the Atjeh coast
- American chastisement of Kuala Batee (1831)
- Expulsion of the Atjehnese from Baros and Singkel (1840)
- Treaty of 1857 with the Sultan of Atjeh
- Sultan Ibrahim Mansur
Source
Atjèh. Algemeen samenvattend overzicht van land en volk van Atjèh en onderhoorigheden, door J. Kreemer, Archivaris van het Atjèh Instituut. Eerste Deel. Leiden: N.V. Boekhandel en Drukkerij voorheen E.J. Brill, 1922. Hoofdstuk I, B (“Periode 1824—1873. Oorzaken van den Atjèh-oorlog”), blz. 10.
Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 15–16.