Lieutenant Marx Bouwens was a Dutch naval officer in the service of the Netherlands Indies government who, as commander of the colonial schooner Wilhelmina, was murdered by his own Malay crew in the summer of 1819 off the coast of Acheh. His death — and the still more horrible fate of his wife and children — is the subject of one of the most dramatic passages in P. H. van der Kemp’s 1900 article, and the chain of diplomatic recriminations it provoked between the Dutch, the British at Penang, and the pretender Syf ul-Alum at Telok Semawé constitutes the central episode of the so-called paper war of 1821.
Background and the Wolterbeek Commission
Bouwens had taken part, as commander of the Wilhelmina, in the Wolterbeek commission of 1818 to Riouw. The schooner was therefore one of the regular Dutch government vessels plying between Batavia, Malacca, and the East Coast of Sumatra. The vessel carried a Malay and Javanese crew, a practice Van der Kemp notes had already led to several atrocities: “the practice of the Dutch government, in employing Malays and Javanese as sailors on board their vessels, in too great a proportion to the Europeans, had led to some scenes of horrible atrocity; these wretches frequently rebelling and murdering their officers.” No fewer than four small vessels of war had been lost in this manner within a few months.
The Mutiny of mid-1819
In mid-1819 the Wilhelmina sailed along Sumatra’s East Coast, carrying some 10,000 dollars and a quantity of arms and ammunition, and entrusted with a commission from the government at Calcutta. In July or August, taking advantage of the absence of European sailors, the crew rose against their officers. Bouwens and two of his men were murdered; his wife, who was aboard, “in her anguish leapt overboard”; two of the children, whom a Javanese baboe (nursemaid) tried to save, “were thrown into the sea.” The mutineers — some twenty-four in number — then made for Pasangan, six miles from Teloksemawé, the residence at that time of the pretender Syf.
Thyssen’s Report and Wolterbeek’s Reply
Governor Thyssen of Malacca communicated the news to rear-admiral Wolterbeek at Batavia on 1 September 1819 in the words: “the good Bouwens has been cut down by his own people off Acheh, murdered with his children, and his wife thrown alive into the sea.” Wolterbeek replied on 17 September: “The case of Bouwens grieves me deeply; besides the loss of men and vessel, he had 50,000 Spanish dollars on board and an interesting commission to Calcutta.” Thyssen’s laconic tribute — “the good Bouwens” — is the only personal notice Van der Kemp preserves of the lieutenant.
Aftermath: The Lucas Mission
The mutineers landed at Pasangan, secreted much of the stolen money in the ground, and were in turn plundered and shackled by the inhabitants of Telok. Syf, the pretender sultan, eventually put the survivors to work building him a house. The Dutch government at Batavia, on being informed of these events, ordered Thyssen on 20 January 1821 to demand of the Penang government the return of the stolen money and the surrender of nineteen named mutineers. The dispatch was carried by the man-of-war Irene under Colonel E. Lucas, inaugurating the Lucas mission to Telok Semawé — a triangular paper war between Dutch Malacca, British Penang, and the Achehnese pretender that ended, as Van der Kemp remarks, “without result.” The British at Penang, now under Governor W. E. Phillips, refused to permit Lucas himself to proceed to Telok Semawé, on the ground that Syf had been “in the exercise of sovereign authority” at the time and was responsible to no one for his disposition of the wreck’s effects.
Legacy
Bouwens’s murder illustrates two structural weaknesses of the Dutch colonial state in this period: its reliance on indigenous crews in small vessels of war, and its limited capacity to enforce its claims beyond the immediate reach of its own guns. The case is also a vivid instance of how an isolated act of violence at sea could become, in the tense diplomatic climate following the treaty negotiations of 1824, the seed of an international incident.
See Also
- Schout-bij-nacht Wolterbeek
- Timmerman Thyssen
- Colonel E. Lucas
- Sultan Saif ul-Alum
- W. E. Phillips
- W. A. Clubley
- Wilhelmina mutiny and murder of Bouwens
- Lucas mission to Telok Semawé (February 1821)
- Pasangan
- Telok Semawé
- Paper war
Source
Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159-239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.
Lieutenant Marx Bouwens was a Dutch naval officer in the service of the Netherlands Indies government who, as commander of the colonial schooner Wilhelmina, was murdered by his own Malay crew in the summer of 1819 off the coast of Acheh. His death — and the still more horrible fate of his wife and children — is the subject of one of the most dramatic passages in P. H. van der Kemp’s 1900 article, and the chain of diplomatic recriminations it provoked between the Dutch, the British at Penang, and the pretender Syf ul-Alum at Telok Semawé constitutes the central episode of the so-called paper war of 1821.
Background and the Wolterbeek Commission
Bouwens had taken part, as commander of the Wilhelmina, in the Wolterbeek commission of 1818 to Riouw. The schooner was therefore one of the regular Dutch government vessels plying between Batavia, Malacca, and the East Coast of Sumatra. The vessel carried a Malay and Javanese crew, a practice Van der Kemp notes had already led to several atrocities: “the practice of the Dutch government, in employing Malays and Javanese as sailors on board their vessels, in too great a proportion to the Europeans, had led to some scenes of horrible atrocity; these wretches frequently rebelling and murdering their officers.” No fewer than four small vessels of war had been lost in this manner within a few months.
The Mutiny of mid-1819
In mid-1819 the Wilhelmina sailed along Sumatra’s East Coast, carrying some 10,000 dollars and a quantity of arms and ammunition, and entrusted with a commission from the government at Calcutta. In July or August, taking advantage of the absence of European sailors, the crew rose against their officers. Bouwens and two of his men were murdered; his wife, who was aboard, “in her anguish leapt overboard”; two of the children, whom a Javanese baboe (nursemaid) tried to save, “were thrown into the sea.” The mutineers — some twenty-four in number — then made for Pasangan, six miles from Teloksemawé, the residence at that time of the pretender Syf.
Thyssen’s Report and Wolterbeek’s Reply
Governor Thyssen of Malacca communicated the news to rear-admiral Wolterbeek at Batavia on 1 September 1819 in the words: “the good Bouwens has been cut down by his own people off Acheh, murdered with his children, and his wife thrown alive into the sea.” Wolterbeek replied on 17 September: “The case of Bouwens grieves me deeply; besides the loss of men and vessel, he had 50,000 Spanish dollars on board and an interesting commission to Calcutta.” Thyssen’s laconic tribute — “the good Bouwens” — is the only personal notice Van der Kemp preserves of the lieutenant.
Aftermath: The Lucas Mission
The mutineers landed at Pasangan, secreted much of the stolen money in the ground, and were in turn plundered and shackled by the inhabitants of Telok. Syf, the pretender sultan, eventually put the survivors to work building him a house. The Dutch government at Batavia, on being informed of these events, ordered Thyssen on 20 January 1821 to demand of the Penang government the return of the stolen money and the surrender of nineteen named mutineers. The dispatch was carried by the man-of-war Irene under Colonel E. Lucas, inaugurating the Lucas mission to Telok Semawé — a triangular paper war between Dutch Malacca, British Penang, and the Achehnese pretender that ended, as Van der Kemp remarks, “without result.” The British at Penang, now under Governor W. E. Phillips, refused to permit Lucas himself to proceed to Telok Semawé, on the ground that Syf had been “in the exercise of sovereign authority” at the time and was responsible to no one for his disposition of the wreck’s effects.
Legacy
Bouwens’s murder illustrates two structural weaknesses of the Dutch colonial state in this period: its reliance on indigenous crews in small vessels of war, and its limited capacity to enforce its claims beyond the immediate reach of its own guns. The case is also a vivid instance of how an isolated act of violence at sea could become, in the tense diplomatic climate following the treaty negotiations of 1824, the seed of an international incident.
See Also
- Schout-bij-nacht Wolterbeek
- Timmerman Thyssen
- Colonel E. Lucas
- Sultan Saif ul-Alum
- W. E. Phillips
- W. A. Clubley
- Wilhelmina mutiny and murder of Bouwens
- Lucas mission to Telok Semawé (February 1821)
- Pasangan
- Telok Semawé
- Paper war
Source
Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159-239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.