Schout-bij-nacht Wolterbeek was a Dutch naval officer holding the rank of schout-bij-nacht (counter-admiral / rear-admiral) who served as one of the Netherlands Indies’ principal commissioners in the Malay Archipelago in the years immediately following the restoration of Dutch rule after the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London (1814). He is best known for having negotiated the Dutch treaty with the sultan of Riouw in 1818 — a diplomatic stroke that the British at Penang and in Bengal believed had closed off further English expansion in the archipelago, only for Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles to demonstrate the contrary by founding Singapore a few months later — and for having commanded the expeditionary squadron sent in September 1819 to suppress the rebellion of Mahmoed Badar Oedien in the Palembang region.
The Riouw Treaty of 1818 and the Farquhar Rebuff
The story of Wolterbeek’s role in the events of 1818–1819 is told at length by P. H. van der Kemp in his article of 1900. Writing from Bencoolen and Penang, Raffles had become convinced that the Dutch were consolidating their hold over the entire archipelago and that British interests — above all the unimpeded China trade through the Straits of Malacca — were being threatened. Two Dutch moves in particular inflamed his suspicions: the rejection of Major Farquhar from Pontianak on Borneo’s west coast by the Dutch commissioner Van Boeckholz, and the destruction by Wolterbeek of Farquhar’s freshly-concluded treaty with the sultan of Riouw. As Van der Kemp puts it, Raffles received word that “Farquhar’s Riouw treaty was cancelled by Wolterbeek.” The Bengal government at Calcutta thereupon wrote to London on 14 January 1819 expressing the hope that “we may be in time to establish our political influence at Acheh to the exclusion of that of the Dutch or other foreign powers.”
The 1819 Palembang Expedition
In September 1819 Wolterbeek commanded the expeditionary squadron — including the corvette Trop and four chartered vessels — sent to suppress the rebellion of Mahmoed Badar Oedien in the Palembang region. His force, comprising roughly 1,400 men under the overall command of Lieutenant-colonel Bisschoff, was unable to secure the riverine stronghold due to logistical difficulties and strong enemy fire. The expedition suffered heavy losses from enemy batteries and disease, leading to its withdrawal.
Thyssen’s Confidential Reports
Wolterbeek was stationed at Batavia and from there corresponded with Dutch officials throughout the archipelago. The most important of these correspondents was Governor Thyssen of Malacca, who addressed him on 16 March 1819 in a long private letter (printed as Bijlage 4 of Van der Kemp’s article) detailing Raffles’ movements and warning of suspected British designs on the Karimon Islands and on the kingdom of Acheh itself. Thyssen’s letter reported disquieting rumours — that two ships with three hundred troops had left Penang for the Karimons, that Raffles intended to sail for Acheh with three more ships and four hundred men, and that an attack on Lingen might follow. Wolterbeek replied on 17 September 1819 sympathising with the loss of Lieutenant Bouwens of the Wilhelmina, whose murder he lamented “beside the loss of men and vessel, had he 50,000 Spanish dollars on board and an interesting commission to Calcutta.”
Earlier Warnings and the Governor-General
Wolterbeek had been corresponding with Thyssen on Raffles’ activities since at least the previous December: on 5 December 1818 Thyssen had sent him a confidential letter communicating rumours of British plans for an attack on Malacca, which he nonetheless believed could be withstood thanks also to some 4,000 men under the commies Kraal. On 9 January 1819, Governor-General Van der Capellen wrote privately from Buitenzorg to Wolterbeek at Batavia, expressing displeasure at the conduct of certain Malacca officials and adding the firm injunction that “T[hissen] must stand firm. Every Government in India in general must do so.” Van der Kemp pointedly asks whether Van der Capellen himself always put this maxim into practice.
Assessment
Wolterbeek’s significance in Van der Kemp’s narrative is that of the senior Dutch naval officer whose commission at Riouw in 1818 was widely regarded on the Dutch side as the seal upon their supremacy in the archipelago — and who therefore had the painful task of receiving the news, less than a year later, that Raffles had nonetheless managed to plant a British flag at Singapore, that the Wilhelmina had been lost with all hands to a Malay mutiny, and that the pretender Syf at Telok Semawé was harbouring the mutineers. The failure of his Palembang expedition in the same year compounded the impression of strain on Dutch naval resources in the immediate post-restoration years. His correspondence with Thyssen and with the Governor-General remains one of the principal Dutch primary sources for these events.
See Also
- Timmerman Thyssen
- Van Boekholz
- Godert Alexander Gerard Philip van der Capellen
- Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles
- Major William Farquhar
- Lieutenant-colonel Bisschoff
- Mahmoed Badar Oedien
- Riouw
- Palembang
- Singapore
- Acheh
- Aceh
- Wilhelmina mutiny and murder of Bouwens
- Kraal
- Dutch Marine Corps
- Trop (corvette)
Sources
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.
De geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Korps Mariniers van 1665-1945, OCR text (DLP-55), p. 93.