INCIDENTELE PASSAGlERS AAN BOORD VAN EEN BINNENSCHIP
Samenvatting
On board of a Dutch inland cargo vessel that sank in or shortly after 1787, were found, among other things, a flintlock musket, 193 bullets, gunpowder in a glass bottle, flint and fragments of two sabres. The question was raised wether these weapons belonged to the personal armament of the skipper and crew, or to passengers. By combining archaeological and historical sources it was found that the inscriptions on the gun referred to captain Mungo Graham, an officer of a Scottish regiment in the Dutch Republic. Mungo Graham resigned in 1777. His former regiment, however, was at Muiden in 1787, and during the excavation a lead badge from the city of Muiden was found with the year 1787 on it. Combined with the fact that the number of bullets - enough for six to seven weapons - seems too much for a single person's weaponry, we have to conclude that a group of soldiers were being transported by an inland barge. So not only beurtschepen were used for passenger transport, but (occasionally?) cargo vessels as well. Hence, when we study ship inventories to reconstruct the social structure of the crew we have also to reckon with the possibility of material-culture remains belonging to incidental passengers.
