Apothecary Jars from Batavia and Gilt Dragon

The Batavia wreck site produced a large collection of medical supplies used by the ship’s surgeon – one of the largest ever found from this period. Coral, an aquatic archaeology student from Texas A&M. University came to Western Australia to study the medical supplies of the Dutch wrecks Batavia and Gilt Dragon (Vergulde Draeck). Her study focused on shipboard medicine from large trading companies of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Surgeons would use apothecary jars to store various liquids and dry materials. By analyzing the glazes and clays of smaller salve pots using XRF analysis, Coral could determine if the ship companies would hire only one ceramicist or a variety to tend to the surgeon’s storage needs. The pots themselves are glazed on the inside but not on the outside. The analysis has shown that the jars studied all came from the same family, and belongs to a morphology of jar that is only found in the 17th Century, and more often discovered in ships than on land. By the time the 18th Century rolled around, all of the apothecary containers are larger majolica jars.

A variety of pharmacopeia from 17th and 18th centuries was stored in jars like the ones found at the Batavia and Gilt Dragon wrecks. Traces of contents from one majolica jar have survived from Gilt Dragon. This jar was analyzed in the 70s and found to be red mercuric oxide, which was used for salves and plasters. No traces have survived from the smaller jars, but they would have held materials like mercury, absinthe, calcium and oil of vitriol (sulphuric acid) and other supplies used to make pills and plasters.

The surgeon was a key crewmember on any ship as disease was often rife in these tightly packed communities of people, and accident and injury were common. The jars found on Batavia show us that ship companies such as the Dutch East India Company were careful to ensure that their ship surgeon’s had everything they needed to care for the health of the crew.

Coral's Master of Arts thesis on this topic can be viewed here.