''Santa Catarina'' was a Portuguese merchant ship, a 1500-ton

carrack A carrack (; ; ) is a three- or four- masted ocean-going sailing ship that was developed in the 14th to 15th centuries in Europe, most notably in Portugal and Spain. Evolving from the single-masted cog, the carrack was first used for Europea ...

, that was seized by the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

(also known as VOC) on 25 February 1603 off

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. She was such a rich prize that her sale proceeds increased the capital of the VOC by more than 50%. From the large amounts of Ming Chinese porcelain captured in this ship, Chinese pottery became known in Holland as '' Kraakporselein'', or "carrack-porcelain" for many years.

The capture of ''Santa Catarina''

At dawn on 25 February 1603 three Dutch ships under the command of Admiral

Jacob van Heemskerck Jacob van Heemskerck (3 March 1567 – 25 April 1607) was a Dutch explorer and naval officer. He is generally known for his victory over the Spanish at the Battle of Gibraltar, where he ultimately lost his life. Early life Jacob van Hee ...

spotted the carrack at anchor off the Eastern coast of Singapore. The Portuguese ship, captained by Sebastian Serrão, was travelling from

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

Malacca Malacca (), officially the Historic State of Malacca (), is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the Peninsular Malaysia#Other features, southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca ...

, loaded with products from China and Japan, including 1200

bale Bale may refer to: Apps Bale Messenger, an Iranian instant messaging (IM) app owned by the National Bank of Iran Packaging * Cotton bale * Hay or straw bale in farming, bound by a baler * Paper bale, a unit of paper measurement equal t ...

s of Chinese raw silk, worth 2.2 million

guilders Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German ''gulden'', originally shortened from Middle High German ''guldin pfenninc'' (" gold penny"). This was the term that became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Rom ...

. The cargo was particularly valuable because it contained several hundred ounces of musk. After a couple of hours of fighting, the Dutch managed to subdue the crew who forfeited the cargo and the ship, in return for the safety of their lives. The

Admiralty of Amsterdam The Admiralty of Amsterdam was the largest of the five Dutch admiralties at the time of the Dutch Republic. The administration of the various admiralties was strongly influenced by provincial interests. The territory for which Amsterdam ...

's subsequent decision to take the ship and her cargo as a

prize A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements.

, despite Portugal's demands, became the ''casus belli'' for the

Dutch–Portuguese War The Dutch–Portuguese War (; ) was a global armed conflict involving Dutch forces, in the form of the Dutch East India Company, the Dutch West India Company, and their allies, against the Iberian Union, and after 1640, the Portuguese Empire. Beg ...

that lasted until 1663, and eventually ended the Portuguese monopoly on trade in the

East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies) is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The ''Indies'' broadly referred to various lands in Eastern world, the East or the Eastern Hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainl ...

. The Dutch, who in previous years had learnt about the lucrative trade routes in the East, were now attempting to appropriate some of that wealth for themselves.

''Santa Catarina'' and ''Mare Clausum'' versus ''Mare Liberum'' controversy

Though Heemskerk did not have authorization from the company or the government to initiate the use of force, many shareholders were eager to accept the riches that he brought back to them. Not only was the legality of keeping the

prize A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements.

questionable under Dutch statute, but a faction of shareholders (mostly

Mennonite Mennonites are a group of Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name ''Mennonites'' is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of ...

) in the company also objected to the forceful seizure on moral grounds, and of course, the Portuguese demanded the return of their cargo. The scandal led to a public judicial hearing and a wider campaign to sway public (and international) opinion. It was in this wider context that representatives of the Company called upon jurist

Hugo Grotius Hugo Grotius ( ; 10 April 1583 – 28 August 1645), also known as Hugo de Groot () or Huig de Groot (), was a Dutch humanist, diplomat, lawyer, theologian, jurist, statesman, poet and playwright. A teenage prodigy, he was born in Delft an ...

to draft a

polemic Polemic ( , ) is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called polemics, which are seen in arguments on controversial to ...

al defence of the seizure. Grotius sought to ground his defense of the seizure in terms of the natural principles of justice. One chapter of his long theory-laden treatise entitled '' De Jure Prædæ'' made it to the press in the form of the influential pamphlet, '' Mare Liberum'' (''The Free Sea''). In ''Mare Liberum'', published in 1609, Grotius adapted the principle originally formulated by

Francisco de Vitoria Francisco de Vitoria ( – 12 August 1546; also known as Francisco de Victoria) was a Spanish Roman Catholic philosopher, theologian, and jurist of Renaissance Spain. He is the founder of the tradition in philosophy known as the School of Sala ...

and further developed by Fernando Vázquez de Menchaca (cf. the

School of Salamanca The School of Salamanca () was an intellectual movement of 16th-century and 17th-century Iberian Scholasticism, Scholastic theology, theologians rooted in the intellectual and pedagogical work of Francisco de Vitoria. From the beginning of the ...

), that the sea was international territory, against the Portuguese ''

Mare Clausum ''Mare clausum'' (legal Latin meaning "closed sea") is a term used in international law to mention a sea, ocean or other navigable body of water under the jurisdiction of a state that is closed or not accessible to other states. ''Mare clausum ...

'' (closed sea) policy, and all nations were free to use it for seafaring trade. Grotius, by claiming ' free seas', provided suitable ideological justification for the Dutch breaking up of various trade

monopolies A monopoly (from Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic competition to produce a particular thing, a lack of viable sub ...

through its formidable naval power. England, competing fiercely with the Dutch for domination of world trade, opposed this idea, redefining the Mare Clausum principles. As conflicting claims grew out of the controversy, maritime states came to moderate their demands and base their maritime claims on the principle that it extended seawards from land. A workable formula was found by Cornelius Bynkershoek in his ''De dominio maris'' (1702), restricting maritime dominion to the actual distance within which cannon range could effectively protect it. This became universally adopted and developed into the

three-mile limit The three-mile limit refers to a traditional and now largely obsolete conception of the international law of the seas which defined a country's territorial waters, for the purposes of trade regulation and exclusivity, as extending as far as the re ...

The capture of ''Santa Catarina''

''Santa Catarina'' and ''Mare Clausum'' versus ''Mare Liberum'' controversy

See also

Notes

References

Further reading