Sailors and stature
Stature of recruits of Amsterdam’s Kweekschool voor de Zeevaart
An earlier contribution dealt with stature of people who requested a passport with the government of Bois le Duc at the end of the eighteenth century. Around the same time a register was kept by the directors of Amsterdam’s Kweekschool voor de Zeevaart: the first maritime academy of The Netherlands, established in 1785. The academy aimed to allow boys coming from the ranks of the poor to be trained to become sailors. Recruits came from Amsterdam, other cities and villages in the Dutch Republic, and even from abroad.
Recruits using an ‘instruction ship’, Kweekschool voor de Zeevaart
Most recruits were about 14 years of age when they were admitted to the academy. Part of the admission procedure was an exam, which included an interview about their whereabouts, and taking their height. This is how we know that 14-year-old Johannes Gerardus Axen was 5 foot 2 thumb – 1.47 m. – and that he came from a Lutheran family from Amsterdam. His father Gerhard Axen was an organ maker, and both he and his wife Anna Sophia Bunjes were born in Oldenburg in present-day Germany.
The personal background was recorded in so-called ‘comportementsboeken’ that also provide notes as to how the recruits results at the academy. This source recalls how Johannes started his education to become a sailor in 1796, and that he was a good student – the directors frequently noted down Johannes had received ‘praise’ or ‘high praise’. In 1798 he boarded on the ship Fortuna with destination Greenland. Shortly after he was captured and made prisoner of war in England – in 1799 he returned to The Netherlands. His carreer ended in 1801, when he was dismissed for desertion and unruly behaviour.
At 1.47m. Johannes was a typical recruit: the average height was 1.47m., the median height 1.45m. (nowadays the average height of 14-year old boys is 1.68m.). Boys from outside Amsterdam were slightly taller: their average was 1.49m., the median 1.47m. This seems to accord with the so-called urban penalty: the unhealthy urban environment in cities caused stunted growth and relatively low stature among those born and raised in big cities.
The figure below shows in red the accumulated ‘growth curve’ of recruits born between 1782 and 1785: twelve-year olds were 1.44m. on average, seventeen-year olds 1.54m. Between the ages of twelve and seventeen height did not increase much: 10cm. Nowadays boys’ height increases with 22 cm (World Health Organization figures) and even 26 cm in The Netherlands.
Pre-modern puberty differed markedly: growth spurts were for instance quite modest. The difference in stature between boys and men was small: twelve-year-olds were on average 10 cm shorter than adults (nowadays the difference is 30 cm): perhaps this is also why the recruits could survive among adult sailors?