Enkhuizen had once been a busy herring port on the Zuiderzee, but in the eighteenth century it was only the shipping business of the VOC that left an indelible mark on the city. The town was thronged with sailors who lived in the city while they waited for the new crew musters of the Company, and many others left their families behind there when they sailed. Old VOC hands, among them commanders, also lived and worked in the town. Some were still hoping for a new command, while others had settled down and left their maritime careers behind them. Enkhuizen fitted out no more than one-sixteenth of all the Company ships, which meant that two or three a year were equipped and manned in the town for the long voyage to Asia. The shipping business of the Company had expanded enormously in the first half of the eighteenth century and Enkhuizen had profited from the growth. A century earlier it had often sent out only a single ship. Now far more crew members were required, and naturally more commanders and officers. The great majority of these officers lived in their own native town, as they also did in neighbouring Hoorn.

Every Company ship had a ship’s council of four: the commander and three other officers. When they returned, these men would have been away from Enkhuizen for approximately two years, often for far longer periods. Many never returned because they died on board during the voyage out or while they were participating in intra-Asia trade or on the return voyage. Malaria claimed the most victims. Often any time spent in Batavia was tantamount to running a fatal risk. A very small number of mariners actually chose to settle overseas. If men survived as commander or as an officer, they often signed on voyage after voyage. In the course of the eighteenth century, the number of ships annually fitted out by the VOC began to decline and, as a consequence, the need for commanders and officers also fell. Usually the Enkhuizen Chamber showed a preference for appointing Enkhuizen men. In the period 1725–1765, two times out of three it was an Enkhuizen man who was commissioned as commander.