Reijnier Scherius' links to the Spice Trade and VOC.

Reijnier Scherius Registration in the VOC records. 

Reijnier Scherius, the father of Reinier Scherius, was at least for a few years in the spice trade. That it is how it seems from the record cited in Open Archives.

The first record dated June 27 1776 has him joining as a soldier of The Dutch East Indies Company (VOC) and setting sail on the ship Beemster Welvaren for Batavia. They arrived at the Cape on November 28 and stayed until 31 December 1776 and finally they reached Batavia on 10 April 1777. He did not return to the Netherlands straight away and  this ship perished in 1778 near Indramajoe. It seems he stayed in Batavia until he got on the ship Hof ter Linden 6 February 1779 and arrived back in Amsterdam on Monday 27 September 1779.

He did a couple more voyages to Batavia and then resigned for the last time in August 1784. During this period at sea he moved up the ranks from weapons mate to third helms mate.

When he joined in 1776 he was about 18 years old and when he left he was 26 years old. It wasn't for marriage because he only married at the age of 40. So what did he do all that time?

With this precedent in the spice trade it is not surprising that his son Reinier was sent off to sea at a young age, apparently to cure his asthma and his 'klierachtigheid" which suggests he was prone to tonsillitis and such infections and ended up living in Indonesia for a large part of his life.