between 1602 and 1795, the voc fitted out some 4,700 ships which carried more than a million europeans to singapore. more than 70 percent of the one million of the passengers never actually returned to europe, making asia their new home. these early seafarers were not only made up of dutch, but also included british, germans, french huguenots, italians, scandinavians and other europeans who were employed by the voc. in time, many were assimilated into dutch colonies situated throughout asia (though primarily in modern indonesia) where they were stationed and became part of the respective communities.