Vergulde Draeck
Encyclopedia
The Vergulde Draeck (Gilt Dragon) was a Dutch East India Company ship
Ship
Since the end of the age of sail a ship has been any large buoyant marine vessel. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and cargo or passenger capacity. Ships are used on lakes, seas, and rivers for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing,...
of the seventeenth century. She sailed from Texel
Texel
Texel is a municipality and an island in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the biggest and most populated of the Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea, and also the westernmost of this archipelago, which extends to Denmark...
bound for Batavia
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
(now Jakarta), under Pieter Albertsz and was carrying trade goods and eight chests of silver worth 78,6000 guilders. On 28 April 1656 the Gilt Dragon was wrecked just south of Ledge Point
Ledge Point, Western Australia
Ledge Point is a small coastal township 105 km north of Perth, Western Australia. It was established to service the local fishing and crayfishing industries....
, 107 km north of what is now Perth, Western Australia
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
.
Fate of the crew
Unlike its predecessor, the BataviaBatavia (ship)
Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company . It was built in Amsterdam in 1628, and armed with 24 cast iron cannons and a number of bronze guns. Batavia was shipwrecked on her maiden voyage, and was made famous by the subsequent mutiny and massacre that took place among the survivors...
which was wrecked in 1629, the Jacht (as its type of fast ship was known) immediately began to break up.
Only 75 survivors (of 193 originally on board) made it to shore. They then quickly dispatched a small boat with the Understeersman and six others to Batavia to seek help. They arrived 40 days after the wrecking and reported that as they sailed away they saw the other survivors trying to refloat a larger boat that had capsized in the surf while landing.
Two vessels were immediately sent south in search, but they failed in difficult conditions to sight either the wreckage or the survivors. Eleven men and a boat were also lost during the search.
In January 1658 two other ships were sent out in search but also proved unsuccessful. A boat from one of these vessels commanded by Abraham Leeman also disappeared, but it successfully returned to Batavia, arriving nearly six months after having been given up as lost.
20th century
The wreck, the first of the Dutch and English East India ships found on the Western Australian coast, was discovered by five spear-fishermen (John Cowen; Jim, Alan and Graeme Henderson; and Alan Robinson ) in April 1963. After a period in which both it and the Batavia (which was found later in the same year) were heavily looted, shipwreck legislation was enacted, vesting the sites in the Western Australian MuseumWestern Australian Museum
The Western Australian Museum is the state museum for Western Australia.The Western Australian Museum has seven main sites: two in Perth within the Perth Cultural Centre, two in Fremantle , and one each in Albany, Geraldton, and Kalgoorlie-Boulder...
. Subsequently the remains were excavated by maritime archaeologist Jeremy Green and a report was published. Materials from the wreck are on exhibition at the Museum's Shipwreck Galleries in Fremantle
Fremantle
Freemantle is a suburb of Southampton in England.Fremantle or Freemantle may also refer to:- Places :* Fremantle, the port city to the capital Perth, Western Australia...
.
Further reading
- Major, R. H. (editor) (1859) Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia. London: Hakluyt Society (2001 facsimile edition on Google Books)