View source for Zeewijk

{{Short description|Dutch trading ship}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin|infobox caption=''Zeewijk'' |display title=ital}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Ship country=[[Dutch Republic]]
|Ship flag=[[File:Flag of the Dutch East India Company.svg|60px]]
|Ship name=''Zeewijk''
|Ship namesake=[[Buitenplaats]] Zeewijk
|Ship owner=*[[Dutch East India Company]]
*Chamber of [[Zeeland]]
|Ship completed=1725
|Ship fate=[[Shipwreck|Wrecked]] on the [[Houtman Abrolhos]] on 9 June 1727
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
|Ship type=[[East Indiaman]]
|Ship tonnage=275.8 tons
|Ship length={{convert|41.0|m|ft|abbr=on}}
|Ship crew=212 seamen and soldiers
|Ship armament=*36 iron and bronze guns
*6 [[swivel gun]]s
}}
|}

[[File:Admiralty Chart No 1723 The Houtman Rocks, Published 1845.jpg|thumb|1845 British Admiralty chart showing ''Zeewijk'' wreck location]]
{{coord|28|54|30|S|113|49|0|E|display=title|scale:100000_type:landmark}}
The '''''Zeewijk''''' (or '''''Zeewyk''''') was an 18th-century [[East Indiaman]] of the [[Dutch East India Company]] ({{langx|nl|Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie}}, commonly abbreviated to VOC) that was [[shipwreck]]ed at the [[Houtman Abrolhos]], off the coast of [[Western Australia]], on 9 June 1727.<ref name="huygens-zeewijk">{{cite web |url=http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/das/detailVoyage/93762 |title=The Dutch East India Company's shipping between the Netherlands and Asia 1595-1795 |website=huygens.knaw.nl |date=2 February 2015 |publisher=Huygens ING |access-date=2020-02-02 }}</ref> The survivors built a second ship, the '''''Sloepie''''', enabling 82 out of the initial crew of 208 to reach their initial destination of [[Batavia, Dutch East Indies|Batavia]] on 30 April 1728. Since the 19th century many objects have been found near the wreck site, which are now in the [[Western Australian Museum]]. The shipwreck itself was found in 1968 by divers.

==Background==
[[File:VOC Octrooigebied 1.jpg|thumb|A 1700 map of the [[Indian Ocean]]]]
The ''Zeewijk'' was built in 1725 with a tonnage of 140 lasten, that is {{convert|275.8|t}}, and dimensions {{convert|145|ft|m}} long by {{convert|36|ft|m}} wide.<ref name="measurements">Measurements quoted in the original Dutch style (lasten and feet) with conversion factors provided by (Ingelman-Sundberg, 1976)</ref> It carried 36 iron and bronze guns, and 6 swivel guns.<ref name="Ingelman 76">{{cite journal |last=Ingelman-Sundberg |first=Catharina |year=1976 |title=The V.O.C. Ship 'Zeewijk' 1727 report on the 1976 survey of the Site |journal=[[Australian Archaeology (journal)|Australian Archaeology]] |volume=5 |pages=18–33 |doi=10.1080/03122417.1976.12093305 |url=http://dspace.flinders.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2328/342/1/1976005018033_FINAL.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417032156/https://dspace.flinders.edu.au/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2328/342/1976005018033_FINAL.pdf |archive-date=2020-04-17 |access-date=2020-04-17 }}</ref> A new ship of the Zeeland Chamber of the VOC, her maiden voyage was from [[Flushing, Netherlands|Vlissingen]] (Netherlands) to Batavia (now [[Jakarta]], Indonesia) departing in November 1726.<ref name="Jeffreys p55">Jeffreys, 1999. p 55.</ref> Upon departure 208 seamen and soldiers were aboard,<ref name= "Ingelman 76"/> as well as a cargo of general building supplies and 315,836 [[Dutch gulden|guilders]] in 10 chests.<ref name="Jeffreys p55"/> Jan Steyns from [[Middelburg, Zeeland|Middelburg]] was the skipper, in his first command,<ref name= "Ingelman 76"/> replacing Jan Bogaard who was too sick to sail.<ref name="Jeffreys p55"/>

The VOC required ships to utilise the [[Brouwer Route]] to cross from [[Cape of Good Hope|the Cape]] to Batavia, enjoying the prevailing westerlies by travelling eastwards until turning north. Turning north too late from a miscalculation in the longitude risked being wrecked on the coast or reefs of Australia.<ref name="Jeffreys p54">Jeffreys, 1999. p 54.</ref> However, wishing to call into Western Australia, skipper Jan Steyns ignored VOC directorate and protests from his steersman and headed [[Points of the compass|east-northeast]].<ref name= "Ingelman 76"/>

==The disaster==
In darkness at 7:30{{nbsp}}p.m. on 9 June 1727 the ship crashed heavily into Half Moon Reef on the western edge of the [[Pelsaert Group]] of the [[Houtman Abrolhos]] island group, {{cvt|60|km}} west of the future site of [[Geraldton, Western Australia|Geraldton]].<ref name= "Ingelman 76"/><ref name="Jeffreys p55"/> The impact dislodged the rudder and snapped off the mainmast,<ref name="Jeffreys p55"/> but the ship did not break up immediately.<ref name= "Ingelman 76"/> The lookout spotted breakers half an hour before the impact but dismissed them as moonlight reflecting off the sea.<ref name="Jeffreys p55"/>

{{maplink
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|text=The location of the Zeewijk wrecked on 9 June 1727 at Half Moon Reef on the western edge of the [[Pelsaert Group]] off the coast of [[Western Australia]].
|zoom=5

|type=point
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Heavy sea conditions saw at least 10 men drown at the first attempt to launch a boat. After one week a long boat was launched. Later, most of the remaining crew was ferried on the long boat to what would be later known as [[Gun Island]]; a flat, rocky, {{cvt|800|by|350|m}} limestone island located {{cvt|4|km}} off the reef.<ref name="Jeffreys p56">Jeffreys, 1999. p 56.</ref> From Gun and surrounding islands, the critical commodity of fresh water was available, as well as vegetables, birds and seals that were combined with the ship's goods to sustain the survivors.<ref name= "Ingelman 76"/>

While the ''Zeewijk'' did not break up immediately and goods, including the treasure chests, were transferred to Gun Island, it was obvious to the crew that the ship could never be floated from its position locked into the reef.<ref name="Jeffreys p56"/> A rescue group of 11 of the fittest survivors and First Mate Pieter Langeweg set off for Batavia in the longboat on 10 July, but were never heard of again.<ref name="Jeffreys p56"/>

==Sodomy charge==

On 1 December 1727 three of the ship's company reported to the captain that they had found two of the ship's boys, Adriaan Spoor from [[Sint-Maartensdijk]] and Pieter Engelse from [[Ghent]], "engaged in [[sodomy|the gruesome play of Sodom and Gomorrah]]" together the previous afternoon.<ref name=journal>{{cite book|url=https://museum.wa.gov.au/maritime-archaeology-db/maritime-reports/english-translation-zeewijk-journal-adriaen-van-de-graaff-adriaan-de-jong|title=The journal by  Adriaen van der Graef, under-steersman aboard the Ship Zeewijk. 1726 – 1728|first=Adriaen|last=van der Graef|translator=Adriaan de Jong|date=2014|publisher=Western Australian Museum}}</ref>

After an unsuccessful attempt was made to elicit a confession from the two by putting burning fuses between their fingers, the captain and his council found the boys guilty of having committed sodomy together. They were sentenced to death and marooned, each boy on a separate island, on 2 December.<ref>''Australian Shipwrecks - vol1 1622-1850'', [[Charles Bateson]], AH and AW Reed, Sydney, 1972, {{ISBN|0-589-07112-2}}, p22</ref><ref name=journal />

This event was commemorated by a 2020 exhibition and publication by artist Drew Pettifer at the [[Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery]], entitled ''A Sorrowful Act: The Wreck of the Zeewijk''. Pettifer describes the incident as "the beginning of Australia's European queer history".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.uwa.edu.au/lwag/-/media/documents/lwag/publications/dp-gatefold-access-eversion.pdf|title=A Sorrowful Act: The Wreck of the Zeewijk|first=Drew|last=Pettifer|publisher=University of Western Australia|date=2020}}</ref>

In a similar case two years earlier, Dutch East India Company sailor [[Leendert Hasenbosch]] was marooned on [[Ascension Island]] in the Atlantic for sodomy, and is presumed to have died of thirst, though his diary was recovered.

=={{anchor|Sloepie}}The ''Sloepie''==
On 29 October 1727 the ship's log mentions the intentions of the crew to construct a vessel to carry them to Batavia; the ''Sloepie''.<ref name= "Ingelman 76"/> On 7 November, the keel of the ''Sloepie'' was laid down.<ref name="Jeffreys p57">Jeffreys, 1999. p 57.</ref> Utilising materials from the wrecked ''Zeewijk'' (including two swivel mounted cannon to protect the treasure from pirates<ref name="Jeffreys p58">Jeffreys, 1999. p 58.</ref>) and local [[mangrove]] timber she became a {{cvt|20|m}} long by {{cvt|6|m}} wide<ref name= "Ingelman 76"/> [[sloop]], resembling a North Sea fishing vessel.<ref name="Jeffreys p58"/> Constructed in 4 months and launched on 28 February 1728, the ''Sloepie'' was the first ever European ship built in Australia.<ref name="Jeffreys p58"/> On 26 March, 88 men set off on the one-month journey to Batavia. Six died on the way, leaving 82 of the initial 208 to arrive in Batavia on 30 April 1728.<ref name="Jeffreys p58"/>

Batavia's High Court of Justice prosecuted skipper Jan Steyns for losing the ''Zeewijk'' and falsifying the ship's records. He lost his position, and salary and property to the VOC.<ref name="Jeffreys p59">Jeffreys, 1999. p 59.</ref>

==Discovery and subsequent excavation==
[[File:Houtman Abrolhos WA.jpg|thumb|A 1916 map of the [[Houtman Abrolhos]], showing the Zeewyk Channel between the [[Easter Group]] and the [[Pelsaert Group]]]]

In 1840 {{HMS|Beagle|1820|6}} found relics at the camp site, including a VOC cannon and two coins dated 1707 and 1720 which helped to confirm that the site belonged to the ''Zeewijk''. They named the Zeewyk Channel after the wreck.

In the 1880s and 1890s a large amount of material was recovered during [[guano]] mining. Items including bottles, coins, wine glasses, jars, pots, spoons, knives, musket and cannonballs, tobacco and pipes<ref name= "Ingelman 76"/> were found. Florance Broadhurst, son of entrepreneur  [[Charles Edward Broadhurst]] and director of the Broadhurst and McNeil phosphate company, catalogued the finds, initially thinking they were from the VOC ship  ''[[Batavia (1628 ship)|Batavia]]'' and ended up donating most to the Western Australian Museum in Perth.<ref name="Jeffreys p60">Jeffreys, 1999. p 60.</ref>

In 1952, during a visit to Geraldton, Lieutenant Commander M.R. Bromell of the [[Royal Australian Navy]] learned that rock lobster fisherman Bill Newbold had found a cannon on the sea-bed, and during a subsequent visit, Bromell located a cannon on the leeward side of the Half Moon Reef. After an elephant tusk found two years earlier put him on the trail, in March 1968 journalist and diver Hugh Edwards led divers Max Cramer, Neil McLaghlan and Museum staff Harry Bingham and Dr Colin Jack-Hinton to the seaward side of the reef to find the main wreck site.<ref name="Jeffreys p61">Jeffreys, 1999. p 61.</ref> The [[Western Australian Museum]] subsequently conducted several expeditions to survey the site and to recover artefacts, the most notable in 1976 by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg, who also completed a catalogue of all the finds from the site.<ref name="insu78">{{cite report |last=Ingelman-Sundberg |first=C. |year=1978 |title=Relics from the Dutch East Indiaman, Zeewijk. Foundered in 1727. |publisher=Western Australian Museum |location=Perth |editor-first=A.F. |editor-last=Lovell |series=Special Publication |number=10 |url=http://museum.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/RELICS%20FROM%20THE%20DUTCH%20EAST%20INDIAMAN%2C%20ZEEWIJK.%20FOUNDED%20IN%201727.pdf |access-date=2021-04-26 |isbn=0724474757 |issn=0083-873X }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[ANCODS]] (Australian Netherlands Committee on Old Dutch Shipwrecks)
*[[List of shipwrecks of Oceania#Western Australia|List of Western Australian shipwrecks]]
*[[Leendert Hasenbosch]]

==References==
*{{cite book | last = Jeffreys | first = Max | year = 1999 | title = Murder, Mayhem Fire and Storm: Australian Shipwrecks | publisher = New Holland Publishers (Australia) | isbn = 1-86436-445-9}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|35em}}

==Further reading==
*''The wreck on the half-moon reef'' by Hugh Edwards – the full story of the ''Zeewijk''
* For Swedish readers; historical roman: "KAMPEN mot bränningarna" by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg

==External links==
*[http://www.nederland-australie2006.nl/geschiedenis/au/html/ontdekkingsreizigers_schipbreuk4.html The Zeewijk (1727)]
*[http://www.helmink.com/Antique_Map_van_Keulen_Houtman/Scans/Houtman%20Abrolhos%20Zeewijk%20Shipwreck/index.html Antique map of Houtman Abrolhos]

{{maiden voyage sinkings}}

[[Category:1720s ships]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in 1727]]
[[Category:Houtman Abrolhos]]
[[Category:Ships of the Dutch East India Company]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks of Western Australia]]
[[Category:1725 establishments in the Dutch Empire]]