ZUYTDORP: An Old Dutch Wreck
“…the ship came to grief at the base of rocky cliffs…”
The Zuytdorp, the remains of which were discovered by Shark Bay stockman, Tom Pepper in 1927, was wrecked off the wild coast of West Australia in June, 1712, while on a voyage from Holland to Batavia (now Jakarta).
Constructed in 1701, the ship came to grief at the base of rocky cliffs 40 miles north of the Murchison River mouth.
Of the five East India Company vessels known to have been wrecked off the West Australian coastline (Trial, 1622; Batavia, 1629; Vergulde Draeck, 1656; Zuytdorp, 1712, and Zeewijk, 1727), the Zuytdorp is the only wreck from which survivors did not reach the European settlement in Batavia to tell the tale.
On the final journey of the Zuytdorp her skipper was Marinus Wysvliet. While visiting the island, Sao Thome, off the South African coast, eight of her crew deserted. On this voyage 112 of her 286 crew died, possibly from scurvy, and another 22 were left behind at the Cape of Good Hope, too ill to continue. This would have left about 150-odd crew on board at the time of her wrecking off the West Australian coast.
It is believed that most of the estimated 150 people on board reached the shore to set up one or two camps. This is borne out by the fact that nine very heavy breech-blocks were carried from the ship to shore. It is believed the old Dutch vessel carried 248,886 florins, perhaps some gold and silver bullion, and other amounts.
The wreck was initially located in April, 1927, but was not at first reported by its discoverer, Tom Pepper Snr. until 1939. The stockman was following a dingo track at the time along a pad skirting the 100ft. cliffs. Along the way Tom noticed piles of very old green bottles, all broken. At the foot of the cliff he discovered large sections of woodwork, including a carved female figure, a variety of ancient coins and other oddments. With the help of other station hands, he carried off the carved figure, eight breech-blocks, and many coins. When later searchers visited the site they also discovered copper sheeting, three belt buckles, rusted pieces of iron, pieces of glass and pottery, a sewing needle and fragments of clay pipes, brass nautical dividers, musket balls, a scale, an arch support for a shoe, several rolls of lead, fragments of a writing table, a brass dish and barrel rungs. The lead rolls, each weighing 50 lbs., were confiscated by Tom Pepper Snr. and used to fashion bullets.
It was obvious that many of such relics had been carried ashore, and even up on the cliff top, by the Zuytdorp’s survivors. The broken piles of bottles suggested a drunken spree on wine and spirits. Ashes of a large campfire was found nearby. Among the ashes were found hinges, coins, a breech-block, parts of chests and globules of brass melted by intense heat. Mueum authorities realised that the area had been greatly disturbed by 20th century visitors. About 200 old Dutch coins were located at the cliff base.
Tom Pepper Snr. was employed as an overseer on Tamala-Murchison House Stations for more than 40 years and had ample opportunity to visit the wreck site and remove relics at his leisure. In 1954 Tom Pepper Snr. was known to have in his possession coins with the date 1711 bearing the name “zeeland.”
Archaeologists from the West Australian Museum, at Fremantle, led by former Carnarvon teacher, Mike McCarthy, made significant finds during excavations in April-May, 1987, including a small French copper coin or token, a uniform button, smoking pipe, glass fragments and ship’s fastenings, suggesting that survivors carried equipment and belongings to the reef platform and cliff top opposite the wreck.
Once the land sites had been identified by geologist, Dr. Phillip Playford, in 1954, and his findings published five years later, there was great interest in the possibility that the wreck might be nearby. Unfortunately, Dr. Playford’s team was prevented from diving on the seabed by the heavy and dangerous swell.
It was not until 1964 that the first successful dives confirmed his convictions that the wreck lay against the reef platform immediately opposite the remains found on land. Playford believed the ship had either crashed against the base of the cliffs, or that it had been blown ashore despite anchors being dropped. If the ship had, without warning, struck the honeycombed reefs in turbulent water at the foot of the cliffs, there would have been no opportunity to launch boats. The ship would have been flung on to its side. Those who succeeded in escaping the floundering vessel were in danger of being crushed against the reef platform or sucked into the blowholes underneath.
On the first dive in 1964 Tom Brady and the Cramer brothers, Graham and Max, of Geraldton, saw two anchors, iron cannon, lead ingots, ballast stones, and a small badly-eroded brass gun. The divers made their research available to the W.A. Museum and the site was declared a protected wreck.
The Zuytdorp is understood to have carried 40 cannon, consisting of 10 twelve pounders, 22 eight pounders and eight four pounders.
In 1985, following further dives by the W.A. Maritime Museum, among the artefacts recovered was an English 8-pounder cannon, many coins, a pulley block, fragments of smoking pipes, exquisite glassware, ceramics, small arms, a large pewter dish, combs, as well as the largest anchor recovered to date.
During reasonably good conditions in May-June, 1988, the Museum team located eight anchors grouped around what was once the bow of the vessel. Four appeared to have been housed in the traditional fashion, two each side of the bow. A further two anchors lie in shallow water just aft of the bow anchors on top of a large rock, against which the wreck lies, with another two 12 metres forward and slightly inshore of the bow anchors.
The entire wreck of the Zuytdorp lies within a few metres of the reef top and the foot of the cliff, and artefacts have been recovered from as close as two metres from the reef. These new discoveries suggest that the ship struck the reef without its anchors set, but came to rest close enough to the reef platform to allow some of the passengers to bridge the tantalising small gap and reach safety. Neither those on the wreck, or those who reached the shore, survived to tell the tale …
Or did they?
Irish-born journalist, Daisy Bates, when travelling through the region in the early 1900s noted the strong European features in many of the Aborigines living along that part of the West Australian coastline.
“There was no mistaking the flat, heavy, Dutch face, curly fair hair and solid, stocky build,” she wrote.
