The Zeewijk Story and the Missing Second Wreck

Abstract

The Dutch East India Company (VOC) ship Zeewijk was wrecked on Half Moon Reef in the Pelsaert (southern) Group of the Houtman Abrolhos islands off the Western Australian coast in 1727. The survivors were able to land on a nearby island, where they eventually built a rescue boat and finally reached their intended destination of Batavia (modern Jakarta) nine months later. At the time of the wreck, the survivors reported evidence of another shipwreck in the area. This paper describes these chronological events, the archaeological investigations and surveys of the site; and it attempts to analyse the veracity of the evidence of a second wreck.