XXXV. (1727). The Ship Zeewijk, Commanded by Jan Steijns, Lost on the Tortelduif Rock

A.

Letter of the G.-G. and Counc. to the Managers of the E.I.C., October 31, 1728.

...On the 26th of April there arrived here quite unexpectedly with the patchiallang de Veerman a note from the ex-skipper and the subcargo of the Zealand ship Zeewijk, Jan Steijns and Jan Nebbens, written from Sunda Strait...informing us that the said ship, after sailing from the Cape of Good Hope [*] on April 21 [1727], had on June 9 following run aground on the reef situated before the islands called Fredrik Houtmans Abriolhos near the South-land in 29° S.L., also known as the Tortelduijf islands; that favoured by good weather the men had saved from the wreck all kinds of necessaries, and with the loosened woodwork had constructed a kind of vessel, with which they had set out from there on the 26th of March, and arrived in the aforesaid strait on the 21st of April last...

[* The ship had sailed from the Netherlands, November 7, 1726.]

[We] have found...not only that the ex-skipper Jan Steijns has, against his positive instructions and against the protests of the steersmen, too recklessly sailed near the South-land, and thereby been the cause of this disaster, but also that he has attempted to impose upon his superiors by falsified journals, hoping thereby, if possible, to conceal his grievous mistake...

The situation of the islands on whose outermost reef the ship Zeewijk has run aground, is shown by the annexed small chart [*]. They lie out of sight of the South-land, and are partly overgrown with brushwood, edible vegetables, etc...here have been discovered not only a number of wells dug by human hands, but also certain vestiges of a Dutch ship, presumably also lost on the reef aforesaid...

[* To the Netherlands were sent "two charts of the situation of the Reef, and of the islands aforementioned" (charts 16 and 17 below).]

B.

Journal or daily register, kept [by the second steersman Adriaan (Van) de Graeff] on board the sho Zeewijk; after the miscarriage of the same, on the wreck stuck fast on a rocky reef near the unknown Southland; and a few days after, in the island [*].

[* This journal is of no interest for our purpose, and I mention it pro memoria only. The charts sufficiently record the results.]

C.

Chart drawn by JAN STEIJNS. (No. 16).

D.

Chart drawn by ADRIAAN (VAN) DE GRAAF [*]. (No. 17.)

[* Later in the XVIII century (inter alia in 1755 and 1765) the West-coast of Australia was again visited by Dutch ships, but what we know about this point is of no significance.]

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