Wreck of Dutch merchant ship uncovered 170 years on
Hidden from the world beneath the waves for the best part of two centuries, the final wresting place of the Dutch merchant ship Koning de Tweede, has finally been uncovered - and DEW staff played a key role in the exciting discovery.
As part of DEW’s cultural heritage management of South Australia’s historic shipwrecks, maritime archaeologist and Principal Maritime Heritage Officer Mark Polzer teamed with researchers from the Australian National Maritime Museum, Silentworld Foundation and Flinders University to uncover the shipwreck of the Koning Willem de Tweede – or King William the Second in English – near Robe in the state’s South East.
The 800-tonne Dutch merchant sailing ship was lost in Guichen Bay in June 1857. Tragically, 16 of 25 crew members were drowned and later buried in the dunes of Long Beach, which forms Guichen Bay’s eastern shoreline.
Only days before its loss, about 400 Chinese miners destined for the Victorian gold fields had disembarked from the vessel.
DEW’s efforts to locate the wreck date back to the late 1980s and early 1990s, and more recently to 2009, when the department contracted researchers from Flinders University to survey Guichen Bay.
The current project to find the Koning Willem de Tweede shipwreck began in April 2022, and its primary purpose has been to search for, locate, and archaeologically survey the shipwreck’s remains.
Using a combination of marine magnetometer and underwater metal detectors, the research team found what is believed to be iron components of the ship’s windlass (a large winch in the bow used to hoist a vessel’s anchors) partially protruding from the seabed, as well as a partially exposed iron frame.
A well-preserved timber plank was noted beneath the windlass, suggesting more of the ship’s hull structure is preserved, but currently buried under the seabed.
Mark said the team was thrilled when they discovered the long-lost wreck.
“Searching for shipwrecks can be exciting, but more often than not it requires a great deal of patience and perseverance,” he said.
“In 2022, my colleagues recorded a promising target during a magnetometer survey but were unable to find any physical remains at that time.
“We were anxious to get back to Robe and reinvestigate that area. Our recent survey again picked up a magnetic anomaly at the same spot.
“This time luck was with us and when we dived the target there was part of the shipwreck – what we believe to be the ship’s windlass – protruding from the seabed.”
All exposed elements of the shipwreck site were documented and plotted within the larger complex of anomalies detected by the magnetometer.
These anomalies were buried at the time of the survey but indicate the presence of other large iron artefacts and hull components.
The team is confident the shipwreck is that of Koning Willem de Tweede, as it is the only known historic shipwreck event to have occurred on that stretch of Long Beach, and the discovery location corresponds to historical accounts of the vessel’s loss.
Fragments of 19th-century Chinese coarse earthenware ceramic were located on the beach immediately adjacent to the shipwreck site in March 2023, further supporting its identity as Koning Willem de Tweede.
Future monitoring visits to the shipwreck site are being planned to assess its condition and document additional hull remains and artefacts that may be exposed by changes to the seabed.
The Koning Willem de Tweede Shipwreck Project was assisted financially by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the Embassy of Kingdom of the Netherlands, Australia and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands.
The shipwreck is protected under the Commonwealth’s Underwater Cultural Heritage Act 2018, which is administered by DEW under delegation from the Commonwealth and in accordance with the Australian Underwater Cultural Heritage Intergovernmental Agreement.