The Zeewijk
On her maiden voyage, the Dutch East Indiaman Zeewijk carried ironwork, bricks, and cash money worth 315,837 guilders in ten chests. Provisions included meat, fish, butter, cheese and wine. The ship also carried a donkey, which died on the voyage. Zeewijk was wrecked on Gun Island in the Houtman Abrolhos. The survivors built a vessel 58 feet long (16.5m) to carry all 82 of them to Batavia which they reached on 30 April 1728. This is the first watercraft built by Europeans in Australia.
In 1830, the crew of the British survey ship HMS Beagle found a swivel gun, coins, wine bottles and a breech-block with the Dutch East India Company’s initials VOC engraved on it near the Zeewijk wreck site in the Abrolhos islands. The Zeewijk wreck was found in 1968.
