The Zeewyk Tragedy: This story played itself out in the days that life was cheap and short and often brutal, especially for those sailing the endless oceans to and from the Indies. It all started on a Friday the 23rd of February 1725 that the Heeren XVII of the VOC had decided to build 5 new vessels destined for the Indie route. Two vessels to be with a beam of 145 feet and three of 130 feet (measured in Amsterdam feet, being resp. about 41 and 37 metres). The ‘Kamer of Zeeland’ took one vessel of 145 feet for its account and with general consent it was given the name of Zeewyk. And so on the following 24th of March the beam was laid at the VOC shipyard in Middelburg, in charge of shipwright Hendrik Raas. Towards the end of April 1726 the well trained workers had the hull ready and the ship was launched so the final rigging and fitting could proceed. The newly built ship would be able to carry 140 last (1 last equals 200 kg) and being armed with 36 canon and 6 basses (swivel guns) to ward off pirates and enemy attacks and protect its valuable cargo as well as the 10 cases filled with trading coins to a total value of 315.834 guilders to finance a range of purchases, later to be auctioned in patria at the conclusion of its voyage. While the rigging was being completed under the sharp eye of the equipage master, the ship’s crew was being mustered as well as a detachment of solders; a total of 212 men, proving to be an interesting mixture of nationalities. The officers were mainly local, their skipper Jan Steyns coming from Middelburg, the ‘onder-koopman’ Jan Nebbens from Veere as well as the mates Peter Langewegt and Adriaan van der Graaf who were also Zeelanders. The third officer, Joris Forkson, however was an exception, being English. The crew members were mainly from outside the provinces and certainly a mixed lot. For instance there was Maarten Dirksz. a gunner from St Petersburg, Frederik Walraat, a drummer from Frankfurt and a soldier Josephus Grant from Lausanne. These names seem to be Dutch but the Dutch speaking registrar painfully scribbled their names down with his pen, cut from a goose-feather, the way he heard and perceived them. It must be noted that skipper Steyns was not the Chamber’s first choice, as that was Jan Bogaard from Middelburg; however he had to withdraw because of illness. And so towards the end of November the Zeewyk was finally ready to sail in convoy to the Indies, together with the vessel ‘Barbesteyn’ skippered by Joris Vermouw, who was appointed as supreme commander of both vessels. Before departure, skipper Steyns was handed 207 Spanish Reals plus10 Schillings and 8 Stuivers in order to pay for the ship’s re-victualing at the Cape of Good Hope, halfway on their voyage. At this time all those in the know and able had stocked up on Ducatons to make a healthy profit with illegal trading in Batavia, where these Ducatons sold for 78 Stuivers each instead of the 66 in the Provinces. Twice on their way to The Cape alarm was raised by spotting strange sails in the distance, but at both occasions it proved false alarm and the drummers could give the ‘save’ signals. On the 26th of March 1727 the Zeewyk entered the harbour of Cape-Town without some 28 crew who had died during the voyage or were lost overboard and 24 members who had to be hospitalised. It was a busy time, as part of the cargo had to be unloaded and ballast taken in. Also fresh water and food had to be loaded to be well provisioned for the dangerous second part of the voyage. Also a replacement crew had to be mustered with the result that 18 new men came on board, amongst them 1 sergeant, 2 soldiers and 1 tradesman. All went well as usual so after one month at The Cape, the Zeewyk was ready to continue. With general consent it was agreed to sail in a North East North direction, not quite following the Brouwer route as per strict standing orders and to make a short visit to the ‘Land of the Eendracht’ (the great Southland or New Holland as it was also known). And so on the 9th of June 1727 when the crew had spotted seagulls in the sky, skipper Steyns calculated towards night-time that they must have covered 30 miles on that beautiful day and a special watch was set out and part of the sails were taken down, slowing down the ships speed, just to be careful. After the evening meal, when the sun was slowly sinking, Steyns and Nebbens went on deck before retiring to bed and there Steyns suddenly noticed in the semi dark those dangerous white foaming breakers right ahead. Immediately he shouted his orders to change course. But it was too late. With a crunch the doomed vessel was being forced, by surging waves, onto a sharp reef, tearing noisily at the rupturing wooden hull. Shuddering and leaning over, the ship lost its main mast which crashed, tearing and thundering down on the stricken vessel. Discipline was now hard to control. A group of soldiers broke into the locker where barrels of wine and brandy were stored and started drinking. Others were trying to get to one of the surrounding islands, which proved to be difficult because of the heavy breakers. To restore some order after five terrible days on the shuddering ships-hull, all present had to swear an oath-of-loyalty to each other and the Company. Various trials to leave the wreck with the life-boats on board failed with loss of life. At long last the weather calmed and on the 18th of June most of the crew succeeded to get on shore using a raft they had built with timber from Zeewyk’s damaged hull. Officer Van der Graaf remained behind with 71 men to dismantle more parts of the hull in order to gather enough timber to repair their damaged lifeboat so that it could sail to Batavia with some survivors and report their misfortune. Days kept following each other up until the ship’s carpenter towards the end of June could start to prepare the damaged lifeboat for the long voyage of 1700 miles to Batavia. On the 10th of July the boat was leaving, manned by the best eleven sailors as chosen by the crew. In the meantime the wreck was further demolished and all useful timbers brought ashore. As nothing was heard from Batavia towards the end of October, it was decided to build another vessel to bring the remaining people to Batavia, as well as the ten cases filled with the Company’s trading coins; and so on the 7th of November a start was made with the construction by carpenter Conrad Snoek and his mates Andries Cornelissen and Anthony Hybeeck. The ship, being called ‘Sloepie’ would have a length of about 18 metres and a width of over 6 metres. It had to carry about 80 people, together with stores and the 10 cases filled with cash. Thus a sizable ship, proving the knowledge, energy and determination of those carpenters and helpers working under almost impossible conditions, also fitting out their creation with a mast and two square sails, all salvaged from the wreck. They made it to Batavia on the 26th of April 1728, a month after leaving the Zeewyk wreck, but before they were allowed to go ashore, a thorough investigation of the officers and crew took place, in order to prevent any theft or illegal trading when ashore. It was found that Steyns still possessed the money, paid to him for victualling the Zeewyk at The Cape and another 730 Ducatons as well, Nebbes had 600 Ducatons and the crew carried a total of 5000 Ducatons, all supposed to be used for illegal trading in Batavia at great profit to themselves. No action however was taken, because GG Graafland decided that their guilt would be hard to prove. However the Company appropriated two third of the confiscated crew’s money and paid out one third as compensation for the return of the Company’s 10 money chests. Only skipper Jan Steyns was held responsible, firstly because of his negligence as a navigator and secondly that he had withheld Company money. All his possessions were confiscated, his job was lost and he was banned from all settlements of the VOC. This epic voyage of the Zeewyk now has become part of VOC’s history.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 05:02:22 +0000
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