Pelsaert Group - Gun Island
Site#7
DescriptionThe wreck site of the ZEEWIJK lies in three to five metres of water on gentle slopping Half-Moon Reef four kilometres offshore from Gun Island in the Pelsaert Group of the Houtman Abrolhos 80 kilometres off the coast from Geraldton in Western Australia. The shallow water, rocky bottom and adverse aspect have meant that no substantial ship's structure has survived on site.
The wreck site of the ZEEWYK, its relics and its associated land sites are protected under the Historic Shipwrecks Act (1976).
HistoryThe Dutch East India Company vessel ZEEWYK was wrecked on the Houtman Abrolhos on the 9 June 1727 whilst on a voyage from Rammekens in Holland to Batavia, present day Jakarta, in Indonesia. The survivors struggled ashore onto Gun Island where they went about the process of salvaging what they could from the vessel. After one failed attempt to get help by despatching the ship's longboat, the survivors built a small wooden sloop, called the SLOEPIE, out of the remains of the ZEEWYK and eventually sailed from Gun Island on the 26 March 1728 carrying eighty-eight survivors out of the original ship's complement of 208. The wreck site of the ZEEWYK, its relics and its associated land sites are protected under the Historic Shipwrecks Act (1976).
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