Lost Dutch ship Koning Willem de Tweede found off SA's coast after 170 years
In June 1857, the 140-foot Dutch merchant sail ship Koning Willem de Tweede became lost in Guichen Bay just days after discharging more than 400 Chinese miners at Robe.
Of the 25 crew members on board, 16 drowned and were later buried in the dunes of Long Beach, along the bay's eastern shoreline.
James Hunter from the Australian National Maritime Museum said researchers had now found parts of the ship's windlass, or winch, protruding from the bay's seabed, along with other components.
Dr Hunter said historical accounts of the ship and its wreck made the research team confident it had found the Koning Willem.
"We looked at things like the depth of the ship – the draught – and we've looked at the water depth it's sitting in, and that all seems to line up really well," he said.
"The magnetic anomaly we have is roughly the same length as the ship.
"
All these things … make us pretty confident we've got it, but it would be great if we found a bell with the name on it.
"
Iron windlass components discovered during the search for Koning Willem de Tweede's shipwreck site.
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Supplied: Ruud Stelten
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Sand 'blizzards' hampered search
Dr Hunter said before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Dutch government approached the museum about exploring the countries' shared maritime history.
In conjunction with the not-for-profit Silentworld Foundation, SA's Department for Environment and Water (DEW), and Flinders University, Dr Hunter said researchers set out to find the wreck.
He said the group thought they had located the wreck in 2022, but it took until this March to confirm their suspicions due to poor visibility caused by the bay's fine sand.
"It takes nothing to stir the sand up, and it kind of sits in suspension almost like you're in a blizzard underwater," he said.
"It's entirely possible that the ship ran aground on the seabed and that the sand buried it.
"
While I'm not saying the wreck is completely intact, I suspect there's a lot of it there still.
"
James Hunter says the wreck is part of Robe's significant maritime history.
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ABC South East SA: Eugene Boisvert
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The search included reviewing historical records and accounts before using a marine magnetometer to detect concentrations of iron on or beneath the seabed.
"We picked up this interesting anomaly, and then we dived on that target in 2023 and didn't see anything," he said.
"When we came back this year, we had metal detectors and we did a systematic search of that area.
"We saw a lot of sand again, but we were lucky enough that the windlass and a couple of other components of the wreck were exposed at the time."
Wreck's role in local history
DEW's principal maritime heritage officer Mark Polzer said the shipwreck helped tell the story of
"We saw a lot of Chinese immigrants coming into Robe, landing there and then walking all the way to the Goldfields to bypass a tax on immigrants coming into Victoria," he said.
Mark Polzer probes the seabed during a metal detector survey for the shipwreck site of Koning Willem de Tweede.
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Supplied: Ruud Stelten
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"It's an important wreck for the local area, but it tells this broader story … of immigration."
Mr Polzer said some of the material recovered from the wreck at the time had even been used in the Robe community.
"There are plenty of stories locally about the wreck and doors and various other objects in the community,"
he said.
Heather Berry helps Flinders University doctoral student Justine Buchler prepare the marine magnetometer while its deployment and operation is explained to Mark Polzer and Ruud Stelten.
(
Supplied: James Hunter
)
"If we could expose more of the wreckage and record that and recover things, that would add another layer to the story of the heritage there in Robe."
Dr Hunter said researchers would investigate the site further.
"We may get down there and find more of the wreck uncovered, or alternatively, we could see a whole bunch of sand again because it's buried itself," he said.
Mr Polzer said the Koning Willem de Tweede was a protected historic wreck and advised that although people could dive on it, they should not interfere with it.
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