The Zuytdorp, Dr Ruud Stelten, 08 December 2024

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Dr Ruud Stelten, Flinders University

Bad weather led Dutch ship into Western Australian coast

The Dutch East India Company ship, the Zuytdorp, likely crashed into the shore of Western Australia due to a storm and not bad navigation, new research has found.

Published in the Journal of Maritime Archaeology, Flinders University archaeologists Dr Ruud Stelten and Professor Wendy van Duivenvoorde analysed ship logs, contemporary cartographic and navigational knowledge and weather patterns at the time in a bid to understand how the ship went down.

Four Dutch shipwrecks have been found off the coast of WA within the last century, with the Batavia and the horrors of its mutinous crew arguably the most famous of the collection.

Discovered in 1927 about 60km north of the WA coastal town of Kalbarri, and formally identified in 1958, the Zuytdorp was travelling from the Dutch port of Vlissingen on the way to Batavia, now present-day Jakarta, when it became lost at sea.

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