Australian Maritime Archeologists Believe They have found a Dutch Ship Off The Coast of South Australia That Sank There in 1857. The King Willem The second Ran Into A Storm in June of That Year and was Lost.
The Frigate was found in relatively shallow water, four hundred meters off the coast of the beach in Robe, A Town and Fishing Port in South Australia. “That was where we thought we would find it,” Says Project Leader James Hunter of the Australian National Maritime Museum to the Magazine Cosmos .
In 2022, a team was assembled to search for the king Willem the second. The Ship From The Hague Arrived in Southern Australia in June 1857 to Deliver Four Hundred Chinese Miners, Who Were To Work in the Goldfields of the State of Victoria. The Passengers Were Brought Ashore at Robe and Then Walked 400 kilometers to the mines.
The ship had just dropped off the miners when it was wrecked in a heavy storm. In The Bay of Robe, The Frigate was not Well Protected Against the Gusts of Wind. The Captain Decided to Run The Ship Aground on a Sandbar because of the Extensive Damage. The Ship Broke Into Pieces by the Waves. Sixteen of the 25 crew members died when their lifeboat capsized.
Althegh the Ship Broke Into Pieces So Close to the Coast, It had never leg found. But Now Parts Were Found Using Metal Detectors and Magnetometers. For example, the anchor winch (the part of the ship used to hoist the anchor) and the windlass were discovered. Most of the Ship is Still Largely Buried.
Researchers Think Wreck Has ‘Amazing Potential’
Based on the length of the ship (42.7 meters) and other finds, the researchers are convinced that it is the king Willem the second. In Addition, The Dutch Frigate is the only ship that was wrecked at Robe. The team hopes to be able to expose more of the ship with later Dives and also Take Objects Up With Them.
Project Leader Hunter Thinks that the Wreck, Although Not Very Famous, Has “Amazing Potential”. “It’s exciting. Althegh we know a lot about Seventeenth-Century Ships Such as the Wreck of the Batavia, Much Less is Known ABOUT THE SHIPS FROM THE NINETENTENTH CENTURY,” He Tells Cosmos .
“The Shipwreck was Catastrophic and Very Sudden, So We Will Probable Find Many Objects. Virtuely Everything Is Probably Still In The Wreck, which can Tell Us a Lot ABOUT The Crew and Passengers of the Ship.”