A cache of centuries-old gold cash has helped uncover the story of a misplaced Dutch buying and selling ship.
For practically 400 years, a service provider ship carrying one of many world’s most beneficial commodities vanished beneath the English Channel, abandoning little greater than scattered artifacts and unanswered questions. Now, after nearly three many years of archaeological and historic detective work, researchers have lastly uncovered its id, revealing a forgotten chapter of the worldwide commerce routes that related North Africa and Europe in the course of the Dutch Golden Age.
The wreck, found off England’s south coast alongside greater than 400 gold cash, has been recognized because the Dom van Keulen, a Dutch buying and selling ship that departed Morocco for the Netherlands within the autumn of 1633. Far greater than fixing the id of a single misplaced vessel, the invention offers uncommon bodily proof of the profitable gold commerce that linked Morocco, West Africa, and the quickly increasing Dutch industrial empire.
The identification is detailed within the new e book From Morocco to the Coast of England: The Story of the Dom van Keulen and its Remarkable Cargo, the results of practically 30 years of analysis by specialists from the British Museum, Bournemouth University (BU), and the South West Maritime Archaeology Group.
A key breakthrough got here when impartial historian Ian Friel uncovered data within the UK National Archives describing the ship’s last voyage. According to the paperwork, the vessel encountered “much tempestuous weather” whereas crossing towards the Netherlands, sprang a leak, and finally sank close to Salcombe, Devon. Remarkably, though the ship and far of its precious cargo had been misplaced, each member of the crew survived the catastrophe.
Cargo reveals a wider world
Dave Parham, Professor of Maritime Archaeology at BU, edited the e book with Venetia Porter, former Senior Curator for Islamic and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art on the British Museum. Porter labored with the South West Maritime Archaeology Group to be taught extra concerning the cargo and the ship after the wreck was found in 1995.
Dave Parham stated: “Among its cargo were 150 bags of gum arabic, 64 bags of saltpeter, 320 goat skins, and 9,000 Barbary ducats, gold Moroccan coins. It is thought that most of the cargo was salvaged at the time, but more than 400 coins remained on the seabed until they were discovered by the South West Maritime Archaeology Group in 1995.”
Dave continued: “This offers essential context for the wealth and structure of the Sa‘dian Sharifs, the trade in African gold, and tangible evidence of the flourishing 17th-century maritime trade linking Morocco, the Low Countries, and Britain.”
The 400 coins, now displayed at the British Museum with other objects from the wreck, came from the Barbary Coast, now recognized as Morocco. During the 16th and 17th centuries, Dutch merchants traded manufactured goods for prized, pure West African gold. The Dutch maritime industry was large at the time, and the Netherlands had built a global trading network. Many imported foreign ducats were melted down and remade into Dutch gold coins, which became one of the world’s most generally accepted commerce currencies.
Artifacts deepen the wreck’s story
Little is understood about what the Dom van Keulen appeared like or how massive it was, and no recognized work of the ship survive. Professor Parham says the wreck web site measures about 30 meters in size. It lies round 18 meters beneath the floor and incorporates cannons, anchors, and smaller cargo objects.
Other objects recovered from the wreck and now owned by the British Museum embrace a pewter bowl and spoon, gold jewellery, a fish-shaped sounding weight, a stamp seal, pottery, and a gold finger nugget. Head of Research on the British Museum Jeremy D Hill stated:
“The discovery of African gold from under the sea off the coast of Devon was an amazing discovery that raised so many questions about how it came to be there. Answering those questions has taken a team of experts, working collaboratively. The story can now be told of how a Dutch ship carrying North African gold was wrecked off the English coast, making this a discovery of international importance. It reminds us how much there is still to be found under our seas.”
The e book provides an in depth account of the invention and restoration of the wreck. It additionally explores the cultural historical past of the Sa’dian Sharifs, an Arab Sharifian dynasty that dominated Morocco when the ship’s crew would have been buying and selling there.
Site safety limits entry
The wreck is protected beneath the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 and is fastidiously managed by Historic England. Diving on the web site is proscribed to individuals who maintain a license granted by the Secretary of State at DCMS. The wreck is monitored by the National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) Prawle Point station, which overlooks the world. Devon & Cornwall Police’s marine unit additionally carries out common patrols close by as a part of Operation Birdie, a nationwide effort to stop unlawful interference with historic wreck websites.
Reference: “From Morocco to the Coast of England: The Story of the Dom van Keulen and its Remarkable Cargo” by Venetia Porter and David Parham, 2026.
DOI: 10.48582/eh04-q803
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