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The Sun
11-05-2025
- General
- The Sun
Lost wreckage of 800-tonne Dutch merchant ship which sunk 168 years ago killing 16 crew is found by archaeologists
ARCHAEOLOGISTS have made a "significant discovery" after finding a historic 800-tonne Dutch merchant ship which sunk 168 years ago. The Koning Willem de Tweede sunk off the coast of Robe, Australia in June 1857 - killing 16 of its 25 crew members in the deadly plunge. 3 3 The groundbreaking find was announced by the Australian National Maritime Museum and the SilentWorld Foundation after a gruelling four-year search. The museum said that the breakthrough discovery"connects us to stories of trade and migration, having discharged over 400 Chinese miners just days before its sinking". The merchant ship used to transport Chinese migrants to South Australia, who then walked to Victoria's Goldfields to live and work. And the tragic sinking unfolded just days after hundreds of Chinese workers had disembarked from the vessel. The 140-foot ship set sail in Guichen Bay, before it shockingly disappeared into the depths of the ocean. Experts say the shipwreck helps tell the story of Chinese migration through the South of the country during the Victorian gold rush. This prosperous era between 1851 and the late 1860s was marked by an influx of money and population growth due to many people seeking fortunes. Spokesperson for the Australian National Maritime Museum, James Hunter, told Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) that archaeologists had uncovered several components of the ship. He said that they had located the ship's windlass - which is a device that raises and lowers equipment to the ship sticking out of the seabed. The spokesperson said: "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 also said that researchers found a "magnetic anomaly", about the same length as the 140-foot ship. The museum praised the SilentWorld Foundation in collaboration with South Australia's Department for Environment and Water and Flinders University for making the find. They hailed it as a "significant discovery" and added that "future monitoring visits are planned to further assess the site and uncover more of this important piece of maritime history". SilentWorld said the discovery could not have been possible without hard work. The project to locate the ship lasted several years. They described visibility in the sea as "challenging", and added that teamwork with the department led to the "incredible" find. Their search was hampered by "sand blizzards". Hunter told ABC the ship may have run aground on the seabed and was eventually buried by sand. Their team believed they had found the wreckage three years earlier, but Hunter said the sand made identification difficult. The research team are planning to return to the site, hoping to find more of the wreckage intact. The incredible find comes after an iconic wooden car was discovered in the wreckage of the famed US warship, downed by a Japanese submarine during WWII. Historians were baffled as to why the 1940-41 black Ford Super Deluxe Woody was aboard the aircraft carrier - now 16,650 feet below the surface. And in February, the terrifying last moments of the tragic ship dubbed the "Greek Titanic" were revealed after new images captured the ghostly remains of her wreck. The Heimara sank on January 19, 1947, after hitting an islet in the South Euboean Gulf - killing 400 people in Greece's deadliest-ever boating disaster. New research revealed the horror of her final moments, as well as artifacts from the wreck - frozen in time for nearly 80 years. Among the relics were the shoes of the dead, some of them children's, as well as paper items and letters from the ship's nameplate.
CBS News
09-05-2025
- General
- CBS News
Shipwreck found off Australia's coast 168 years after it sank, killing 16 crew members
What technology could change the way we learn about shipwrecks What technology could change the way we learn about shipwrecks What technology could change the way we learn about shipwrecks Researchers have discovered the likely location of a Dutch ship that sank off the coast of Australia over 150 years ago. The Koning William de Tweede was an 800-ton ship that was sailing near Robe, South Australia when it sank in June 1857. Hundreds of Chinese miners had disembarked from the vessel just days before the sinking, the Australian National Maritime Museum said on social media. The ship was sailing with 25 crew members when it sank, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Sixteen of the crew members died in the sinking, ABC reported. The Koning Willem de Tweede. Eric van Straaten / Australian National Maritime Museum The museum began working with Silentworld Foundation, which studies Australia's maritime history, as well as Flinders University and South Australia's Department for Environment and Water. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands also supported the research efforts, the museum said. Dr. James Hunter, with the maritime museum, told ABC that researchers found parts of the ship on the seabed of Guichen Bay. Those parts included the ship's winch and iron components, Hunter said. A component from the Koning Willem de Tweede. Australian National Maritime Museum The efforts to find the ship have been ongoing for about four years, the Silentworld Foundation said on social media. Poor visibility underwater hindered the work, Hunter told ABC. Researchers believed they had identified the ship in 2022, but it took until March 2025 to confirm the vessel's identity. "The latest visit to Robe ... led to the probable identification of the shipwreck," the Silentworld Foundation said on social media. "The visibility was challenging, but still enough for the team to make this incredible call!" A diver underwater near the Koning Willem de Tweede. Australian National Maritime Museum The maritime museum said on Facebook that future monitoring will be done at the site. Those visits will assess the site and work to "uncover more of this important piece of maritime history," the museum said. The waters off Australia's coast are littered with shipwrecks and several have been found in recent months. Last July, Australian scientists pinpointed the final resting place of the Noongah, a huge freighter that sank in rough seas in 1969, killing 21 of the 26 crew members on board. Three months before that, a small underwater drone located a century-old vessel in a region known as a "ship graveyard" off Australia's coast. That discovery came just weeks after an expedition found the wreck of the coal steamship SS Nemesis off Australia's coast, more than a century after it sank.
ABC News
07-05-2025
- General
- ABC News
Lost Dutch ship Koning Willem de Tweede found off SA's coast after 170 years
Researchers are confident they have found the site of a nearly 170-year-old shipwreck off South Australia's south-east coast following a multi-year search. 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. ( Supplied: Ruud Stelten ) 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. ( ABC South East SA: Eugene Boisvert ) 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. ( Supplied: Ruud Stelten ) "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. ABC South East SA — local news in your inbox Get our local newsletter, delivered free each Friday Your information is being handled in accordance with the Email address Subscribe
