Campen

The final voyage

Campen was a newly built VOC jacht that put to sea from Texel on 12 October 1627 with six other ships, bound for Batavia on her first voyage. [3](https://www.vocsite.nl/schepen/11684/) On 23 October, a powerful storm drove her onto the treacherous Needles rocks off the Isle of Wight; the roughly 160 soldiers, sailors, and merchants aboard reached shore safely, but only two chests of the cargo could be saved at the time. [3](https://www.vocsite.nl/schepen/11684/)

Dutch diver Jacob Johnson ('Jacob the Dyver') salvaged guns, anchors, lead, and part of the specie for the VOC in 1627–28, recovering roughly 2,365 reales, and returned intermittently for further salvage into the 1630s. [3](https://www.vocsite.nl/schepen/11684/) The wreck was rediscovered in June 1979 by Kevin Punch and Northampton BSAC divers, who recovered 103 lead ingots and roughly 2,000 further coins and artifacts, reported to the Receiver of Wreck and worked with the Rijksmuseum, the site's legal Dutch owner. [5](https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?resourceID=19191&uid=805298)

What was aboard

No complete surviving cargo manifest has been located for this voyage. This reflects material documented through Dutch archival research (the VOCsite record) and the licensed 1979-era salvage, not a verified full inventory. Mercury is sometimes cited in general accounts of this wreck, but it is not documented in the primary sources reviewed for this report and is omitted here.

Spanish reales: Silver reales, the standard hard currency the VOC used to purchase goods in Asia; roughly 2,365 were recovered in the initial 1627–28 salvage alone.

Dutch lion dollars (leeuwendaalders): Whole and half lion dollars from multiple Dutch provinces recovered in the 1979 and later salvage, a coin type of particular numismatic interest as an early autonomous Dutch Republic issue.

Silver ingots: 103 silver ingots, each of roughly 62 kg, recovered by the 1979 salvage team.

Ordnance and ship's fittings: Guns, anchors, and lead ballast, partly recovered by 17th-century Dutch salvors and partly by the modern team.

How to collect

Confirm Dutch state title: The Netherlands remains the legal owner of VOC wrecks including Campen; any sale should trace to an authorized disposal, not an unlicensed private recovery.

Distinguish the two salvage eras: 1627–1630s Dutch salvage and the 1979-onward licensed recovery produced different documentation; ask which applies to a given object.

Verify coin types against the known assemblage: Genuine material should be reales or leeuwendaalders consistent with the documented finds; drop any claim of unrelated coin types.

Do not accept an unsupported mercury-cargo story: Mercury is not documented in the primary sources for this wreck; treat that detail, if offered, as unverified embellishment.