Reijgersdaal

The final voyage

Reijgersdaal (sometimes Reigersdaal), built in 1738 at Amsterdam for the VOC Chamber of Amsterdam, left Texel in May 1747 under Captain Johannes Band with 297 people aboard, bound for Batavia. The outbound voyage was catastrophic before the ship ever reached danger: by the time she neared the Cape, roughly 125 men had died of scurvy and a further 83 were too weak to work.

Unable to anchor safely in bad weather, the ship attempted to shelter near Robben Island, then set out again for Dassen Island or Saldanha Bay. Her anchor cable parted, she went out of control, and on 25 October 1747 she struck a reef near Springfontein Point, breaking apart with the loss of about 157 more men. In total only around 20 of the 297 who had sailed from Texel reached Cape Town alive — a small fraction of the ship's company, not the roughly half sometimes claimed. A chest of silver washed ashore within days of the wreck.

What was aboard

VOC voyage and cargo records, cited by the Netherlands' MaSS maritime heritage portal and by South African museum research (Lalou Meltzer, published by the Western Cape Numismatic Society), document the ship's company, cargo, and the 1979 recovery in detail.

Silver specie: A cargo including chests of silver coin is documented; South African museum research on the recovered coins samples roughly 3,400 of a calculated total, about 11.7% of the estimated coins aboard.

Lead ingots: Lead ingots were recovered from the wreck site during the 1979–80s salvage.

Bronze cannon: Six large bronze cannon bearing the crest of the VOC Amsterdam Chamber were salvaged, along with lead ingots, under a National Monuments Council permit.

The ship's company: 297 people sailed from Texel; documented losses include roughly 125 to scurvy before the Cape, 157 in the wreck itself, leaving only about 20 survivors.

How to collect

Confirm 1979-era permit documentation: Material should trace to the 1979 discovery and the subsequent permitted salvage phase under the National Monuments Council.

Expect Mexican Pillar dollars and Dutch ducatons: The documented, studied coin sample from this wreck is dominated by these mid-18th-century types.

Ask for the specific salvor's documentation: Multiple private salvors worked the site (Clark and Gericke's discovery team, then Rawe and Ridge's bullion recovery); a credible chain names the specific team and permit.

Do not overstate survivor numbers when discussing the wreck's history: The documented record shows only about 20 of 297 survived the voyage and wreck combined — a point of historical gravity, not a footnote.