Vergulde Draeck

The final voyage

Vergulde Draeck — the "Gilt Dragon" — was a 260-ton VOC jacht that left Texel on 4 October 1655 under skipper Pieter Albertszoon, bound for Batavia via the Cape of Good Hope and the Brouwer Route. She carried trade goods valued at roughly 106,400 florins and eight chests of silver coin worth about 78,600 florins, plus brick ballast. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vergulde_Draeck) On the night of 28 April 1656 she struck a reef between present-day Seabird and Ledge Point and broke apart quickly. Of the 193 aboard, 75 reached shore in two boats; one boat capsized in the surf. [2](https://visit.museum.wa.gov.au/vergulde-draeck-gilt-dragon-1656)

Seven men, including the under-steersman, took the surviving boat to Batavia, arriving forty days later and reporting the loss before it was otherwise known. Skipper Albertszoon stayed ashore with the remaining 68 survivors to keep order. Two relief expeditions — the Goede Hoop and Witte Valke, and later the Emeloort and Waeckende Boey — searched the coast but found only wreckage and signs of fire; the fate of the 68 was never established, and the search cost the Goede Hoop a boat and eleven men. [3](https://museum.wa.gov.au/maritime-archaeology-db/strangers-on-the-shore/vergulde-draeck)

What was aboard

The VOC's own cargo valuation survives in company records; the archaeological finds list below is drawn from Western Australian Museum excavation reports, not a recovered ship's manifest.

Silver coin: Eight chests of silver coin recorded at a company valuation of about 78,600 florins, chiefly Spanish colonial reales in Dutch trade use.

Trade goods: Cargo valued at roughly 106,400 florins, intended for the VOC's Asian trade.

Brick ballast: Over 8,000 clay bricks carried as paying ballast, recovered in quantity during excavation.

Shipboard material: Beardman jugs, clay tobacco pipes, bronze and brass utensils, tools, and other everyday artifacts recovered from 1972 onward.

How to collect

Provenance runs through the museum: Legitimate Vergulde Draeck material has a Western Australian Museum accession history from the 1963–1983 excavations; unsourced claims should be treated skeptically.

Understand the legal regime: The site is protected historic shipwreck material under Australian Commonwealth heritage law; recent, undocumented recovery is not legitimate collecting.

Match object to campaign: Museum catalogs distinguish artifacts by excavation year; ask which campaign produced a given piece.

Separate coin from cargo story: The 78,600-florin silver figure is a company valuation, not a coin-by-coin manifest; do not accept invented denomination counts.